The Five Hobos: Gold Beach, Oregon. Jet Boats!!

We drove from Florence to Gold Beach, Oregon and watched the fog roll in. It was very bizarre. It just came out of nowhere and was so thick, we thought it might be smoke at first. But quickly realized it was a "socked in" coastline. It was very eerie and beautiful, but it was kind of a bummer to miss some of the spectacular scenery because it was hidden behind all the fog.

We knew Bigfoot was here.

Conner got really wet!

We specifically chose to stop at Gold Beach for the night so we could do the jet boat tour of the Rogue River. It's kind of what the area is known for and we were told we shouldn't miss it. I'm really glad we didn't! It was another budget buster, but it was a great tour! We left at 9 a.m. from the fog-covered coast. It was freezing and we were all bundled up in coats and blankets, as we headed up the Rogue. Our driver is a grandson of the founder and has been doing this for 22 years, so he was very entertaining and knew so much about the area. The total trip was 104 miles and took about 6 hours, with a stop for lunch.

We were in the front row!

Finally saw a bear!!!

The lower 30 miles or so are pretty calm waters, and very scenic. We saw a lot of wildlife, including FINALLY!!! A BEAR!!!! YAY!!!! After a pit stop in the tiny town of Agnes, only accessible by one road, and formerly only accessible by these jet boats. After that, we had to put on life jackets as we entered the "wild" part of the river, with class 1-4 rapids, which we went through UPSTREAM on this boat! Having white-water rafted before, going upstream through rapids seemed surreal. These boats are incredible. They don't have propellers, but basically water jets, so they can run in 6-8 inches of water! Crazy!!

It was so much fun to go speeding through these rapids, doing all these crazy hair-pin turns. Really fun. We thoroughly enjoyed the whole day.