Lincoln City to Newport

Tuesday:
We drove by the Woods County Campground which is located on the south side of Pacific City. It's  not much so we continued on. We did come across one nice overnight site for future use, but it was too early in the day to stop.
 We wound up at this Ocean Shore State Recreation Area  just north of Lincoln City.

 Gopher was in charge of feeling the ground shake. :-) Plus there is a Tsunami warning siren about 20' away. Even without my hearing aides I'm sure I'd hear the siren.


 We were there early enough so we got a nice parking spot on the ocean. (45.00884 -124.00818) Carol has a great view. Gopher and I enjoyed several nice walks on the beach. This is a very popular kiteboarding site. At one time there were at least a dozen zipping through the waves.  It's so nice, we decided to stay the night.

Our campsite

Our view

The beach along here is beautiful, squeaky white sand like we have in the Florida Panhandle area.

This is a very popular spot. All day long, and well into the evening, people stopped by to swim, look for stuff among the rocks, go kiteboarding, or to simply walk the beach.

Wednesday:
I was up about 6am, looked out the window to see a deer munching on the grass right next to us.

   We went exploring some of the other nearby beach access areas but none were nearly this nice so we're back for another day.

Our early morning walk

The beer drinking, cigarette smoking crowd had a beach party last night. Suppose they are waiting on their Mom to clean up their mess?


The wind is just incessant. Per the weather station, a steady 20mph with gusts in excess of 30. It's not much fun walking the beach with the stinging sands so late in the afternoon, we went to the Chinook Winds Casino RV parking area. There must be 30 RV's here. From the looks of it, a few are here for the season.
We ate a late lunch/early dinner at the casino. It was OK but we wouldn't go back.

Tonights campsite. We even have an ocean view!!

Thursday:

We drove to the D River State Recreation Area. It's right where the D River dumps into the ocean. Gopher and I waded all the way across the river.  Then we went to noon time mass at St. Augustine Church, then got caught up on the laundry. Tonight we're back at the casino. In the morning we continue our trek south along the coast.

Friday:
We drove to Newport stopping at most of the scenic areas. After grocery shopping, we went to the South Beach Fish Market. Carol just had to have another bowl of the worlds best clam chowder. I had a wonderful dungeness crab burger. We had thought about going back to the South Beach State Park campground but on a weekend that place is a madhouse. Instead we went to the Port of Newport RV Park. There are four camping choices. Deluxe at $43.49/night. One notch down at $41.28.  The Annex at $32.44 and dry camping at $17.68.
Deluxe, one-notch-down and Annex gets you electricity (we have electricity), water (we have water) ans a sewer connection (we have empty tanks and access to the free dump station). It also gets you a real close view of your neighbors RV.

Deluxe

The Annex

The cheap seats

For the next two days we have an unobstructed view of the marina and bridge.
Turns out this is a good location for Carol. There is a fairly new paved walking path that winds throughout the port property and under the bridge. Tomorrow when it's warmer, we'll go walking.

Saturday:
We started the day at the Farmers Market. We were well stocked with fruit and veggies so mostly we just poked around. Then we went to the South Jetty then back to the Marina. Took a nice walk around the Marina area. There is a long pier that is used for some fishing, but mostly for crabbing.
Tomorrow we continued south. I checked the weather for the mountains in Idaho and Montana but it's still in the 90's. We like the coast, but like the mountains more but we don't care to deal with the hot weather.

Tillamook and Pacific City

Thursday:
On our way to Tillamook, we drove the scenic part of "old" Hwy 30 that goes by Multnomah Falls, Bridal Veil Falls, etc. The road is *very* narrow in places and the parking areas are best for cars, not RV's.  We stopped when we could, but not as often as we would have liked.  Once we got through the madhouse in Portland, the drive to the coast on SR 6 was very nice.
Not having any specific plans in mind for today, we went to the Tillamook Cheese Factory and Overpriced Tourist Trap. It was about 3:00 and the place was a zoo. Carol wanted an ice cream cone.  I walked in, saw the ice cream cone line, turned around and left.  They have good ice cream, but not *that* good.
We're really hoping the mobs are because of the 4th, and not typical of all of July. Time will tell. 
The Chamber of Commerce is nearby and they had a wealth of good information.

