Tu Tu' Tun Lodge

South Oregon Coast Bridges

We spent a lovely weekend at the Tu Tu' Tun Lodge in southern Oregon. The lodge is on the Rogue River just east of Gold Beach.

Elk bedded down at the Dean Creek Elk Viewing Area

On our way down we noticed a couple of elk standing in a field. Then we noticed a bunch of lumps sticking up out of the grass. They were the heads of elk that were bedded down in the grass. There must have been a couple of dozen of them. Very cool.

Part of our journey took us on US Highway 101 along the Oregon coast. Much of the road was nice, straight two lane blacktop in good condition. There were patches though that had suffered from subsidence. They had been repaired, but pavement now had slumps and small hills. Since there are like 8,000 miles of two lane blacktop in Oregon so I suspect the road crews are kept busy. Our tax dollars at work.

Somewhere along the way we went through a tunnel. I spent a couple of hours examining the map without finding one. Through happenstance I stumbled over the the Elkton creek tunnel, which is not on the coast, but we did go through there on the way down. Since it seems to be only tunnel on our route, it must be the one, which is weird since I could have sworn it was on the coast.

While I was looking for the tunnel, I recorded every bridge I noticed. Most of them are small, simple bridges over creeks, but there are four big, impressive ones, all designed by Conde McCullough.

Siuslaw River Bridge
Florence, Oregon

Umpqua River Bridge
Reedsport, Oregon

Conde McCullough Memorial Bridge
Coos Bay, Oregon

Isaac Lee Patterson Bridge
Gold Beach, Oregon

All four of these bridges were built in the 1930s.