Old West Road Trip - Oregon Coast

Cape Foulweather

This is a photo-based chronicle of my October 2015 road trip.  Why old west?  The forces that created the "old west" were the frontier and the conflicts that were common to it - there was mining, farming/ranching, railroading, the Oregon Trail experience, the Mormon experience; these are some of the things I saw and thought about on this road trip to the Oregon Coast and the beach.  In addition, WWII (and coastal defense) played a role in some of the things I saw and visited.

[As always, clicking on a photo gets you a larger version of that photo, and clicking on THAT photo advances you through all the photos, albeit without captions.]

States visited: Arizona, Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, & Utah. My route began in Phoenix, AZ and followed US 93 and US 95 through Kingman, Las Vegas and Reno.  From there, I followed US 395 into northern California and eventually to Klamath Falls, Oregon, across the Cascades to the coast at Newport, and on up US 101 to Rockaway Beach.  I spent a few days along the northwest coast (as far north as Cape Disappointment and Ilwaco, Washington anyway), and then returned home on a meandering path via Crater Lake National Park, the Wallowa Valley, I-84 across southern Idaho and into Utah, past Salt Lake City and south along what used to be and in some places still is, US 89.  The final leg home was Flagstaff, Arizona to Phoenix on I-17.

Day 1 Route

The first day was Phoenix to Hawthorne, Nevada.  I got out of town a little after 8:00 AM.

US 93 - Arizona

This first shot is along US 93 north of Wickenburg, Arizona. I didn't actually take this photo on THIS trip, but this shot was last April on an earlier trip.  But it still looks the same!  This is one of the west's Joshua Tree forests.

Lake Mead

As you approach Las Vegas, if you take a short detour you can still visit Hoover Dam (Still only because the highway by-passes the dam on a nearby bridge).  This is a shot of Lake Mead with the dam just out of sight to the right.  Out west, civilization and progress was all about water.  Still is, and the west's water problems still dictate what we will be able to do and what we won't be able to do.  A day of reckoning on water usage is swiftly approaching.

On the 2nd day of the trip, I drove from Hawthorne, Nevada, through Reno and all the way to Oakridge, Oregon.

Walker Lake

Walker Lake. I spent my first night on the road in Hawthorne, Nevada, and after grabbing my breakfast from a grocery store, headed north toward Reno.  This huge lake sits in a spectacularly bleak basin.  I expected it to be a rather typical Great Basin dry lake -- and was surprised to see that it really is a lake - with actual water!

US 395 - Nevada

Map Reference 4: US 395 just north of Reno, getting close to California!

SR 139, North of Susanville, California

 Map Reference 5: In far northeastern California, you could perhaps visit the small community of Susanville. I expected the area to be grassier than it is.  This area is of interest because the Lassen Cut-Off (on the California Emigrant Trail) ran through the area.  It's trailblazer, Peter Lassen, was later murdered (in 1859) and is buried at Susanville. The Lassen Cut-Off was "sold" to forty-niner emigrants who didn't know better as a "short-cut" to the California gold fields - it wasn't, and the misinformation was extremely costly for those that tried to take it.

Tulelake Marker

Map Reference 6: One of the tragedies of American history was the internment (that's a fancy, sanitized word for imprisonment) of thousands of Japanese-Americans during World War II.  One of the California camps was here at Tulelake, along SR 139 almost to the Oregon border.  The area is bleakly pretty, and still in the middle of nowhere just as it was then.

Odell Lake

Map Reference 7: This was not my first visit to Odell Lake (although I have never actually stopped there). The Amtrak Coast Starlight runs down the far side of the lake, so I'd been there before!  This lake sits astride the Willamette Pass, between Chemult and Eugene, Oregon.  My destination for Day 2 was in between those two towns, on the western slope. Day 2 ended just a few miles up the road, at the Blue Wolf Motel in Oakridge, Oregon.

Day 3 brought me to my destination, Rockaway Beach, Oregon. The first miles took me alongside the headwaters of the Willamette River to Eugene, then up the valley on I-5.  I took US20 through Corvallis to the coast at Newport, then drove US101 to Rockaway.

Along the Willamette in the early morning

Map Reference 8: This is one of the rivers that join downstream a few miles to form the Willamette River, which waters the valley that brought the emigrants, whose presence secured the land and wrested it from "foreign" influence and control. Remember the phrase "54-40 or fight?"  That all started here.