We were looking for a place to have dinner. I have the Yelp* app. on my iPhone. According to Yelp*, La Providensia Taqueria is a 4.5 star restaurant. The only other 4.5 star restaurant in Tillamook was the Fat Dog Pizza Joint.  We didn't feel like a pizza so off we went looking forward to some great Mexican food.
Our dinners, $17 for both of us, were as good as any Mexican food we've had anywhere. A very good choice.

 This is no ordinary dive. They have a formal dining area!!

After dinner we went in search of a place to camp for the night. The Tillamook Airport has an RV park of sorts.  (45.41830  -123.81963) For $10/night, you get a  nice patch of grass, a fire ring, a bathroom and trash cans.  It's us and eight other RV's. We have an unobstructed view of the runway. So far, I watched a helicopter land and a seaplane take off.

 The airport campground

Our view

The Air Museum building was built during WW-II to house blimps that were used to search for submarines.  The building is one of the largest wooden structures in the world.

Identified a Sitka Spruce today.

A wonderfully, warm, sunny day.

Friday:
Today went driving along parts of the Three Capes Scenic Way. We explored the same area in 2008.  Stopped at the Cape Meares Lighthouse and the Whiskey Creek Fish Hatchery then headed back to Tillamook.

Saturday:
Tillamook has a very nice Green Market on Saturday morning. We bought raspberries, blueberries, two types of cherries and some really fresh green beans.  Of course there is always a bakery. This was a first for us. We bought two oblong shaped donuts with chocolate icing in top. On top of the icing, was a piece of very crispy bacon. Wow, was that ever tasty. We tried to remember the last time we have eaten bacon but it's been so many years, we couldn't.

Tillamook Green Market

After the Green Market, we decided to continue south along the coast. We figured our chance of finding a decent campsite on Saturday afternoon, of the 4th of July week, was close to zero.  There are three county owned campgrounds between Tillamook and Pacific City so the plan was to stop at them in order.

Our first stop was the Whalen Island Tillamook County Campground. The "campground full" sign was up but I asked anyway. Turns out someone had reserved a site for two days but left a day early. We got a nice level grassy site with a little view of the water. (45.272960  -123.948846). $20/night.
The campground is on a peninsula that is surrounded by Sand Lake. At low tide there is an expanse of sand that is probably  a mile across. On the other side of Sand Lake are three USFS campgrounds designed  for the the ORV crowd.  Gopher and I took some nice walks. The campground is very popular with families. It's always fun just watching the children have a great time camping with their parents and grandparents.
Identified a new tree today: Port-Orford-cedar.

Our campsite

Sand Lake. At low tide you can walk to the tall dune on the far side.

Sand Lake

Sand Lake. The tides coming in.

Sunday.

About noon time we drove to the  Webb County Campground in Pacific City, all of a ten minute drive from where we were. As expected, the weekend and 4th of July campers were packing up to leave so we had our choice of spots. This campground isn't much. Basically a patch of dirt. We chose it because there are paved paths that lead down to the ocean and to some restaurants, and such, so Carol can go walking around.  (45.21737  -123.96831) $20/night.  There are some RV sites with water/electric hookups for $25/night if a person needed such things.

Webb County Campground.

First time I've seen one of these. Every camping rig has some sort of advantage over others but this one escapes me. It seems all the jeep does is provide a raised platform for a tent. Before he can go anywhere, it's necessary to disassemble the entire thing.  I looked on line out of curiosity, and something like this can run close to $2,000. Why not just spend $200 on a decent tent, then leave it pitched as you go jeeping?

 And then I saw this rig parked in the beach parking lot.  Hand built by a real craftsman.

Pacific City

 Pacific City, or PC as locally known, is the only place in OR where fisherman launch their Dory boats from the beach into the surf. I watched them retrieve a boat from the surf and load it onto the trailer. You are allowed to drive on the beach in PC. I've done that with the camper both in Texas and Florida so I took a look but just didn't like what I saw. The beach was too soft and not wide enough to make an easy turnaround.

