If your outdoor activities get rained out, consider a visit to one of the area’s interesting and fun museums.

You can do everything from ringing the bells at the Oregon Coast Historical Railway in Coos Bay to  feeling tidepool critters in the big touch-tank at the Charleston Marine Life Center.

Located at 63466 Boat Basin Rd on the edge of the harbor in Charleston, the Marine Life Center (CMLC) is the University of Oregon’s satellite campus for marine biology. While the CMLC is a relatively new construction, many of the Oregon Institute of Marie Biology (OIMB) buildings are housed in distinctive faded-gray shingled buildings, some dating to the 1930s.

Also called the Charleston Aquarium, it’s an intriguing place for all ages, any time of the year. Aquaria in tanks to towers highlight different coastal habitats and animals—from octopuses to colorful sea slugs, with a mesmerizing variety of life in between. Underwater videos from Oregon’s marine reserves and from undersea vents reveal the hidden and remarkable diversity of life offshore.

As mentioned, you can reach into the touch tank and feel the grasp of an anemone’s tentacles. Take a look at killer whale and gray whale skeletons creatively displayed by hanging them from the ceiling!

Use microscopes to zoom into hidden details, and binoculars and spotting scopes to spy on seabirds. One of the buildings has roll-up steel doors that open above the sometimes-busy adjacent seafood-processing plant. Seals and sea lions swim around hoping for errant bits of food.

A favorite hands-on activity is a device that plays various species of whale songs. You try and mimic them into the machine that analyses your effort and displays how close you’ve come to the real thing. The CKLC is open Wednesdays through Saturdays 11am-5pm.

The Coos Art Museum is another rainy-day possibility, with an absorbing permanent collection as well as temporary juried and traveling artworks. There are frequent activities, including many aimed at youngsters. A current show is Mei-Ying’s breathtaking “Strength and Perseverance” work, with the exhibition concluding at 6 pm. on April 16, with the artist scheduled to appear for a talk.

The CAM has a new art education space, called CAM Studio, at 187 Central Ave, Coos Bay across from So It Goes coffee shop. Their latest activity is “Spring Break and Beyond,” open to all ages. For $5, participants receive a bag of supplies to make everything from board games to acrylic paintings. Next session is Friday, April 2, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

At the CAM on April 26 beginning at 1 p.m., Julia Christoferson will present a fused glass yard-art workshop, with participants creating whimsical embellishments to their outdoor spaces. Meantime, at the Coos History Museum in Coos Bay, Women’s History Month concludes this week with displays, artifacts and photos showcasing women’s’ achievements on the South Coast.  Often overshadowed but equally as resourceful as their male counterparts, women were pressed into service for sometimes-nontraditional roles. Sure, there were “lady” teaches and nurses, but there were also female taxi drivers, savvy businesswomen and influential female farm owners.

The South Coast’s isolation resulted in unexpected situations, according to CHM staffer Sire Pro, who noted the state’s first public health administration was in Coos Bay beginning in 1920. For many years there was only one nurse for the region to tend to the dangerous local trades of logging, sawmilling, commercial fishing, and shipbuilding, in addition to the needs of the county’s 92 schools.

Learn more at the Coos History Museum, 1210 N. Front St., Coos Bay, (541) 756-6230 Open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

The railroad museum mentioned at the start is open from 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. Wednesdays and Saturdays, with admission by donation. In addition to a display area and blacksmith demonstration area, there’s a museum and gift shop.

These are only a few rainy-day escapes on the South Coast. We’ll explore more in upcoming columns, because I don’t rainy season is over yet!

(Shopper columnist Tom Baake is author of local guidebooks.)

If you really want to get away from it all, head to the Taylor Dune trail in the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area (ODNRA) between Reedsport and Florence. In this vehicle-free section of the Dunes, you’re not likely to encounter any other visitors this time of year. That’s partly because the trail is adjacent to the closed-for-the-season USFS Carter Lake campground, and thus gets little use. In addition, the trail to the beach is deeply flooded in winter and spring, thus eliminating potential visits by anyone with a yen for a beachwalk.

