Bullard Beach State Park, Oregon

We spent July 5th - 12th at our last Oregon coast state park, Bullard Beach, 23 miles south of Coos Bay. This was our last week of cool weather for a while, because our next stops will be in inland Oregon and Washington.

When I was planning this trip, I remembered our 2012 Crater Lake adventure. It was over the 4th of July weekend, and we were surprised by the fact that some of the hiking trails and the road around the lake were closed because of snow! That sure isn't the case this year, and I am only hoping we are not smoked out by wildfires or overheated temperatures.

But before thinking about next week, I have to write about where we spent this one.

Bullard Beach has completely different types of foliage from the other Oregon Coastal parks we have been in. The trees are more open and the grass is all dried.  Throughout the 4th of July week there were many tenting families in the park as well as bigger RV and trailer campers. I have enjoyed watching the kids run, play and bike around us. It is good to see families camping together. As I type this, I am watching a couple of preteen boys playing with a croquet set. It brings back some of my childhood memories.

On our first day here we backtracked a few miles to Seven Devils state recreation site.

Craig walks on water.

This beach is mentioned as a starting point for long beach walks. It runs for miles north and south.

In the picture above you can just  barely see a few rocks poking out of the water in the distance.

As we walked closer we could see that the rocks were quite interesting.

They made me wonder how they were formed. I'm not a geologist, but I have been reading articles on the web and understand there are a number of different scenarios.

  These looked like bowling balls entombed in the sandstone.

Although the beach went on for miles beyond the rocks we explored, at this point we turned back. We only walked about two miles that day.

We like to park the Alfa in one place and drive to attractions some miles away. One afternoon we drove about 30 miles south to visit the Cape Blanco lighthouse. 

As we approached, we noticed the sky became quite overcast. I thought it was smoke, but the volunteer guide said it was the normal marine cloud layer. The winds were very strong as well, and were the strongest "non storm" winds I have ever felt. 


We were told the strongest wind ever recorded there was 170 mph.

It was not a sunny day on the beach below.

Craig went up inside the top of the lighthouse to take the image to the right.  When he saw it on our computer, he said that the image inside the Fresnel lens looks like the Cape Blanco lighthouse itself.  There are several antennae to the left of the lighthouse that look like the wires to the left of the light.












On another day, we took off from the Bullard Beach Campground and walked a sandy path to the beach.

Parts of it were through tight wild vegetation.

There were sections of boardwalk,

and a stretch of grassy dunes.

Ho - Hum!  Another stretch of beautiful beach. But we're not bored. 

The hike was a bit difficult because a lot of the path was deep soft sand. The toes of my shoes kept filling up, so on the last stretch I took them off. Better, but the sand was hot, giving new meaning to a "hot foot". I was very glad to reach the hard cool sand along the water's edge. 



We spent one of our last days on the Oregon Coast driving the beach loop in Bandon, and stopped to see the Coquille River lighthouse and a few of the ocean overlooks.

It was so beautiful, and the weather was absolutely perfect!

From the overlook we watched a group of trail riders from the Bandon Beach Stables. Most of them were pretty young, but the wrangler seemed to have everything under control.

There were more people down on these beaches than we saw on others that we have walked.

I didn't feel like going down to the beach, and was quite content sitting and enjoying the fresh cool air above it.

So, for now, it is goodbye to the Oregon Coast, but I know we will be back!