View of the Gardner's House at Shore Acres

This is a great place and time of year to look for geocaches. The daytime hours will present nearly 50 caches  to hunt in some of the most spectacular scenery along the entire Pacific coastline. Some will take you to rugged cliff overlooks, some down to sandy beaches and some along trails through thick spruce forest.

Make sure to return to the gardens a few minutes before sunset for that magic 30-minute window when the beauty of the carefully trimmed vegetation in the fading natural light is enhanced by the brilliance of Christmas lights making for photo’s with detail and a crisp “pop”!

Shore Acres Performance Pavilion

By the way, I did find that geocache – it was the only cache in this vicinity I hadn’t already found. The name of the cache, Berliner’s Big Bifurcation, has unique meaning in the south coast geocaching community. Berliner is the name of one of the pioneer geocachers in the area and he taught the rest of us many new botanical terms in his geocache descriptions …. like bifurcation (basically a forked tree). This cache was recently placed by another cacher in the very spot Berliner had one hiding before it eventually went missing.

We had a fun afternoon at one of our favorite places. After all, it was at this same garden we exchanged marriage vows now these dozen years! For the curious, you will find the exact spot when you see the “salmon” circling a large tree trunk.

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It was the day after Thanksgiving 2004 when I decided to hunt my first geocache in the dunes. Two reasons primarily, curiosity and needing to burn some extra holiday calories! This particular geocache was a short distance off a popular trail running from Highway 101 straight to the beach. It involved leaving the open sand to climb a small “island” of trees. It was tucked away under some thick brush near a small opening among the trees and brush that had obviously been used as a primitive campsite. Here’s the note I left in the cache logbook:

Great one for walking off Thanksgiving Day indulgence! Found it okay……….I got such a good workout getting there I came home and downed another piece of pumpkin pie!

What I discovered on this trek was an ecosystem that was way more diverse that I ever imagined – who knew? I suppose the biggest surprise was how many different dune features I encountered along the three-mile round trip hike. Starting with a 1/4 mile stroll through pine thickets with a “mini-dune” in the middle I moved quickly into a large expanse of open sand staying atop the high dune ridges. After a mile and a half I approached and climbed the mountain island of trees hiding the cache. I took a slightly different route back dropping down into the low areas between the dune ridges where smaller pines, brush and hearty grasses and sedges grew. And this hike only took me half way to the beach! Many more dune features awaited discovery on future treks.

I was hooked! This was the first of many more dune hikes over the next five years. I would find something new every time: foredunes, hummocks, deflation plains, estuaries, lakes and seasonal ponds. These are a few of the features I would come to learn about with each new excursion. Who knew?

Depending on the time of year, I would encounter many kinds of flora and fauna. Spring time would showcase tiny little strawberry plants with tasty – if not sizable – treats. Budding willows and little plants with yellow flowers filled low areas. A variety of birds and critters can be seen including eagles, herons, deer, rabbits…even porcupine! I’m not even covering the half of it!

If not for geocaching, I would likely have never set foot in this beautiful and complex environment. Exploring these great coastal dunes has risen to near the very top of my favorite things to do. Strolling through Oregon’s mature conifer forests in the fall is still king, in my book! ……..Well, that’s another story.  Stay tuned.

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1. Go Coastal!

Of course, I managed to slip in a geocache hunt or two (or three…) along the way!  Our first stop, in fact, was to look for a cache called Jurassic Park located near Prehistoric Gardens, a seasonally popular tourist attraction. We checked out the gift shop then continued south. The next stop was the Geisel Monument Heritage Site where the Geisel family burial plots were displayed. This was the site of a Rogue Indian War skirmish and, well… yes, another geocache.

Upon arriving at Gold Beach we crossed the Isaac Lee Patterson Bridge then turned east to explore the picturesque Rogue River.  We were happy to lose the coastal fog as we traveled upriver.  Our turnaround spot was the Lobster Creek Bridge – popular with campers, fishermen and boaters.  While taking pictures from the bridge we got to see one of the famed hydro-jet mailboats coming down stream on its return trip to Gold Beach.  Several passengers waved at us as they passed.  Looked like a lot of fun.  We made a note to ourselves to take a mailboat ride soon.

After a meal at the Port Hole Cafe in Gold Beach we continued south a short ways to see if we could get some good pictures atop Cape Sebastian viewpoint. Alas, upon arriving the fog was still thick so I decided to look for a new geocache nearby. I discovered two very nice ladies at the cache location already hunting for it and having no luck.  I joined the effort and we finally discovered the well hidden treasure box. We then went back to the Cape Sebastian viewpoint on the chance that the weather had changed and indeed it had!  Waiting a few more minutes for the fog to dissipate yielded some very pretty views up and down the coastline.

I would love to leave this next part out but it will probably give you a chuckle so I share my embarassment.  As we started to leave the viewpoint I realized I didn’t have my phone!  I drove back to that last geocache location and retraced all my steps but couldn’t spot it.  Getting worried now I went to another geocache location  a short distance down the highway and again retraced my steps – nope, not there!  It HAD to be back at the first place I looked!  Back we went and finally caught sight of it lying on the ground at the base of a tree!  Whew!  I really have to stop putting that phone in the pouch of my sweatshirt!

Really an enjoyable day overall!  Great scenery and photos along with fun geocache hunts!

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One of my favorite portions of Oregon’s coastline is the rugged and generously trailed section between Gold Beach and Brookings. It’s a place I come frequently to hike, explore and geocache.

One memorable excursion in this area took me to the Cape Sebastian trails just south of Gold Beach. My wife dropped me off at one of the scenic vistas where one can see north to Humbug Mountain and south to Meyers Beach below. After a short time of taking pictures and watching brown pelicans cruise just above the ocean surface, I headed south down the trail in pursuit of four new geocaches placed since my last visit here.  My ride would be waiting for me at Meyers Beach culminating in a total hike of approximately 2.5 miles and dropping 600 feet in elevation.

The first cache was just a short one quarter mile stroll down the trail lined with short, wind-blown spruce trees and thick brush.  The trail came very close to the cliff edges in several places providing spectacular views. The cache was a pretty easy find – a small plastic container nestled near a…. oops, nearly gave away the hiding spot!

Continuing around the next bend in the trail I entered a forest of very dense, taller spruce which blocked most of the sunlight leaving me with the feeling I was entering the realm of hobbits.  Short, gnarly tree trunks lined the path as I began descending towards the ocean edge.  Another third of a mile brought me to the second cache, a medium-sized army surplus ammo can located just an arm’s length from the thick huckleberry-lined trail.  Two down – two to go.

The trail dropped pretty quickly after this point, zig-zagging down a steep slope and onto a flat area where the forest gave way to a rocky outcrop about one hundred feet above the ocean.  I found the third cache placed in this vicinity  poised above a steep cliff with a great view of the broken and rocky edge and was appropriately named – RockyView Point.  Before continuing, I checked on another cache nearby that I had found on a previous hike – still there!

As I was leaving this area, I spotted a huge flock of brown pelicans perched on nearby rock outcroppings!  I crept towards them for a closer look but spooked them. They scattered quickly.

Proceeding to the fourth and final cache, the trail now hugged the cliff edge around to the east and towards Hunters Cove.  This last cache of the day was a fairly easy find just off the trail – a plastic 5-gallon bucket with branches and moss for cover.  Getting that darn lid off was way harder than finding it!

The final leg of this trek was about a mile long walk on the beach around Hunters Cove south to a parking turnout at Meyers Beach where my bride was patiently waiting.

Great hiking, awesome scenery and geocaching – one of my favorite ways to spend a day!

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