Coos Bay is a working harbour on the Oregon coast, and the working is visible. Stacks of timber and wood chips wait on the docks, ships load cargo, and the town's main street faces the water, with a mixture of old brick buildings and low modern shops. About sixteen thousand people live here, making it the largest city on the Oregon coast, and the bay itself is the largest natural harbour between San Francisco and the Columbia river, a fact that drove the logging and shipping industries for more than a century. A slow decline in timber has pushed the town to find other ways to earn a living.
A graceful steel bridge crosses the entrance to the bay on Highway 101, the McCullough Memorial Bridge, designed by Conde McCullough, who built many of the coast's bridges in the 1930s in an elegant art deco style. Just south of town, the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area stretches for about sixty kilometres along the coast, one of the largest areas of coastal sand dunes in North America, with towering sand hills, forest islands and lakes. Farther west, at Cape Arago, sea lions bark on the rocks and the cliffs drop to the surf, while the Shore Acres gardens, on a former estate, are known for their flowers.
For riders, Highway 101 is an easy and scenic road. North of Coos Bay it runs through the dunes and forest toward Florence, with views of the sea and a good surface, and south it passes through cranberry bog country near Bandon, with its rocky sea stacks, to the Redwood coast of California. Fog and drizzle are common, particularly in summer mornings, and the Pacific air is cool, so carry a waterproof layer. Logging trucks use the road, and tourists in RVs go slowly, so be patient on the bends. Spring and early autumn have the best weather.
Fuel, food and lodging are available in town, and the seafood is outstanding, with Dungeness crab, fish and chips and oysters. At dusk, the fog rolls in over the dunes and the sound of foghorns drifts across the water, which gives the whole coast a haunting atmosphere.