I like the title my excellent editor put on this story about Gold Beach, Oregon. And the amazing accompanying photo by Kim Wycoff.
I’ve been writing a lot of travel stories about Oregon lately: Eco-luxe hotels, the bald eagle fly-out in the Klamath Basin, letterboxing in Portland.
The more places I visit in Oregon, the more I fall in love with my adopted state. (I’m originally from Boston.)
Gold Beach is no exception.
Gold Beach, a town of just over 2,000 year-round inhabitants, remains relatively undiscovered.
Though over 40,000 people a year visit to ride the jet boats, you don’t have to elbow others out of the way to enjoy nine miles of beach or take in the cliff-edge landscape.
The weather’s good too. Lots of sunshine. That’s because Gold Beach sits along the Banana Belt, a stretch of coastline from Port Orford 30 miles south to the California border that is the most temperate on the Oregon coast.
Rich in natural beauty, wildlife
The Rogue River Reef (just offshore from Gold Beach) is home to the second-largest Steller sea lion rookery south of Alaska. In late December and again in mid-March you can also see gray whales migrating through these waters.
When my kids and I visit Gold Beach, six large sea lions bellow at us and each other, touching noses and lumbering off the docks into the water.
Several dozen white and gray seals look bored as the sun slips in and out of the clouds.
Read up on Gold Beach’s natural beauty, wildlife, boutique shops, and California Stellar sea Lions, via my latest travel article in the Oregonian.
Published: April 27, 2010
Last update: January 23, 2020
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