After a great rest at the Silver Surf Motel in Yachats OR, it was time to hit the road and explore the famous Highway 101 as I head south along the Pacific ocean.

Everyone I have talked to about this trip has said this highway is a ton of fun to ride and has high praise for its surrounding beauty – spoiler alert – they were right!

Not long after leaving Yachats I happened across the Heceta Head light house. Not only is the surrounding landscape gorgeous but the lighthouse itself is very cool to see, recently restored just a few years ago. You start out at this inlet:

From there its a half mile hike up to the lighthouse on the side of the hill. Here is some neat video:

Following shortly after Heceta Head is the famous Sea Lion caves. I had no freakin clue sea lions were so loud. Pretty much all they did was howl and fight each other for position on the rocks. I cant blame them the water was freezing!

The ride itself on this stretch of 101 is awesome, and so perfect for a motorcycle to really enjoy the curves and grades. It was hard to not turn my head for too long to catch either the ocean on my right or the forests on my left. Heres some quick edits of some of the highlights:

Lastly it was time to find a place to camp. Really I had no idea what campsite to stop at but when I saw a KOA sign near the dunes I figured that would be the best place for me tonight. Not exactly “roughing it” (theres showers and restrooms and laundry and even wifi at these campsites) but honestly I needed the laundry ability cuz my clothes from the first day that got soaked were wrapped up in a dry sack and stinking like 4 day old gym clothes… No bueno.

However, it was a great way to start out the camping portion of this trip and get the feel for offloading everything from the bike, setting up camp, and overall facilitating the process efficiently.

I got the beer camp stove to work! Check it out:

Had a tasty dehydrated organic burrito mix. Actually quite delectable:

I even boiled up a hot cup of tea as well.

Soon enough the sun started to recede and so did I into my 1 person tent – quite cozy actually, fitting me and all my gear and still didnt feel too cramped.

I do wish I had a thicker sleeping pad but at this stage that would truly be a luxury. I slept well and enjoyed being able to get a load of laundry done and a have a hot shower.

Bonus! The campground was full of dune riders – ATVs, buggys, dirtbikes… it was awesome to talk to these folks and the Scrambler definitely got admiring looks and questions. All around really cool people. Im adding it to my bucket list to hit up the dunes on an ATV sometime.

Next up – further down the 101 – Southern Oregon and into California!

Travis