Getting to Gold Beach from Newport was an adventure in and of itself. The route between these two beach towns was a straight shot south on the famous Oregon Coast Highway 101 for about four hours. Although the trip along the coast made for some fantastic views of the Pacific Ocean, it was also somewhat nerve-racking as the narrow, windy roads were often slick from rain – not a recipe for easy driving. I guess that’s just the price you have to pay for a few hours of views that look like this!
Our destination within Gold Beach was the Turtle Rock RV Resort, a ho-hum little park situated right off the highway and along a good-sized creek which flowed into the ocean. After a fun, but somewhat taxing drive down the coast, it was a delight to unwind on the beach, which was a mere 100 yards from our campsite!
In addition to stunning sunsets, the beach also featured some beautiful rock formations, both big and small. On the small side, the beach was covered with small, translucent stones known as agates. We were fortunate to meet a local rock hunter out on the beach one afternoon and this kind stranger was nice enough to show us his methods for spotting the unique, volcanically produced minerals amongst the more common stones. However, the true defining characteristic of this beach was the string of picturesque boulders which lined the oceanside, including Kissing Rock and Turtle Rock. I bet you can’t guess which rock this is!
Our week in Gold Beach was rather uneventful, as the town was rather sleepy and there was little to do, activity-wise, within driving distance. But that isn’t to say that we didn’t enjoy ourselves. Although the Browns were knocked out of the playoffs by the Chiefs while we watched from our campsite (largely thanks to a BS call, but that’s neither here nor there), the rest of our stay was quite pleasant. We went out to the beach pretty much every day and generally had a great time just putz’n around out there.
We did find some time between bouts of rain to sneak in a little hike while we were in the area. After scouring the area on AllTrails, we eventually settled on the alluringly named Secret Beach Trail, a quick, but steep little out-and-back which descended down to (you guessed it) Secret Beach.
This location was oh so perfectly stereotypical of the Pacific Northwest. When we weren’t looking out on massive boulders jutting out into the ocean, we were wandering through lush, damp forest along a pine needle trail.
Although we were slightly underwhelmed by Turtle Rock and Gold Beach as a whole, the area began to feel like a paradise lost after a few days into our next stop. Let’s just say that things did not go according to plan while we were among the Redwoods in Myers Flat, California. Tune in next time when we detail the absolutely worst stay along our entire RV journey!