My daughter Racquel and I went sightseeing on one of her early visits to see me after I moved to Oregon. We decided on a day trip taking the Redwood Highway, U.S. 199, to the Pacific Ocean and back. Beginning in Grants Pass and ending in Crescent City, the 82 mile drive is listed as taking an hour and 35 minutes. I assure you that if you complete the drive in that amount of time you really do need to slow down and enjoy life. I encourage you to allocate more time for your drive and you will not regret it.
Driving through Grants Pass you cross the Rogue River. There are a couple of very nice parks along the river where you can stop and enjoy the Salmon and Steelhead fishing boats gliding down stream. A short while after leaving Grants Pass, you will encounter the Applegate River and then quickly the little hamlet of Wilderville. After that the highway winds along following what once were just animal trails and then when settlers arrived the stage route. Homes, farms and an occasional orchard dot the hillsides along the way. You pass more little towns; Selma, Kerby and then Cave Junction.
Cave Junction is aptly named as it is the home of Oregon Caves National Monument. The National Park Service manages and oversees the park. They offer Oregon Caves Guided Tours which are a must during your visit. The tour is relatively easy, scenic, safe, fun, and very educational.
Continuing on from Cave Junction shortly you come to O’Brien and very quickly after that you cross over into California. In this short distance from O’Brien the terrain and the vegetation changes dramatically, you are now in the Siskiyou Mountains. Due to the higher elevation and proximity to the Pacific Ocean, these mountains get high amounts of both rain and snow and thus the surrounding forests are a lush green.
The rest of your drive is now entirely scenic. Steep cliffs bordering the highway are frequent and, depending on the season, waterfalls and streams adjacent to the highway offer ample photo opportunities. Happily, there also are frequent turnouts where the traveler can pause to better absorb the beauty of the area.
Eventually the highway merges with Highway 101 where you can proceed north along the Oregon coast or south along California’s.
Racquel and I made this drive in February of 1996. It had been raining for the past few days and it was not letting up even a bit, but her time was limited and so we ventured out regardless of the rain. As we traveled down toward Cave Junction the water along side the road grew higher and higher and soon became a river and then a torrent. Near Selma people were being ferried by rowboat onto the highway by local firemen because the side road had been washed out. Just a mile or so down the road we slowed to nearly a stop because the water was a foot deep across the highway for nearly a half mile. Racquel’s cautious driving got us through all that and we began climbing into higher elevations after Cave Junction.
Then on the radio we heard that the highway was now shut down in both directions behind us, we had just made it through. But the highway remained closed for several days and our sightseeing expanded and took an unexpected turn as we headed north on 101. Over the next couple of days we slowly made our sightseeing way up to Coos Bay and across Highway 42 east to Interstate 5 and south back home. A most excellent trip! Since that trip, I now recommend allocating extra time (days) when driving in the rain near the coast.
Now read about Stout Grove and Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park
And Crescent City, California and the Smith River
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