I’ve always gotten the feeling that the Taylor Dune area used to be something pretty special, until it got so overgrown with European beachgrass and Scotch Broom. There is, however, one vast space still uninvaded, although you have to veer off the official trail to check it out. And it’s out in this pure-dune area that you’ll find real solitude – not even any other footprints.

If the whole area around Taylor Dune was like this once upon a time, no wonder it was set aside when the ODNRA was laid out in the 1970s. Seeing this remnant slice of open sand is well worth the visit. You can make part of the hike into a loop. The beach trail, however, is as noted deeply flooded this time of year, so come equipped for that or save a beach walk for another day and place. And just enjoy the pristine Dunes.

Getting There

From the intersection of US 101 and Highway 38 in Reedsport, go north on US 101 about 12.7 miles and turn left (W) at the sign for Carter Lake Campground and Taylor Dune trail. As mentioned, the campground is closed for the season but the area is open for day-use. A $5 day-use permit or annual pass is required.

From the day-use parking area, the trail goes north into a forest of tall timber and skirts the edge of pretty little Taylor Lake. There’s a wooden viewing platform at 0.12 mile, then the trail begins a gentle ascent through a forest of spruce, shorepine, fir and the occasional madrone. The understory is dense with huckleberry, salal and rhododendron, among other flora.

At 0.35 mile the trail splits, with the left path leading in a short distance to a picnic table and overlook. The main trail is to the right, with a short sidetrail to a viewpoint bench. The trail reaches open sand. Just past that is an unmarked trail to the south.

The main trail is marked with the blue-banded posts. It meanders west through beachgrassy hummocks and at 0.92 mile comes to a “T” intersection. A sign indicates the way ahead to Carter Lake Campground. To the right, although not signed, is the way to the beach – and the flooded zone.

From the “T” intersection, go on the trail to the south, skirting brushy dunes. At about 1.07 miles you can see dunes ahead to the south, and they’re fun to explore.

Meantime the main trail goes east, topping out at about 1.4 mile, then drops down to the (closed) campground and parking area where you started.

Here’s hoping you find time to visit some day and enjoy this little-visited corner of the splendid Oregon Dunes.

(Shopper columnist Tom Baake is author of local guidebooks.)

Tucked in here and there as if a reward for days of rain, flood tides and chill wind are interludes of bright sunshine and not so much as the proverbial wisp of wind. I enjoyed one of them in my kayak the other day, again marveling how little used are the waters of the upper Coos Estuary – except in fishing season, of course.

But that’s over, and the waterways, shorelines and little islands have reverted to a world of busy birds, noisy waterfowl and the occasional ambitious deer or raccoon.

At low tide the estuary is revealed to be relatively shallow in most places, and often seems to be equal parts soft, sticky mud and actual water. That water comes not just from the ocean and the sky, but also from 30 tributaries entering Coos Bay from its 605-mile drainage system, according to the Division of State Lands. It spreads nearly 20 square miles, much less than it once did, before extensive dredging, draining, diking and filling created townsites, farmlands and pastures. Dredge spoils were used to create islands, reducing the amount of the estuary’s surface water.

But before all the infilling, way back in Indian times, it must have seemed like a vast inland sea, especially when you sat in a canoe at water level. Even now, paddling around the Eastside area, you somehow feel smaller, and the Bay Area cities and McCullough Bridge look far away and toylike.

It’s hard to imagine. It was bigger?

Getting There

For an exploration of the upper bay, I put in at the unofficial boat ramp at the east end of Catching Slough Bridge past Coos Bay’s Eastside district. I consulted a tide book to confirm the tide would be coming in for another hour, so I dug in against its slight push.

