Beautiful Highways in Oregon

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The Pacific Coast Highway (the famous Rt. 101) is fantastic; even better is Route 126 from the coast at Florence, OR to a point fifteen miles west of Eugene, before the auto marts and strip malls of Eugene start.  Rt. 126 was THE most beautiful highway I've ever driven.  It had more solid beautiful miles than the Pac Coast Highway, which went through a national forest for 10 miles. That part of Rt. 101 was great; the rest is lined with honkytonk motels and salt water taffy shops.  


By contrast, Rt. 126 was 50 miles of unbroken picturesqueness.  Huge Douglas firs lined it.  A river ran alongside it part of the way, with picturesque houses scattered here and there on its banks.  Mountains with rank upon rank of Douglas firs upon them rose up on either side of the highway, which snaked around them.  Some of the curves were banked.  The forest just went on and on, mile after mile.  It has to be one of the most beautiful stretches of highway in the country.  I didn't get pics of it because it was raining and the windshield was blurry.  It also had too narrow of a shoulder to stop.


The Oregon coastline is no slouch.  Here are some photos from today's adventures:

Oregon wine country, between Portland and Lincoln City, which is on the coast.

A house a block from the Pacific cliffs.

The way the wind sculpts the trees.

A pirate outside a gift shop in one of the Oregon coastal towns.

Sea lions on rocks.  Their bark is endearing.

A knight in shining armor at the hostel I'm staying at in Eugene, Oregon.