Southwest Oregon Trip

Toward the end of our rafting trip on the Owyhee River at the beginning of May, we had expressed interest to our guides in rafting the Rogue River in Southwest Oregon, a part of the world that neither Ann nor I had visited before. In early May when we got a note from Momentum, our guide company for the Owyhee float, that two spots had opened up in August for the Rogue, we reserved immediately.

Starting our Rogue River Rafting Adventure

In thinking about the logistics of getting to and from the Rogue, we decided to build a trip around the float. We would visit Crater Lake on the way and then follow the Rogue River all the way into Galice, OR where we would meet up with our fellow rafters and the Momentum crew. After finishing our rafting trip, we wanted to visit the only part of the Oregon coast that we had not seen before, from the California line to Florence, reputedly the most beautiful section of the coast.

I had planned to go north along the coast all the way up to Florence before heading home, but both Ann and I got sick after rafting. We cut our stay on the coast short by a day, power driving the coast to Reedsport and up the Umpqua Valley back to home, the shortest route available. Power driving while ill sucks. Sorry OSP, I was the guy driving 70 in the 55 zones and 80 elsewhere. Sorry, not sorry.

So, we still have not seen from Reedsport to Florence, but that will have to wait until our next visit to the coast. For now, our agenda is struggling through this illness. It may or may not be COVID, but we're not putting anyone at risk going out to get test kits.

During our trip to the Owyhee, I took about 1500 photos. On this trip, I made a conscious decision to take fewer and to take more time to be present and so among the three cameras that I brought on the trip, I shot only about 550 photos. As much as I like to look at the photos long after events, I like to immerse myself in those same events and those two goals can conflict at times.

So, the cameras spent a lot more time in the dry bag or dry box. As a consequence, I missed some shots, notably a great photo opportunity of a little mink struggling across the rapidly flowing river, but I will never forget watching it and rooting, along with everyone in the raft, for the little guy to get across the river safely.

Our trip posts break down thus:

Southwest Oregon Trip: Crater Lake

Southwest Oregon Trip: Crater Lake to Galice

Southwest Oregon: Rogue River Day 1
Southwest Oregon: Rogue River Day 2
Southwest Oregon: Rogue River Day 3
Southwest Oregon: Gold Beach and the Southern Oregon Coast

Despite having to cut our stay at the coast short, it was still a great trip. We can now check Crater Lake off our list; it is not a place to which we are likely to return unless we are escorting guests there.

Our experience on the Rogue was wonderful and quite different to the Owyhee. The Owyhee's scenery is mind-blowing, the most beautiful canyons that I have ever seen. On the other hand, the weather on the Owyhee is necessarily chilly; early spring is when the snowmelt is highest. By contrast, the opportunity to swim, float, and play in the warm water of the Rogue was delightful in its own right and not to be missed. I am ambivalent about the lodge-to-lodge trip on the Rogue; I might have preferred camping near the river to have the rushing whitewater lull me to sleep at night. The experiences on both rivers were wonderful, just very different ones.

Southwest Oregon: Rogue River Day 3

This post recalls the third and, sadly, final day of whitewater rafting on the Rogue River in Southwest Oregon. On this day, we would leave Half Moon Bar Lodge just after breakfast and float down to the take-out at Foster Bar.

I awoke at 6:15 to the racket of a Steller's Jay nearby. The light seemed dimmer than I am accustomed to for 6:15 at this time of year, but then light comes late to the lodge nestled between mountains. After I had been awake for a few minutes, I heard someone walking down the wooden walkway outside the rooms and remembered dinner from the evening before.

Just after dinner, we were asked if we wanted coffee in the morning and were told that the Coffee Fairy would deliver coffee to our room well before breakfast. I looked outside to see that the person walking by the room had indeed left a Thermos outside our door. What a great touch!

Coffee Fairy Left a Thermos of Coffee Outside our Door

Ann and I had a cup of much-appreciated coffee while getting ready for our day and packing our gear to have sent down to the rafts. Sadly, it was not great coffee. After dressing, I stepped out of the room to take our drybag to the central collection point behind the lodge. I was greeted immediately and enthusiastically by Roma the second I left the room as if she were camped out waiting for me to appear.

After dropping our dry bag off, Roma and I headed out on the lawn to wander around a bit while Ann finished getting ready before breakfast. The first thing I saw, as I tossed Roma's Frisbee for her, was a fresh pile of bear scat just outside our room. I guess Roma was asleep when the bear came through or she would have chased it away. Or maybe she did scare the poop out of it while chasing it. Who knows?

While I was walking about the grounds, I went to investigate a handsome tree that I saw the evening before, a conical pyramidal evergreen oak with unusual bark. This was my first time seeing a Canyon Live Oak up close; it certainly makes a fantastic landscape tree.

