More Gold Beach

While in Gold Beach, we also explored a little more of the coast and hiked along the Rogue River.  Our first stop was Cape Sebastian State Park with a hike that had gotten good reviews for its views.  For the first 1/4 of a mile, that was true.

Yikes!

At that point, we should have turned around, because that was as good as it got.  But no, I kept going even after Ron turned around when he realized the trail was going steadily downhill.  At 3/4 of a mile, I also gave up at this gorgeous viewpoint.

Then I huffed and puffed back up the hill and congratulated Ron on his good judgement.

A much more enjoyable hike was along the Rogue River Walk.  We caught the trail about a mile from where we were staying.  The whole trail is about 6 miles long and was built by members of a local hiking club and volunteers.

The trail is mostly level through lovely Myrtlewood trees,

With views of the Rogue River.

What's that way over there on the gravel bar?  Why it's an eagle with a very angry crow.

At one point we were sitting on one of the many benches and were startled by a ruckus behind us.  It was a flicker feeding his babies.  Cool.

I knew it was the male because he had the telltale red mustache, although you can't tell from this picture.  Actually, it looks like the two babies are males, too, by the hint of red on their cheeks.  Ron said he saw a third at one point.  That was probably a female being pushed to the back by her brothers.  Typical.

After about 2 miles, we turned around at this point.  The Rogue is designated as a Wild and Scenic River, but that is far upstream from this point.  Here it's calm, but still scenic.