During our trip planning this year we decided we wanted to take a trip in mid-May. This is a bit earlier than normal for us. One of the main reasons we don't take spring trips very often is because we like the scenery at higher elevations. Generally these areas are layered in snow this time of year. Since we tend to plan our trips well in advance, we talked about what we could do that wouldn't be so high and decided on a coastal trip in Oregon. Little did we know that we'd get so little rain and snow this year. I don't believe we even made 50% of normal for the year.

On the map above, I marked our route in black. Traveling up HWY 5, we took HWY 299 to Glendale and then proceeded up the coast. The top section of the California coast is quite beautiful. Some day we'll have to explore this area more thoroughly.

We planned to stop in Brookings for our first two nights. Brookings is just over the Oregon State line. Every day or two we'd move up the coast a bit. Eventually when we reached the top of the State, we planned to cut inward to see Multnomah Falls and Mount Hood before heading back down HWY 5. The following pages give you a flavor of what we saw along the way.