First Light at Half Moon Bar Lodge

Tanbark-oak, Notholithocarpus densiflorus

Canyon Live Oak, Quercus chrysolepis

As we were getting close to breakfast, I took a few minutes to look around the common areas of the lodge, which are extremely nicely appointed. No sooner had I sat down to the table for breakfast than a Boxer head appeared in my lap, looking in vain for handouts.

Got Snacks?

Fifteen minutes after breakfast, we headed down the steep stairs to the river to get underway for the day. I shot a few photos while our guides got all the gear squared away.

An Aster, Symphyotrichum sp.

Water Mint, Mentha aquatica

The water at Half Moon Bar is quite choppy but then around the horseshoe bend, it becomes flat and smooth, the perfect opportunity to shoot reflections on the surface of the river.

Leaving Half Moon Bar

All Along This Section, California Fuchsia, Epilobium canum

An Unlikely Duo

Partway into our trip, we passed another Momentum group just packing up from their evening of camping. We thought we spied Elena, one of our gearboaters from our Owyhee trip, getting ready to set off for the take-out. Later in the morning, just before our peaceful day was interrupted by the insane roar of a jet boat, the boating equivalent of a jacked-up monster diesel truck, a Momentum raft caught up with us and in it was Elena. She came over and gave us hugs.

Soon after, we stopped at the request of another guide that Alyssa knew to join their group in jumping off a big rock overhanging the river. Sadly, I missed my opportunity to jump as I was off in the bushes taking a coffee break. I did get a close look at one of the local gumweeds, a genus of plant that I have not seen since the plains of South Dakota and neighbor Wyoming. And where we landed, I noticed a type of rock that I had never seen before. This rock is made of tumbled river rock embedded in stone. Later, I found out that this is called a conglomerate and indicates the presence of an old beach or river bottom.

Gumweed, Grindelia hirsutula

Conglomerate Stone

As we were pulling to the shore to have lunch just above the take-out at Foster Bar, a large salmon jumped clear of the water just below us. This peaceful moment was soon interrupted by another jet boat coming up from the mouth of the river at Gold Bay. More would follow. We did not yet know it, but our B&B for the evening at the mouth of the river was just across the river from the jet boat operation and that the mouth of the river would be jammed with small boats getting in on the salmon fishing action.

Our Lunch Stop, Sandbar Covered in Elk and Deer Tracks

I Think This is a Common Whitetail

Parting Shot

Just after lunch, we got back underway for the half-mile to Foster Bar. In preparation for concluding our trip, I had stowed my cameras in their waterproof case. Naturally at this moment, we saw a sight that we will not forget, a tiny little mink swimming across the fierce current of the wide river. A strong and naturally gifted swimmer, it was making great headway across the river. Minks are at home in the water, but what an incredible undertaking for such a small animal!

It would take us an hour after landing to get everything stowed in the blazing heat and back underway towards Galice in the van towing the rafts. After Galice, Ann and I would head to the coast for the first of a couple days of sightseeing on the only part of the Oregon coast that we had not seen before.

Southwest Oregon: Rogue River Day 2

This post is about the second day, our first full day, of whitewater rafting on the Rogue River in Southwest Oregon. At Black Bar Lodge, having slept most fitfully through parts of the night in our rustic cabin, I was up at first light, well before coffee would be ready at 7 a.m. I took the opportunity to wander down to the river with my camera while waiting for a cup of joe. 

Before Dawn, Rogue River at Black Bar

Scrounging for Breakfast Supplies

Seed Pod on Scotch Broom, Cytisus scoparius

Western Goldentop, Euthamia occidentalis
Sometimes Confused with a Goldenrod, Solidago sp.

Looking at a Twisted Oregon White Oak, Quercus garryana,
Through a Pair of Sandbar Willows, Salix exigua

Bumblebee on a Knapweed, Centaurea sp.

Field of Common Horsetails, Equisetum arvense

After a couple cups of good coffee (Momentum brews really decent coffee) and breakfast at the group table in the kitchen cabin, we packed our scant belongings into the drybag and got ourselves ready to depart for the day. We had a few minutes to wander about as the guides packed up all the cookware from breakfast. Compared to the camping trip we took on the Owyhee, everything was packed and we were away very quickly.

As we entered the calm water at Lower Black Bar, I got a chance to look around at the forest on both sides of the river as the sun was coming up. The mixed forest along the Rogue is very different than our principally coniferous forest at home. From the boat, it was easy to spot Douglas Fir, Canyon Live Oak, Oregon White Oak, Madrone, Tanbark-oak, Big Leaf Maple, and Oregon Ash.

