A man and girl stroll the beach at sunset among the dramatic
seascape of Harris Beach State Park, just outside Brookings, Ore.

Oregon's southern coast, from Florence down, is about sand dunes, sand dunes and more sand dunes, until you get to Bandon; wood products, around Coos Bay; sheep farms and wool shops; cranberry bogs, and, finally, around Brookings, some of the most dramatic seascapes on this coast, possibly eclipsing even Cannon Beach's Ecola, which is saying something in my dog-eared book of favorite Oregon beach places.

Bill Krause, a longtime school teacher in Skagit County, thought so, too -- which is why he retired to Brookings last June.

"I really believe that section from Brookings north to Port Orford is as good as it gets!" Krause told us as we visited with him at Cape Blanco Lighthouse, where he is a volunteer interpreter. "It's beautiful, it's less developed, and because it's about half way between Portland and San Francisco, it gets fewer visitors."

Bill Krause loved this coast so much he moved
here from Skagit County.

We can vouch for the fewer visitors, at least in April. Traffic on Highway 101 dropped off dramatically south of Florence. There would be mile-long uphill grades with a passing lane when not a single car would go by us (which is the acid test of light traffic when you're driving a plodding motorhome).

Readers told us to stay at Harris Beach State Park, on the north edge of Brookings, and we're glad we did. We nabbed one of the ocean-view campsites (A loop, to the right as you enter). The beach was either a short drive or a short hike away, but we're glad we sampled the Rock Beach Trail. It's about a half-mile zigzag downhill with expansive views of sea stacks and massive rock islands, including one pierced with a notch that azure surf surged through. The final part of the hike is a fun clamber as the narrow trail does a needle-threading act between a jumble of rocks the size of small beach cabins, finally depositing you on the beach among a Valhalla-esque seascape, with madly jutting rocks and boulders all around.

Little-known fact about the Brookings area, with about 13,000 residents, is that it produces about 75 percent of the Easter lilies grown in the United States. Go in early July to see blooming fields of the fragrant flowers.

A message on the highway bids us to "Come Back" to Oregon as
Victor the rented RV straddles the California border, with the
"Welcome to California" sign at right. (We gave in and returned
northward to continue our Oregon coast reporting.)

From Brookings, we made the five-mile trek to the California border, just to say we covered all of Oregon, then turned and headed back north on Wednesday. (Yes, we're spending seven days covering the coast, but we have to return the RV in Portland on Friday, so we're on the way back north, stopping at new places.)

If you're a fan of ocean views from the highway, you won't get that as much on the southern stretch of 101; the high dunes of Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area often block the view, and 101 meanders away from the coast for 50 miles between Coos Bay and Port Orford. That just means you have to allow yourself more time to explore side roads and scenic turnoffs -- like the six-mile side road to Cape Blanco, hugely worth the effort.