Tourist territory 3 - Southern Oregon coast, and getting there

My niece Lisa feeling the power of a Pacific Ocean sunset on her first visit to the Oregon coast.

 My sister, niece, mother and I spent two days and one night traveling to the ocean from Grants Pass and back in early May. This post is by no means an exhaustive list of what to do and see. But it's what we did and what we saw and it was good. Very good.

First, traveling from Grants Pass, let's stop at It's A Burl in Kerbyville, which for the first three decades of trips en route from the Rogue Valley to the Oregon coast, I dismissed as "too tacky."

The owners live in this house, which is behind the store fronting the Redwood Hwy.

 When entertaining visitors a few years ago, however, we stopped and marveled for more than an hour. It's a Burl is worth your time no matter who you are.

Visitors can also see the "factory" and the burl storage area, and tour several fantastical tree houses and so on. It's free. Stop there. I'm not kidding. It's worth an hour, at least. Moving on, we reach the redwoods...

Lisa getting a sore neck in Stout Grove.

...which are apportioned into state and national parks. We hit up a favorite spot just off Hwy. 99 - Stout Grove. If you don't do your travel homework, you'll miss Stout Grove,  which you shouldn't do if you're into travel experiences that seem off the beaten track. Maybe this one is, because in reality, it is out of reach to many travelers. It's on Howland Hill Road, about eight miles of which is a one-lane dirt track that bumps and grinds through magnificent redwoods. Hulking RVs and travel trailers can't go the distance on this road, which ends up in Crescent City, California, although some smaller vehicles can reach Stout Grove, just 3 miles off Hwy. 99 coming from Grants Pass. You'll have to backtrack those 3 miles to return to Hwy, 99.

Our destination was Gold Beach, but on behalf of the beach-starved Minnesotans, we made a quick stop at Harris Beach just north of Brookings. This popular park has easy beach access, gorgeous views, and a restroom that my mobility-challenged 93-year-old mother, LaVone, could get to.

This was not the case in the Gold Beach motel I'd reserved. The bed was so high it required a vault to launch into.  This was not going to work for LaVone, who is not launch-capable. The desk clerk reluctantly canceled the room reservations, and we headed to a motel in the same block that was much newer and sweeter smelling,  was considerably less expensive, had a way-better ocean view, featured an excellent king-sized bed of conventional height, and was handicapped-accessible at no extra cost.

Lisa staring in disbelief at her breakfast, which could feed three or four hungry women.

In addition the desk staff was extraordinarily friendly and helpful. The motel: Pacific Reef. They steered us to The Double D's Cafe for breakfast, which was a great find and within walking distance. Warning: don't order the biggest breakfast on the menu as did niece Lisa. It requires two full plates and about four people. Unfortunately, the rest of us ordered our own too-much breakfasts and couldn't help her out. For more photos  click here.