Rockaway Beach is an adorable little beach town in Tillamook County on the Oregon Coast. A train from Portland brought visitors to this charming destination long before the coastal road was built and today a brightly painted caboose welcomes you to town. You can still ride the train as well, but only as far as Garibaldi on the Oregon Coast Scenic Railway. Rockaway Beach is also home to Pronto Pup, which claims to be the originator of the corn dog. The Twin Rock Arch is visible from anywhere on the beach and is quite a beautiful formation to see. I loved Rockaway Beach at first sight and ended up staying the whole day, soaking up some rays and enjoying the small-town charm of this great beach spot. It was such an easy place to pass the time, which I imagine is why it’s been such a beloved destination for as long as it has. If you’re ever traveling up or down the coast, be sure to carve out some time for a visit…
Bandon is an adorable little town of about 3,300 people on the southern Oregon coast. Originally Coquille Indian land, it was first settled by people of European decent in 1853. The town was established in 1873 by four men from Bandon, Ireland in County Cork and named for their old world home. Cranberries were introduced into Bandon in 1885 by Charles McFarlin of Massachusetts and have been grown and harvested successfully in the area ever since. Tragically the whole town burned to the ground in 1936 in a fire that claimed eleven lives. It has risen from the ashes and rebuilt as a charming coastal town with a lot to offer.
Bandon was probably my favorite town on the whole Oregon coast. The Old Town area was full of art and color and I loved just walking up and down the waterfront. The beaches were absolutely stunning with so much more to see than just the famous Face Rock and an evening stroll proved to be an excellent choice. The history museum, housed in the old City Hall, was one of the best local history museums I’ve ever been to in a town this size. Of course I loved the hand-painted signs around town, the beautiful carved wooden sculptures and the Coquille River Lighthouse. Of all the towns I visited in my first week along the coast, this was the one that stood out and a town I will definitely return to. Thank you, Bandon, for a wonderful stay. I hope you enjoy these photos from Bandon, Oregon.
When I left you last week, I was at the wonderful public library in Brookings. From there I was planning to make my way up into the Samuel H. Boardman Scenic Corridor which covers some of the most beautiful coastal scenery in the south of Oregon. Unfortunately the fog just wouldn’t lift that day, so I spent a lot of time hanging around the beach and reading which was also nice. The skies finally cleared to some extent around 6pm so I hustled my way up the coast, pulling off to take a bunch of photos along the way. I wish I had had more time to do it, but it was really magical nonetheless and I had some amazing views. The broad beaches and sea stacks are really something to see and I’m really glad I got a little bit of sun to take some photos with. In the end, I only made it as far north as Gold Beach before it got dark, but it was a lovely evening…
Hello Everyone! It is wonderful to be back writing This Week on the Road, but not nearly as good as it is to actually be back on the road. I spent the last year dreaming of the open highway ahead of me and the wind in my hair. As much as I love my hometown and my family and friends, I missed the natural landscapes around which I have built my life. For the rest of 2025 I plan to surround myself with beaches and mountains, waterfalls and glaciers, sunsets and wildlife. I have also learned in my life that while some people thrive on routine and knowing their surroundings, I live for new places I’ve never seen or visited. I may love the museums and bars and coffee shops at home, but for me there is always something special about walking into the unknown – a town or restaurant or music venue I’ve never been in before. I can spend my time looking around and picking up on the details of the place, eavesdropping on the local gossip. I like being the stranger in town. It’s a role I embrace. This last week+ has been a wonderful reintroduction to the world of travel and vanlife for me, with a few familiar places, a few familiar faces and a whole lot of something new.
I have really been looking forward to visiting Ferndale, the Victorian village in Humboldt County, and it was so much more than I ever imagined it would be. This charming town is over the river and down the road from the main highway and while it’s definitely not a secret it still kind of feels like it is.
Ferndale got its start back in 1852 when brothers Stephen and Seth Shaw came to the area to claim a homestead and begin farming. They found that the land was particularly suitable to raising cattle and a small dairy community would begin to grow. William would eventually leave the area, but Seth remained and built a beautiful Gothic home, which he called Fern Dale. When a post office opened in the area, the name was adopted for the town. That house is now called Shaw House and is still there to see in all its Gothic glory.
Dairy, and especially butter, would be the main industry of the town for quite some time, and a process of cutting and wrapping butter in paper for transport was pioneered in Ferndale. Once this process had been developed, butter was shipped down the Eel River and sent south to San Francisco and the town would grow. Butter brought wealth to the area and many fine homes and buildings were constructed in the Victorian style of the time, often called “Butterfat Palaces”. I’m thrilled that so many of these buildings have survived and dairy continues to be the main industry driving the local economy.
I spent a couple of days in Ferndale, taking these photos. I found the locals to be friendly and welcoming as one would expect in Northern California. I particularly enjoyed a conversation about the upcoming Humboldt County Fair one night in the Palace Saloon and also attending an Old Timers’ baseball game at the local ballfield. Breakfast at Joe’s Place was top notch and I loved being able to enjoy a glass of local wine above the bar in the Gazebo. Taking these photos was a joy, especially of the Gingerbread House, Gazebo, the Victorian Inn and the beautiful lamp posts around town. I hope you enjoy these photos of fabulous Ferndale, a town full of Victorian charm in the heart of Humboldt County…
Originally a Pomo Indian settlement, a lumber town was established on this site in 1852. The town was originally called Meiggsville, and then Big River before finally settling on Mendocino, named after Spanish navigator Antonio de Mendoza. Many of Mendocino’s early non-native settlers were from New England which is definitely evident in the architecture. In fact, several episodes of the TV show Murder, She Wrote were filmed here, and Mendocino stood in for the fictional town of Cabot Cove, Maine. Quite a few films were made here as well, perhaps the most memorable of which was James Dean’s 1955 classic East of Eden. Today, Mendocino is one of the most charming little towns along the California coast and attracts a wonderful mix of artists, tourists and small-town enthusiasts like myself. I thought it was cool that the town still has many of the original wooden water towers, built before the town had a central water supply. My favorite places to photograph were definitely the stunning old Masonic Hall with it’s beautiful statue called Time and the Maiden, the old Mendocino Beacon Building, the unique water towers and of course the gorgeous coastline. I hope you enjoy these photos from stunning Mendocino, California.