Entering the harbor at Depoe Bay

Map Reference 9: The photo is taken from the US101 bridge in "downtown" Depoe Bay. Behind me is the small harbor.  The boats "line up" with the harbor entrance and then make a run for it.  If they aren't "proactive" about it, they get dashed on the rocks!

NAS Tillamook

During WWII, the US Navy used blimps to patrol our coastal waters.  Some of them were based here at what used to be two large hangars near Tillamook, OR.  One of the hangars burned a few years back, but this one is still there and now houses an aviation museum. The photo doesn't give you a true sense of the hangar's immensity -- you could put seven football fields under its roof.

Megler Bridge

Over the next several days, I drove farther north along the Oregon coast - and across the Megler Bridge into Washington.   The bridge is over four miles long and has elevated portions on each end to allow ship traffic to pass under it.

Cape Disappointment Light

I visited Cape Disappointment (near Ilwaco, WA) and took a hike to the lighthouse.  There are the remains of coastal-defense gun emplacements all around the mouth of the Columbia, dating all the way from frontier days to the end of WWII.  Some of the guns there were 16 inch rifles, capable of firing a projectile of more than a ton some 20-25 miles out to sea -- and accurately enough to hit something as small as a fishing boat if they needed to.  The concrete foundations for some of those weapons can still be seen at Cape Disappointment (and other locations in the area).

Small coastal defense gun at Fort Columbia, WA

I also visited the Columbia River Maritime Museum.  It is very much focused on the dangers of the Columbia River Bar, shipwrecks and the air-sea rescue services there.  I got on board the last Columbia River lightship - which was still in operation when I was young.  The ship was always anchored five or ten miles or so off the mouth of the river to mark the entrance for shipping -- good weather and bad, the twelve-man crew bobbed out there like a cork.

The Columbia - and a CG cutter!

Alas, it eventually came time to start for home. The first two days of the return trip were spent bopping about Oregon - I wanted to see two things in particular - Crater Lake National Park and Chief Joseph's Wallowa Valley.  From there, it would be a direct route across southern Idaho and south through Utah and home.

Return Trip Day 1: I got an early start down the coast and over to I-5, then south to Eugene again and SR82 over the pass to Chemult and then to Crater Lake.  After completing the rim drive at Crater Lake, late in the afternoon, I drove back north on US97 to Bend, OR for the night. 

Lowell Covered Bridge

Along the way: most people probably don't know that a covered bridge served a purpose in protecting the longevity of the bridge itself -- with the wood protected by the roof, it lasted longer.  Protection from the elements for those crossing it was just a side benefit! This one is along the Willamette River above Eugene, Oregon, on Dexter Reservoir, near the town of Lowell.


I had no idea what a sublimely beautiful place Crater Lake is. There were lots of low clouds hanging about,

Crater Lake National Park

and so at the one place where I could have gotten an all-inclusive photo of the entire lake - I couldn't.  All I could see from the top of that mountain was... fog. I planned to stay the night there in hopes the weather would clear by the next day and I could see better, but the lodge had closed for the season.  I drove all the way around the rim drive, and also took a hike to The Pinnacles, a geologic feature associated with the volcanic formation of the lake and its surroundings (very much worth round trip drive of maybe 25 miles and the short hike).  It was a beautiful day and I certainly agree that Crater Lake deserves to be a national park.

On leaving the park late in the afternoon, I drove back the way I came and stopped overnight in Bend, Oregon.  I had supper in Chemult -- a piece of meat they called "Prime rib" but that in no way was "prime" anything -- while it tasted good, it undoubtedly originated from the oldest and toughest steer that had ever lived. That boy ate nails for breakfast, that's for sure.

Return Day 2

On Day 2 of the return trip, I drove north from Bend to the Columbia River, then followed I-84 east to La Grand, and SR82 from there to the Wallowa Valley.

Wheat Country

Central Oregon (where I was at anyway) is semi-arid and they grow a lot of irrigated wheat there.  It is high desert, and there were several training airfields that were used during WWII for training bomber crews.  Had I had a little more time, I would have expended some effort trying to find traces of those old airbases.  It was quite a long drive north to the Columbia and I-84, and the morning was another rainy one. That day and the next two were all like that.

