Scenic Drive up rogue river

The Rouge River is widely known in the US for some reason not entirely understood by yours truely, but it is nonetheless. It's a wild river in southwestern Oregon that empties into the Pacific Ocean near Gold Beach, Oregon.

To drive up the Rogue river, coming from Highway 101, just at the south end of the bridge over this river on highway 101, there is an intersection with state highway 595. State highway 595 is a pretty good road, surfaced in asphalt, and fairly well maintained, at least as far as a small town named Agness, Oregon, and not much of a town at that.

We were surprised how few views there are of the river from the Agness Road, which at some point morphs from Oregon route 595 into NF-33. Seems like most of the road is surrounded by forest.

While driving up this road, we noticed at one point the mail delivery jet boat running down the river just north of Agness.

We drove up to Illahe, and turned around at that point.

The drive took close to 2 hours round trip from Illahe and back to Gold Beach, and it's a fairly pretty drive with some views of the river from time to time.

There were some campgrounds along the road from time to time, but i was surprised that there weren't more hiking trailheads along Oregon Route 595.

I think to really enjoy the river, it's necessary to get out of your car and get on one of those boats and take a tour up the river on one of the jet boats. The view from the river is much better than from the road.

You can get a tour on one of those boats for less than $100 from the tour guide in Gold beach near the mouth of the river south of the bridge. I recommend it if you want to see the Rogue river valley in all it's majesty.