Getting Underway on Day 2

Tiny Blacktail Buck Contentedly Munching Perennial Peavine,
Lathyrus latifolius

Indian Rhubarb, Darmera peltata

Day Two Saw Several Riverside Oak Savannahs

Rocks Changing from Volcanic to Sedimentary
This Almost Looks Like Limestone

As we made our way downstream in the early morning as the sun was clearing the canyon walls, wildlife was pretty active. We saw a bunch more tiny Black-tailed Deer, a Bald Eagle, an American Dipper doing its little dance on a rock, a lot of turtles hauled out sunning themselves on rocks, a few Ospreys, a Red-tailed Hawk, and a large number of Turkey Vultures who were just coming off their roosts as the sun warmed the air and created the thermals that they need to sail over the river. And it seemed that there was a Great Blue Heron every 100 yards.

One of a Couple Dozen Great Blue Herons

Great Blue Heron Standing Watch Over Canada Geese

Turtle Petroglyph on Riverside Rock

Purple Loosestrife, Lythrum salicaria, Beautiful and Invasive

We also got to experience some pretty amazing whitewater with the 1-2-3 punch of Narrows, Coffee Pot, and Blossom Bar. Coffee Pot was a lot of fun as we made two complete loops in the strong eddy before we broke out. Blossom Bar was a technical beast with an upstream (blind) ferry angle, a regular dodge 'em of rocks including those on the right called the Picket Fence. I was amazed as we (that is, Alyssa) traversed a boulder garden that is now passable thanks to application of a bit of dynamite in earlier days. That was a crazy traverse and I loved every second of it.

To top things off, we got to spend a lot of the time out of the boat and in the water, including a mile-long float through Mule Creek Canyon between Coffee Pot and Blossom Bar. The sensation of floating through the still but quickly flowing water in the intimate canyon I will never forget. 

Mom Scolding Us to Get in the Raft Above Blossom Bar

Poison Oak, Changing Color, Everywhere

Oak Gall on Oregon White Oak, Quercus garryana

Soon after we traversed the awesome rapids at Blossom Bar, we found ourselves at the dock for the Half Moon Bar Lodge, our destination for the evening. From the dock, steep stairs climb up the canyon wall to the lodge property above. Immediately when we crested the top of the stairs, we were enthusiastically greeted by staff greeter Roma, a sturdy Boxer and lodge mascot. At one point, she buried her head in my chest and would not let me move. Whenever she saw me, it was like I was her best friend, typical people-centric Boxer behavior.

Owner Mike escorted us from the top of the stairs to the lodge, a distance of a couple hundred yards on this 85-acre property that runs across the inside of a horseshoe bend in the river. At the top of the hill where the lodge is situated, he recounted the history of the lodge and welcomed us, showed us to our rooms, and asked us to explore the property as we wanted.

Half Moon Bar Lodge is a really nice and comfortable place. It is accessible by boat or by plane, having its own landing strip, though the approach through the mountains looks a bit tricky. They even have Wi-Fi though I never took my phone out of airplane mode. Part of the wilderness experience for me is disconnecting. My phone is only along as a secondary camera.

While we were waiting for the dry bags to get hoisted on the electric winch from the river and brought up to the lodge via 4-wheeler, I took advantage of the break to wander around the gardens behind an electric fence to keep out the deer and bears. I stayed out in the blazing sun just long enough to complete my tour of the gardens. Then I hurriedly returned to the room to grab our dry bag, take a cold shower, change clothes, and head down to the bar to grab a beer.

Hammock Between Apple Trees

After buying us two beers, I went to find Ann who had set out for a couple of Adirondack chairs in the shade of a massive Douglas Fir, a fir of more than 600 years old that made the one that we saw at Black Bar the night before look tiny. About this time, our guides set out some appetizers at the lodge, so I went a made a plate for Ann and me and brought it back out to the shady spot. 

600-Year-Old Douglas Fir

Cold Beer, Cool Shade, Good Life!

Waiting for Dinner; Roma Getting Kendal Scratches

Unlike at Black Bar where our guides cooked dinner, Half Moon Bar has its own breakfast and dinner chefs. We enjoyed a fine home-style meal of brisket served in the dining room. After dinner, we would all convene for a walk the length of the grass airstrip across the property, a walk enlivened with tales of the colorful characters who inhabited this area and developed it. On return from our walk, dessert was served on the picnic tables outside the lodge where we chatted for a while before turning in for the night.

Home-style Dinner of Brisket, Corn, Potatoes, Bread, and Salad

Ann Plays Around as We Start our Post-Dinner Walk

Tonight would be a very different experience from last night. Thanks to electricity (and a large system of solar panels on the roof), we had electricity all night. Two fans were sufficient to cool our room off and let us sleep in relative comfort in the queen bed, a far cry from the two single bunks from the stifling night before.