I had a meeting in Corvallis on friday and took the long way back through some signature Oregon landscapes.

Went west from Corvallis and just past Philomath took Hwy 34, the Alsea Hwy toward the coast. After a series of 25 MPH looping turns and just before the crest of Alsea summit, the turn off to Mary's Peak is to the right. Marys Peak is the tallest mountain in the coast range, and getting there is a well paved curving route that just goes up and up. Fierce Pacific Northwest storms prevent trees from living on the summit, so the broad rolling "peak" is a wildflower meadow where the most conspicuous flower is the native Columbia Lily. This bloom is a perfect spotted turks-cap in intricate miniture, colored bright yellow-orange like 70s era Ducatis. To embrace the Germanic experience, take some Liederhosen and Von Trapse through the meadow.

Back down and back to Alsea Hwy. This well paved road is lightly trafficed and sweeps out of the mountains onto the coastal plain and eventually to Waldport by the sea. Tha Alsea bridge is a beautiful and iconic structure. Rolling north past Seal Rocks and into Newport, the Newport bridge is a much grander iconic structure. (Rouge Brewery on the south end of the bridge, near the Aquarium for lunch) From the north end of Newport I took Hwy 20 back east. This is a much busier road than 34 and a major construction project is underway to replace this "old road" because it is too narrow and twisty. Well this "old road" replaced another older, narrower and twistier road, route 180, the Nashville road. Nashville road picks up just west of Eddyville and parallesl RR tracks through picturesque valleys of fresh mown hay surrounded by dark evergreen cloaked mountains. There is some gravel, there are several oblique RR crossings and there may be log trucks (I saw none on the extremely low volume route). I did not turn to go to Siletz, but continued "straight" and the road rejoined Hwy 20 in Blodgett across from the Country Store.

From there I rolled back south to Portland having had a wonderful ride.