Instantly and as usual, I was privy to sights not seen from roads and land, starting with close-up views of birds that seem quite unconcerned as I glided by. They craned their necks and seemed to pose, but didn’t bother to fly away.

Next came huge iron walls of a barge berthed at the Southern Oregon Marine shipyards, along with other equally-impressive projects.

Beyond that, picturesque old piers lay collapsed into the bay, and I passed the last bit of dry land. I circled Bull Island, then headed into the channels below the Millicoma Marsh Trail in Coos Bay’s Eastside district to do a bit of out and back exploring.

Higher-than normal tides had sent brackish water to pool up into the farthest reaches, while concomitant low tides exposed sticky mudflats strewn with waterlogged branches, stumps, even entire skeletonized trees entombed in the shoreline.

The tide had changed to an incoming by the time I got back to the main channel. A solitary cloud drifted in front of the sun. Time to go.

Again I dug in, but this time the tidal flow helped out, and I was back to my starting point in a matter of minutes. And left the tiny birdies to flit and tweet around their little world of islands and trees . . .

(Shopper columnist Tom Baake is co-author of “Oregon South Coast Canoe, Kayak and Stand-up Paddle Guide,” available at the Coos Bay Visitor Center.)

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The Boardwalks along the waterfronts in Coos Bay and North Bend offer some interesting sights and perspectives, not to mention being nice places to get a bit of fresh air and exercise. Adding to the scene is a new, ½-mile walkway outside the Coos History Museum and the recently-developed Coos Bay Village.

Let’s have a look, beginning at the Coos Bay Boardwalk, smack dab in the middle of the downtown district and offering views, benches, picnic tables, interpretive displays and informative signs, as well as a floating fish market and restaurant. Here too, protected by canopy shelters and glassed-in pavilions, are vintage tugboats on display.

Moored at the docks are a handful of commercial fishing boats, cabin cruisers and sailboats. It’s okay to walk around on the docks if you want a closer look. You might even strike up a conversation with a boat owner relaxing or doing minor maintenance.

Immediately south of the heavily-planked Boardwalk is a mile-long paved walking trail at the edge of the bay. You can watch wind and water conditions change, ranging from mirror-like calm to vast glittering sheets to little whitecaps.

Reaching the northern end of the Boardwalk, you can keep wandering north on Front Street on the sidewalk or cautiously on the street, and get a peek at everything from ocean-going tugboats to a modern fire boat to a multi-masted sailing ship under restoration. The Coos Bay Rail Line goes down the middle of the street, with regular service, mostly lumber. Also interesting to watch are arrivals or departures of ocean-going tugs and ships.

Improvements continue. A couple of vintage buildings have been restored, with more renovations planned, while new developments include an established area for food trucks. A few of the hopelessly dilapidated buildings were razed, in one case for more parking.

The new parking lot has built-in concrete planters and what could be described as a small presentation stage, perhaps handy during special activities

A few blocks farther north is the Coos History Museum, with new displays, the new walkway, and interpretive signs.

Next is the Coos Bay Village, already mostly occupied, with a few more to come. The walkway ends here.

A few miles north is North Bend. At the foot of California Street, the North Bend Boardwalk is a sturdy structure of concrete, steel and timber built in a style that pays homage to the Art Deco design of McCullough Bridge. It’s not nearly as long as Coos Bay’s, but provides a glimpse at a part of the waterfront that’s mostly occupied by industry and generally off-limits to the public.

For instance, you might spot the comings and goings of workers at an oyster farm out in the bay.

In the other direction, you might see the “industrial ballet” of loading a log ship, with bundles of logs craned up, around, over and into the ship with the deft assistance of skilled longshoreman.

And speaking of ballet, it’s always intriguing to see birds coping with the wind. How do they manage to fly against it?

On these and other things you may ponder if perhaps inspired by a walk along the colorful waterfronts of two towns.

(Shopper columnist Tom Baake is author of regional guidebooks).