We gathered up our stuff, put a full load of water in the on-board tank, dumped the waste tanks and departed from Boice-Cope County Park near Langlois and continued our trek south. Boice-Cope was a gorgeous, almost-unknown gem right on the Oregon coast and we would love to return the next time we pass this way.
We headed south on US-101 through Port Orford (which is not really a port) and continued along the spectacular Oregon coast until we got to another non-port, Gold Beach, where we turned east up Jerry’s Flat Road. Jerry’s Flat really doesn’t have a flat – the terrain is steep and rocky. A better name might be South Side of the Rogue River Road although it is a bit cumbersome. Fourteen miles after leaving 101, we pulled off at a National Forest campground called Quosatana.
We have been to Quosatana before. It is a beautiful campground and boat ramp along the Rogue and the only thing wrong with it is the pronunciation of the name. I am from southern California and, considering the proximity of Mexico, I learned that all words have the vowels pronounced, like in Spanish, and, therefore, it is Quo-sa-ta-na. However, it is allegedly an Indian word (the Native American Indian, not the red dot Indian) and some folks pronounce it Quo-sayt-na. Last time I was here, I heard a redneck pronounce it Quo-sayt-nee so we are perplexed about how the word is actually said.
Regardless of the jumbled possibilities about who says what how, we chose a spot overlooking a meadow where the deer amble in each evening to browse on the grass. On previous trips here, we noted that the deer always show up with a female wild turkey who we have named Brunhilde (Hildy, for short). She seems to have an unnatural attraction for the deer because she is always right in the herd. We did see a few deer this evening but no Hildy. We hope she is okay.
The campground is very well tended, has paved RV spots, adequate federal restrooms but absolutely no water, power or sewer hookups. Since it is owned by the Feds and we have a geezer pass that allows us reduced-cost entrance to Federal lands, we had to cough up $7.50 per day which seems very reasonable, considering the magnificent surroundings. We wrote the park host a check for $22.50 and settled in for a three day stay.
Right next to the RV space we took there is a magnificent Myrtle tree (50 miles south the trees are called California Bays but we don’t worry about that much) that has many forks and throws a huge penumbra of shade over our site. We set the chairs up underneath the branches, poured ourselves a cocktail and settled in for some deer watching. The drinks were tasty and the deer were sleek and beautiful.
We use our generators to power up our trailer and charge the batteries in the morning and again at dinner time. All our other utilities are self-contained so we are happy as pigs in shit. It is gorgeous here. The Rogue passes by about 200 feet from our site and it is a beautiful color of green slicing between shorelines of green cobbles. There are blue jays, robins, vultures, ospreys, deer and ravens cruising around here and twice a day we hear the big jet boats go by, blasting upstream, that were the only source of access for years. This might be one of the only inland spots in the world where local delivery of mail is by boat. The boats used big, uncorked V-8s for propulsion and you can hear them coming for quite a ways. They have to use shallow-draft jet boats due to loads of close-to-the-surface rocks and reefs at or just below the river surface that would destroy propellers on boats with deeper drafts.
We shot a few pictures along the coast and you can see them if you click here