Near Rufus, OR

This photo near Rufus is one of my favorites from the entire trip. The road is getting very near a downgrade through a cut (which you can see in the photo) and a quick descent to I-84 and the river.  From there, I followed I-84 east along the river until the two parted company, the river swinging north into Washington and the highway veering off to the SE toward Pendleton and La Grand -- following the same general route as did the Oregon Trail.

River and road

Along the way, I stopped and took a photo or two of an original US30 highway bridge.  I also stopped at Emigrant Springs State Park, on the top of the Blue Mountains, which had been a favorite camping spot of the Oregon trail wagon parties after they had made the long climb to the top of the range.  There are two trail marker-memorials there, one placed by President Warren Harding, the other by Ezra Meeker - who commemorated his trip over the trail in frontier days several times in his old age by doing it again -- stating that the history of the trail should never be forgotten as it made us who we are.

Old US30 bridge

I went out of my way to visit the Wallowa Valley.  That's pronounced wa-LA-wa, with "Short" a's by the way... I asked a local. 

The Nez Perce were nomadic, but stayed in the same places every season as they moved from winters to summers and back.  They typically wintered along the Columbia, trading with other peoples there for fish. The Wallowa Valley and the glacial lake nearby was one of their favorite summer places.  In the 1870s, they resisted the government's orders to move them off of it and let settlers move in -- and now that I have seen it, I can see why.  It's an alpine paradise.

Father of Chief Joseph lies here

Wallowa Lake

Of course, the settlers and the government won and the Nez Perce were forced out -- that history is famous for their "run" and its associated battles with the Army in 1877 - when they made the US Army look like a bunch of incompetents.

Of course, in the end, freezing weather and attrition brought about their surrender near the Canadian border and Chief Joseph's famous, heart-breaking surrender speech.  By the way, the Niimipu (their name for themselves) never pierced their noses (when named by the French, they had been confused with a different people).  Chief Joseph the Elder (Chief Joseph's father) is buried near Wallowa Lake.  Until 1877, the Niimipu had never fought against the USA or its people, even from the first encounter with Meriwether Lewis and William Clark in 1804.  I found myself resenting the people who live there now.  Everything that's righteous says that the Wallowa Valley is Niimipu land.

Near Minam

I drove the one hundred miles or so to Baker City for my overnight -- scene of the filming of Paint Your Wagon back in 1968-69.  I was living with my father in Portland at the time -- and they advertised in the Portland papers for "extras" for the movie.  I wanted to go and couldn't understand why Dad couldn't drop everything and run over to Baker.  (And why would he anyway? They are no 14 year old extras in that movie!) All along I-84, I kept watching for markers commemorating the Oregon Trail -- the two roads generally follow the same route from the Snake River to the Columbia.

Return Trip Day 3

Weigh Station at Malta, ID

The last two days of the trip were "speed runs."  Meaning, not too many stops for anything but food, petrol and photos.  On the 3rd day, I didn't take very many photos -- and the one or two I did weren't focused properly.  It was an especially rainy day.

This photo of the weigh station near Malta, ID (on I-84) was deliberate - I have experience there...  In 1978, I was driving for North American Van Lines.  We had a permit book for most states, but Idaho charged (expensively) by the mile and each trip -- so the company only paid for permits when you actually drove across it.  The drill was, you'd stop BEFORE you drove onto a scale, go in and buy the ton-mile trip permit, and then only drive onto the scale when the officer told you to.  Problem was, I had picked up an unauthorized passenger down south of Salt Lake, and was going to drop her off at the Shoshone Ice Caves.  She was a Danish girl, hitching across the US, visiting people she knew.  Aaron (my brother in law, riding with me) met her in a Utah truck stop. She was looking for a ride and he wanted to take her with us -- so I'd been riding and talking to her all day (Aaron couldn't get a word in).  Shoshone was out of our way (we were heading to Spokane) and the road was not a suitable route for trucks (twisty, narrow mountain roads).  So when I told the officer my route, he said "that is no road for a truck, why are you going that way?" So I told him.  It would have been no big deal to get her "authorized," since it was my own truck - but you have to actually do it.  I hadn't, and that conscientious weigh station officer took almost every penny I had for the "fine." We couldn't leave her out there in the middle of nowhere, so she got back in the truck after we crossed the scale, we dropped her off at her friends' at the Shoshone Ice Caves, and we went on to Missoula and Spokane.  Maybe it was no road for a truck, but it still remains one of my favorite roads ever that I drove in the truck. Except for the "fine." This weigh station, on the other hand, is NOT one of my favorite places.

