Overland Camping Roadtrip Blog
Travel Day 52:
Total km driven to date: 9558km
Total km walked to date: 410.67km
Siskiyou Nat Forest – Rogue River
87km drive
10.38km on foot
Today was much like yesterday, back on the road by 8am because all the mosquitoes made hanging out no fun at all. Stopped in Brookings for some Wifi and then back on the 101 heading north. We passed a few nice scenic beaches and decided to go down and check out Whaleshead Beach. What a gorgeous spot, another long stretch of sandy beach with huge rocks sticking out of it in various spots. Right offshore is a few huge rock islands that give the beach its name. Its a 3km walk all the way down the beach with practically no one on at. The waves were crashing in with beautiful turquoise water and the fog was blowing in off the open ocean making for some great scenery and some fantastic photos. We explored around for a few hours checking it all out before heading back to the truck.
We continued north for another 50km until we got to Gold Beach and turned inland along Jerry Flats Rd heading up Rogue River for the national forest to camp. I broke one of my rules and headed DOWN a trail which I always try to avoid (never know if you’ll be able to get out so I typically head UP roads because then I know I can get out in the morning). The trail was a little more aggressive than I planned and got really gnarly right above the beach so we chickened out and headed back up the trail a ways and found a spot to put the camper that was level. The beach is very reminiscent of where we go camping in Port Renfrew on the San Juan River, huge gravel riverbed stretching a few kilometers that you could put huge groups for crazy camping weekends. I kept hearing Jet Boats go flying by on the river (there were billboards advertising Jet Boat Tours in town) but unfortunately I never saw any to take pictures of. We went for another good hike down the river and then up the trails in the forest until coming back to camp for dinner. I could see something like a stake up in the forest about 50′ from camp so I went up to look and wish I hadn’t, its a staked out fence section surrounding a grave site from the 1800’s…I’d sleep better knowing I wasn’t right beside an old graveyard!
