You may follow along in our journey by visiting Julie's Journal page. It will include photographs, suggestions, mishap adventures and our experiences on the road and back-country trails.

If you would like to know more about the history of our adventure click here for the history page. How we planned, saved money, chose our equipment and prepared for ten months on the road.

These are some other web sites we found useful and/or have recpical links with.

Pacific Coast Highway
Oregon, US Route 101
May, 1999

Written by Julie Hackler and Dave Fink

We began our journey along US Route 101 as a slow pace and inched our way up the beautiful scenery. The views were excellent. But our next stop along the coast remains the most memorable.

We stopped in a town called Coos Bay. A good size town along the coast. We decided to try and camp near the ocean so we drove to an adjacent town called Charleston. We found a County Park called Bastendroff right off the road between Coos Bay and Charleston. Great campground, we got there during the off season and only paid $9 a night but two days later we had to pay $14 because it turned into the "in" season, but well worth it. It had a nice beach and a park. The town itself had a wonderful restaurant called Cheryn's [Cheryn's Chowder House - East end of the Charleston Bridge, Charleston,OR. 97420 (541)888-3251]. A local seafood joint with a fantastic crab fritter, clam chowder and strawberry pie. Right around the campground were two state parks, the Shore Acres and Sunset Bay [Other information is available on the web at CityLink]. Both had excellent views of the ocean. Sunset Bay included an overlook to Sea Lions pupping not far offshore. It was neat to see. We caught one of the best sunsets we've seen so far off the beaches from our campground.

Something I have to suggest to all is riding the dunes in Oregon Dunes National Monument on an ATV. There are rental places from Coos Bay to Winchester Bay. We rented two 4-wheels from Polaris at $30/hour. The rental place had immediate access to the dunes and it was a "on a whim" decision, so we might of not gotten the best deal but we had a great time. The perimeter included 3 large dunes called V8, V10 and the granddaddy Razorback. We drove around for the first 10 minutes to get a feel for them. They were similar to a snowmobile only I had to get used to being higher off the ground. I felt I could easily tip over. The 4-wheelers weren't the greatest, but we pushed them to the limit. After we got a feel for then Dave wanted to attempt V8 straight on. I stayed back to see if he could make it over. He almost got there, 4 feet left and he would have made it over. Instead he had to slowly back down without a reverse switch trying not to roll it over. It was quite amusing from where I stood. From then on we knew what the machines were capable of and what they weren't. So we took a less steep route and concentrated on going fast and finding jumps. We found ways over V10 and Razorback and even a few beyond the boundaries the rental place set for us. I found some great jumps and we ended up staying out for an hour and a half. Total cost was $45 each. We had a fantastic time and it was well worth it. We just hoped on the way back to the rental place we didn't brake anything from doing all the things they told us not to. We didn't!

We stayed 4 days in Coos Bay and then headed north. So far many of the parks along Route 101 wanted day use fees for picnicking and the beaches. But once we passed Florence we found several that did not. I do not know what causes one park to charge over the other, but we found it helpful that the ones that did clearly stated that a day use fee was required on the road signs directing you to the park. One of my favorites was right past the Sea Lion Caves. We didn't want to pay to take a tour of the underground cave so we pulled over to view the ocean and Hecet Head Lighthouse and heard the sounds of sea lions. We looked over and found several basking in the sun on the rocks below the cliff. We got a great view of the lighthouse, sea lions, and the ocean.

Another one to mention was just past Lincoln City. Bob Creek Beach was a great picnic spot or for a nice walk along the sand. It was also a spot for locals to collect oysters among the tidal pools.

The remainder of the drive was a peaceful and scenic one. I also recommend anyone traveling in the north - south direction along western Oregon to skip Interstate 5 and head for 101. If you got the time, take the time to enjoy the ride. It was a memorable one for us. I'm sure it will be for you also.

A book we found helpful in planning both the Pacific Coast Highway drive through California and Route 101 in Oregon was "The Most Scenic Drives in America - 120 Spectacular Road Trips by Reader's Digest". It was somewhere in the neighbor of $25+, but well worth it. It included photos of the places to see along the way with a map and details of what there is to see and do. It's not a detail specific map so you have you use it in conjunction with a road atlas but it gives you a good idea of where things are. Somethings weren't easy to find but for the most part it helped plan our basic trip route. We used it through Big Bend, Joshua Tree, Yosemite and many others. I feel it was a helpful guide with our journeys I'm sure it could help anyone when planning a trip. Even on a small trip, instead of taking the interstate take the scenic route.

Julie Hackler