Hello Everyone!
It is so nice to be back writing in this space again after entirely too long. It has actually now been a couple of years since I was keeping up with this blog on a regular basis, but that is all about to change. I am back in California, back in my van Shadow Catcher, and back on the road. To all of you who have been sticking with me for a while, thank you from the bottom of my heart. To all of you who have subscribed to this page in the last couple of years (and probably forgot that you did), welcome! I’m glad you’re here and I hope you will stick around for a while. I usually put out this newsletter on Thursdays and offer an update on the week of travel behind me and plenty of photos of the places I have been. This week will be a little different as I want to update everyone on what’s been happening in my life these last couple of years, and it’s not really a cheery topic. I promise it will be lighter from next week on. But for this week, here we go…
Hello Everyone and Happy New Year! I hope everyone has had a lovely holiday season and is ready for a great year in 2025. I know this space has been pretty quiet this year as there has just been so much going on at home, but I really hope that all of that changes in the year to come. I did have a wonderful work season guiding tours out west which took me all the way to Alaska for the first time since 2016. I also spent a month in the Rockies, a few weeks in the Desert Southwest, a couple in the Deep South and a big chunk of time in California. It’s definitely great to visit some of these magical places every year and to show them to international passengers from all over the world, and I’m forever grateful to be able to do what I do. I met great people, took some beautiful photos and had a few laughs along the way. But it’s also been a difficult year because of the struggles my family has faced at home…
Hello Everyone! I hope this post finds you all well. I am safely back at home in Washington D.C. after my tour season finished last week. It’s nice to be here with my family and friends and I’m catching up on some rest and some quiet time. I know I promised you these photos a couple of months ago, but things got really crazy at the end of my season, plus I was pretty tired from such a busy summer. But here are the rest of my photos from my time in Alaska this summer. I hope to get a couple of more little photo essays done in the next couple of weeks and get a proper update written and hopefully share some of my photos from my last trips in California and the one I’ve just returned from in the Deep South, but it’s Wednesday night and I want this to get this out on Thursday so I’m going to keep it short and sweet today. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and I promise I’ll be back with you real soon. Thanks, as always, for reading.
Hello Everyone! I am slowly but surely making my way through my Alaska photos. I have one more set to get through which I hope to look at this week. The photos in this post come from another tour I led to Denali and Seward, a personal adventure to Homer and to look for the old Russian Orthodox churches in the Kenai Peninsula and a few others which I took along the way. Meanwhile, I am back in California about to run my last trip of the season. I’ll be heading home to D.C. for a while after that and I will definitely be getting some work done from home. Expect plenty more photos in the near future and then I really hope to be back to blogging and taking photos full-time in early 2025. Thank you for reading and I’ll be back really soon.
-Mike
Hello Everyone! It has been a heck of a summer in Alaska, the first I’ve spent in The Last Frontier since the pandemic. I’ve been crazy busy running camping tours so I haven’t had any time to get to these photos at all, but now that I’m back in the Lower 48 I hope to get through them so I can share them with you. This next batch comes from my July tour - an Alaska Wilderness and Wildlife camping adventure which I ran for Exodus Travels. It was really a wonderful trip and I even had an old friend join me who went on tour with me many years ago. We had a nice journey to Denali National Park and had some crystal clear views of the continent’s tallest mountain - something only 30% of visitors to the park get to see at all. From there we headed down to beautiful Seward, one of my favorite little towns in the country. We had a nice boat tour out into Kenai Fjords National Park to spot whales and sea lions, puffins and eagles and so much more. And then we lucked into another clear and sunny day to hike to the Harding Icefields in the inland portion of the park. We rounded out the tour with some rafting on the Kenai River, a little gold panning and a few pleasant if lesser-known hikes in the Cooper Landing area...
Hello Everyone! Greetings from Anchorage, Alaska. I apologize for how long it’s been since I last posted. I’ve been unbelievably busy running tours all summer, and most have been camping tours with limited internet connectivity. But I promise I’ve been thinking about you and taking lots of photos. It’s been a very short but sweet run here in Alaska this summer, with three wonderful trips separated by a short jaunt back to California in August. I’ve gotten my fill of salmon and halibut. panned for gold, hiked up glaciers, watched humpbacks and bears and plenty of moose. And tomorrow it is all over. The leaves have started to change and there’s even some snow in the air at higher altitudes so that means it’s time for me to head south and finish my season in the desert and the Sierras. I promise there are many more pictures to come, so watch this space, but for now I just wanted to check in and let you know I’m still alive and to share with you some of my photos from the drive up to Alaska. Also know that I’ve really been saving my nickels and dimes this summer so I will be back to this project full-time in early 2025. I hope you are all having a wonderful summer wherever you are and I’ll share so much more about my summer when I get back to California next week. Take care and thanks for following along.
-Mike
