Touring with Fleetwood "Mac": Why Brookings?

When we came up to Brookings, Oregon, we knew we wanted to take a break from our traveling, but we didn't know for how long. There are still some areas of the country like the Southwest that we would eventually like to get to, but those high elevation areas are not ideal places to see in the winter months. At the same time we both were feeling the need for a little more stability. We had taken a couple trips down the coast and had enjoyed the Brookings area before, but now that we have stayed here for over a month now, we are thoroughly hooked on the area. It seems we find something new everyday that makes this area even more unique. We are looking to make our stay more permanent, but that will take some time and we have just recently put our boat on the market and we will need to sell that before we do anything.

First there is the weather! We have always visited Brooking in the summer months, and the weather was nice, but we had heard rumors about unseasonably mild weather even in the winter. If you look on a map, Brookings is actually south facing and protected from the frequent north winds and somewhat blocked by Crescent City Headlands from the south. Also, there is a unique weather phenomenon that only affects Brookings and 5 to 10 miles up or down the coast called the "Chetco Effect". Air masses pile up over the Siskiyou Mountains to the northeast and when they spill down into the south facing Chetco River Valley, this causes heating. The amount of this effect varies, but we have seen days here where the daytime high temperatures are the warmest on the coast until you get all the way down to Santa Cruz, CA. Meanwhile, Crescent City just 25 miles to the south may be 5 to 10 degrees cooler. Below is the Forecast from last week; we hit 68 degrees last week, no other place in Oregon even came close to that. In fact, since we have been here, clear sunny days has been the norm probably 75% of the time. When it does rain, it rains hard, we had one day where we got 2 inches in one day, but we actually appreciate that, over the long duration drizzle we have become used to in Portland. Brookings does actually get about 65 inches of rain, nearly twice what Portland does, but it gets way more sun as well. The climate is described as "mediterranean" and because we rarely see freezing temperatures in the winter, palm trees and some hardy citrus trees like lemons will grow here outside.

Last week's weather here in Brookings

Palm Trees outside Superfly Distilling a good restaurant and vodka distillery

A Sago plam outside a residence in Brookings

The ocean views around Brookings are spectacular. There are lots of rocky headlands, pocket beaches, and haystack rocks sitting just off the coast. Nearly all of this is accessible public lands and all the parks down here are free. North of Lone Ranch Beach the Pacific Coastal Trail links all of these oceanfront public lands so you could hike the entire length to Cape Blanco. Last week we discovered an area that the locals call "Secret Beach". It is no longer a secret since everyone down here seems to know about it, but it is one of the most amazing sections of beaches I have seen. Smooth brown sand between rugged rock outcrops, a creek with a waterfall that flows through the beach and at the south end a natural tunnel through a rocky headland that you can cross at low tide that leads to another secluded beach encircled by cliffs for two-thirds of the way around except for the side facing the ocean. It looks like one of those idyllic settings you only see in a movie. If it wasn't so well known down here I actually wouldn't say anything about it so that it doesn't become overrun with people, but Brookings is so remote with no major cities nearby that most beaches are rarely busy. During the week on our hikes we have had beaches all to ourselves on occasion.

A few from above Secret Beach

Secret Beach

Just can't get tired of seeing the beaches here (North from Secret Beach)

A view through the woods while hiking the Pacific Coastal Trail

Point St. George Lighthouse off Crescent City

Aside from the ocean beaches, you have the huge Redwood forest just a 20 minute drive south of here and even the northernmost Redwood forest just up the Chetco River. The Chetco River is a popular fishing river especially for steelhead. We are staying at Riverside RV Park on the Chetco River and we like to go out to the river in the mornings to watch the sea lions barking and hunting in the crystal clear waters. Brookings is a small town and like most coastal towns, it was hit pretty hard by the recession, so there are many vacant businesses in town, but it is not just a coastal vacation town, lots of people live and work here and because of that, all the basic amenities like grocery stores, hardware stores and many decent restaurants are here. There are even two breweries and I am happy to report that one of the grocery stores has a growler fill station ... score!

To the east in Cave Junction is this eclectic art gallery called It's a Burl featuring wood carvings

The "It's a Burl" gallery even the building is pretty funky

In the Northernmost Redwood grove 5 miles from Brookings

The amount of wildlife in the area is amazing as well. There are a couple turkeys that we frequently see hanging out here in the RV park. They seem to be semi-domesticated and are probably used to being fed since you can walk within 10 feet of them. Deer chomping the grass in the yard next to the RV park or even wandering through neighborhoods in town is a daily occurrence. Just south of here down by the Smith River, we saw two herds of elk as we drove out to Point St. George with over 45 elk in each herd. North of here near Gold Beach we have seen a whole flock of turkeys. Although, up north of here you do have to watch out for the wild cows on the road. We were coming back from Portland a week or two ago on Highway 101, it was dark and rainy and we slammed on the brakes and skidded to a stop only about 15 feet from this big bull that was munching a piece of grass; he didn't blink, he didn't budge, we had to drive around him. Later we found this "tongue and cheek" website where people can post their run-ins with these cows, http://www.wildcowsonroad.com

Elk herd down by the Smith River

Neighborhood turkeys in the RV Park

Flock of turkeys near Gold Beach

Of course being right here on the ocean, we see lots of marine wildlife. We see whales spouting in the distance, harbor seals laying around on the rocks, sea lions barking around the marina, we have heard elephant seals growling from offshore islands and every trip to the beach we see birds, all kinds of them.

So we are going to take a break from constant traveling and see if things can come together for us here in Brookings, at least this is what we have in mind now. However plans do change, so it will be interesting to see where we are a year from now.