Newport and Rogue

Next stop was just North on the Oregon Coast, to Newport.  Home of a Coast Guard station, a NOAA research station, a sizable fishing fleet, and a bit marina and RV park adjacent to Rogue Ales, one of America's oldest and best known craft brewers.

Another classic concrete-and-steel bridge from the early 20th century

The "old town" in Newport is 1/2 working fishery piers, 1/2 rustic tourist shops

Mo's is an institution in Newport - it's also where Rogue Ales  rented their original brewery space. Apparently Mo gave them a deal, on the condition that they display a picture of her (an elderly lady) in a bathtub at each of their pubs. 

Is this a sister city to Victoria, BC?  An Undersea Gardens (the same design) right across the street from a wax museum?  Weird.

Grabbed a beer at the Rogue pub in the old town.  The space is a bit too "tourist family restaurant," though my special bitter was excellent.  That is, until I discovered that 12oz was $4.75 in one of the lowest-alcohol-tax states.  Really?  That's more expensive than BC, the highest-alcohol-tax jurisdiction in North America.

We heard that the Rogue brewery was just across the bay, and had tours of both the brewery and adjacent distillery.  Having no other plans, we hopped over.  I'll provide a bit more detail in a hoplog blog post later (I'm waaaaay behind in my beer posts at this point...).

Sampling about 1/8 oz of whiskey for $1

Nice view from the tiny distillery building

The still where Rogue produces gin, rum and whiskey. 

Some Rogue barrels (spirits) and fermenters (beer)

The manually-fed bottling line.  Notice the pink bottles of Rogue Voodoo Doughnuts Bacon Maple beer going through

So Rogue was moderately interesting, but their tours and staff vibe were a little, I don't know, aloof?  Maybe it's the strong-headed fishing community roots, but we felt much more welcome and at home at most of the breweries in Bend (and Portland, and elsewhere) than we did at Rogue.  But we'll check out their farm up near Salem & see if it's just a coastal thing.

We managed to score one of the last available camping spots at a massive State Park just 2 miles South of Newport - it was a Thursday, and it was already 100% booked for the weekend.  This was more like the American parks I was used to on the East coast and in California - hundreds of campers elbow to elbow in extremely high density.  Fortunately, we got probably the most private site in the whole campground - a bit mosquito-y, but otherwise excellent.

Took a walk after our campsite dinner through several hundred metres of dunes to the beach and  South Jetty.

It got a little rainy in the evening, so I rigged up our way-too-small tarp as best I could and started a fire from leftover firewood, then made hot chocolate and planned our next day of travel.  (Note: for a couple of days in a row now, I've managed to scrounge leftover, partially-burned firewood from our own fire ring or from an adjacent empty campsite.  Each time it was enough to burn for several hours, and to avoid paying the high local cost for tiny bundles of firewood.  That might sound cheap, but it's also efficient - I'm making use of leftovers.)

Weekend campsite availability on the middle or North Oregon Coast looks terrible - we decided to try our luck inland the next day.