After ten glorious days outside Mt. Hood, it was time to head out to the coast. We made the drive southwest to Bandon for our short stay at Bullards Beach State Park. We really wanted to check out a new-ish mountain bike trail system in the area known as Whiskey Run. Thankfully, we had an easy site to back into and our views weren’t directly into our neighbors’ RVs. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a great area to setup outside at camp. We made up for it by taking lots of evening walks on the beach. There was also a great trail behind our campsite that led straight down to the beach, which we probably walked everyday with Mozzie. The grass around there had the worst prickly weeds!
It was almost the end of the dry season in the PNW, so the smoke was a little problematic during our stay. One day the smoke was so bad with the wind that they actually closed the forest where we had wanted to do our ride. We even had to spend some days/nights inside to avoid the smoke.
We got out as much as we could when the smoke cleared out. Our walks on the beach were the best – especially with Mozzie. She had a blast trying to chase all of the seagulls. It’s hard to believe that she’s 8.5 years old; she was so frisky running around on the beach!
We had hoped to get out mountain biking more than once during our stay, but that didn’t happen due to the smoke/wildfires. That being said, our one ride at Whiskey Run was great. Some sections were amazing, especially in the north section where the trees were incredibly tight and the trail was machine-cut.
We don’t go out to eat very often because, most of the time, the food is never as good as we hope it will be. We decided to take a chance while in Banfdon. We stopped by Tony’s Crab Shack for dinner, and it was superb! Definitely worth the money.
After our five days in Bandon, we headed north to Corvallis. Corvallis is a small college town, but we were wanted to stay there so we would be close to another popular mountain biking trail system, Alsea. We mountain biked Alsea on our second trip to the PNW back in 2019, and we loved it then despite the fact that we had to ride it in the pouring rain. Plus, we thought it would be nice to get some time in a bigger city with access to a grocery store and a gym (hello Plant Fitness!).
The Alsea trail system is unbelievable. The climb to the top is a dirt road with a moderate grade; it goes by fast.
The downhill is built so well and it really maximizes the drop in elevation. The dirt is bright red in some sections, so that there is a beautiful contrast between the trees, the foilage, and the dirt. I feel like I have mountain biked many trails across the US, and I’d argue that this is the best mountain biking trail in the entire US.
Our original plan was to go to Bend after Corvallis, but we were feeling like we were done in the PNW. Plus, if we headed southeast, we’d be able to meet up with my inlaws on their RV travels. We really enjoyed our 1.5 month stay in the PNW – we feel like we really got to experience more of Oregon and Washington this summer. We’ll be back one day for more!