The speed limit on interstates in both Idaho and Utah was 80 mph.  That's too fast for me -- so I tried to stay out of the way.  I went as fast as I was comfortable with and stayed in the right lane.  I would find it interesting to see if the fatality toll has risen on those highways.  Most folks have no training and little ability to drive at that kind of speed -- automobiles do not handle the same way at 80 as they do at 50 or 60.  Everything's fine until something happens -- you blow a tire or a deer jumps in front of you -- and then you're toast.  Drivers who are not experienced in high speed driving tend to over-correct.

I made it to Nephi, UT for the night -- a 546 mile day.  The next day would also be another long one, but home was at the end of it.

Return Trip Day 4:  I got up early, and got on the road as fast as I could.  I knew this was going to be a long day (560 miles).  I headed south on SR28/US89.

I stopped for breakfast at Mom's Cafe in Salina.  It's a famous old place in its own mind and the food there is good.  It doesn't look like much right now -- someone ran their car into the front of the building I think, but don't let that fool you.  It's a GREAT road cafe!  I had scrambled eggs and ham with hash browns and well-buttered sourdough toast.  That's more breakfast than I'd had in a week.

Sevier River, Utah

One of the "main" features of this old Utah route is that it follows the Sevier River for quite some distance.  Watching it, I got confused about which direction it was flowing - which was north at the place I stopped to take a photo or two.  It just seemed like it should have been flowing the other way. But it's a beautiful river in a beautiful setting.  There's no prettier place in the country than south Utah. It was raining when I took the photo.

There was a lot of fog along the first few miles on this day -- but it always seemed to be across the valley from where I was.  South of Salina, I picked up I-70 for a short distance, then got back off onto the two-lane for the remaining distance to Arizona. I stopped for a nap somewhere south of Circleville - for about 30 minutes. Then it was down through Panguitch and Kanab and into Arizona at Fredonia.  The main US89 route to Page and south is faster, but US89A through Jacob Lake and along the Vermillion Cliffs is much, much

Vermilion Cliffs and House Rock Valley

prettier - and it runs through one of the most beautiful places in America in my opinion. It takes you up over the Kaibab Plateau and down again across House Rock Valley - a maybe 1,500 foot climb or descent at each end, with the added bonus of the wonderful Jacob Lake lodge at the top. The other route is scenically "meh."  I stopped here and there for photos, for coffee at Jacob Lake, and always at the scenic overlooks.  Got into a nice storm at the top of the plateau - with freezing rain while I was at the Jacob Lake store (the elevation there is about 8,000 feet).  The road to the North Rim was still open, but I am near certain the Lodge wasn't, so there would have been no services there.  They close up in October each year, and reopen the next May. I hate driving that road without a visit to the North Rim, because I don't get up there that often.

Near Lee's Ferry

You reconnect to the main road of US89 over by Lee's Ferry and Marble Canyon, and from there it's about 120 miles or so down to Flagstaff, across the Navajo Reservation, past Tuba City and Cameron. I always stop at Cameron - at Speedy's.  I always get a deep-fried green chile burrito there, which always turns out to be a beef and bean burrito when I get back in the car.   They keep the two products in the same basket. And there are ALWAYS panhandlers there working the guilty white tourists.  And yet, I cannot pass the place, low-rent as it is.

The San Francisco Peaks

Getting close to Flagstaff, I stopped at the Wupatki turn-off to get this photo of the Peaks.  The San Francisco Peaks are the highest point in Arizona.  I just made this trip in October -- crossing some high country in California (near Mt Lassen), Oregon (the Cascades and Crater Lake NP), as well as the Blue mountains in eastern Oregon.  Yet, it was Flagstaff, Arizona  and only there, where I saw any snow.  Flagstaff (historically) has always been one of the places in the lower 48 that receives snow first each Autumn.

Horsemen Lodge

The last event of Bob's Roadtrip 2015 was a stop for supper at the Horsemen Lodge, my favorite steakhouse, where I ate part of a 16 oz T-Bone and its assorted trimmings.  The rest, I brought home.  It was a two and one half hour run down I-17 to Phoenix -- I was home at about 7:40 PM. It took me two hours to unload the car -- today, I need to wash the road off of it and start thinking about my next road trip.  Perhaps the Shenandoah Valley in the Spring?

Keep it between the fence posts!  ~Road boB