vacation southwest oregon (Eugene, Medford, Ashland: restaurant, places to see, places)

[tommyd]

i have 3 days in the spring for vacation. friday-eugene saturday drive to ashland
sunday to brookings then up the coast and back to eugene. i realize this is not much time but i want to see as much as possible. am mainly interested in ashland. any suggestions on a scenic route and interesting places to see. thanks in advance.

[Waterlily]

You may want to drive up the 101 to see some great views of the ocean along with all the forest. I enjoy going up and down the 101 as it is very scenic. You may find a good place for seafood as well.
One idea is to drive up from Brookings on the 101 all the way up to highway 26 then turn inland to take you back to Eugene.

[Cornerguy1]

You plan on covering a lot of ground in only 3 days, especially considering you want to spend a day (or more) exploring Ashland.

The other factor against you is the geographical fact that major roads tend to run north-south rather than east-west.

That being said, my suggestion would be to take I-5 from Eugene to Ashland. That will you get you to your primary destination with some time left to explore on Friday.

For the return trip, you might try taking OR99 north out of Ashland to OR238 just west of Medford. You could then take OR238 west to Wilderville and join onto US199 for the trip out to the coast. US199 has some amazing gorge vistas and you'll get the chance to get up close and personal with some huge Redwoods. Just before the coast, take the cutoff north to Brookings rather than continuing south to Crescent City, CA.

Once you're in Brookings, it's just a matter of heading up along the coast on US101. Depending on your time and inclination, most coast towns,(Brookings, Coos Bay,Bandon) are worth a look. There is a restaurant called something like the "Crazy Norwegian" just north of Port Orford that serves excellent fish and chips.

OR38 at Reedsport will take you back east to I5 along the the Umpqua River, or you can continue north to Florence and take 126 across straight into Eugene.

Depending on your attachment to Ashland, you may want to consider spending your second night on the coast at maybe Brookings rather than staying 2 nights in Ashland.

Enjoy your tour.