The sun came out about 2pm so the three of us went walking.  The Pelican Pub is a locally famous microbrewery and restaurant. We found a nice spot on the patio where Carol could see the ocean, dunes and Haystack Rock.  As expected, the beach area is packed today. It reminds us of hundreds of other summer resort towns in Cape Cod, Maine, California, etc.  Jammed on the weekend.  

Sunday on the beach

The kids were climbing up the very tall sand dune in the background, then coming down on their sand boards.

Monday:

Gopher and I took our early morning walk to the beach. I saw the perfect parking spot so went back and got Carol conscious. By 8am, we were parked in the beach parking lot. Carol has an unobstructed view of the ocean, Haystack Rock, Cape Kiwanda, and the beach where the dory boats launch. A perfect place to spend the day. By noon time, the sun came out for a couple of hours.

 Monday on the beach.

Gopher and I climbed to the top of the sand dune.  The trucks on the beach are for the dory's. We're parked right on the edge of the beach.

A very old tow truck, driven by an even older guy, pulled onto the beach today. He was waiting for business. In the space of about 30 minutes,  he had three tows. One was the same car twice (The VW Jetta in the picture). The poor guy got stuck driving onto the beach and again driving off. I don't know what the guy gets for pulling someone out of the sand, but a $100 wouldn't surprise me.

I just read the blog of Ann and Jerry Marcus; the two of the most adventuresome Lazy Daze travelers we know. It's fascinating. Tessa Hill is another one. We met Tessa at the BF in 2008 just as she and her three children were getting ready for their amazing RV trips through Europe, Central America and the Canadian Maritime Provinces.

 Ann and Jerry


In the morning we continue the trek south. No particular destination in mind, but not further south then the Chinook Winds Casino parking lot north of Lincoln City.

The Fruit Loop

Sunday:
We headed out towards the Hood River area about 9am. Everyone else in the campground was getting packed up to leave. Based on this experience, the 4th of July week had no impact on the level of campground use.  There was lots of traffic from people heading home from the mountains.
Our route took us through Sandy. We, and thousands of others, can't pass through Sandy without stopping at Joe's Donut Shop for, perhaps, the worlds best donuts. Two apple fritters, two blueberry and two of the fluffiest cake donuts ever.  When you go to Joe's on the weekend, you do need to bring your patience; there is always a line.

 After pulling into a closed weigh station to eat some super fresh donuts, we continued the Toll Gate Hood County Campground. It's conveniently located on US 35 about ten miles south of Hood River. We've been to the day use part of the park before but this is our first stay in the campground. It's very nice. There are tent/dry camping sites for $15, water/electric for $20 and full-hookup for $22 and a handful of river front water/electric sites for $25.  We sprang for the $22 rate for two nights while we go explore our camping options. The 4th of July holiday is a non-event here as well. A walk around the campground showed there were perhaps 20 campers out of 80+ sites.

 

If Gopher came back as a cat, heaven forbid, she would look just like this. The white collar, chest and two white paws. An uncanny resemblance.

As I type this, the cat is sitting on top of the picnic table about 20' away and Gopher is sitting on the passenger seat growling and whining. She wants out. Not guna happen, Gopher. Like a lot of places we've camped, there's a good supply of feral cats.

Monday, Tuesday,Wednesday:

We drove all around the Fruit Loop stopping here and there. Cherries and berries are the only  fruits available. It will be a few more weeks before the pears are ready. We bought some excellent local cherries.

:

 Cherry trees with Mount Hood  in the background

Hood River has a very nice waterfront area that's popular for windsurfing, kite boarding, kayaking, etc. We found a nice parking spot each day and enjoyed watching the activities. Seems people come to Hood River from most of the Western states and Canada for the great windsurfing.

Along the waterfront. Hood River.

 We came across an area of unofficially free camping right near the downtown riverfront area. It was mostly the people who were here for the wind surfing activities. That's not us so we decided to just stay put through the 4th.

The 4th of July was spent catching up on maintenance, cleaning the camper, and staying off the roads which we'll leave to the drunks today.


Change of plans:
Initially, the plan was to head east from here, through the Wallowa-Whitman NF, Hells Canyon National Recreation Area then into Idaho and Montana.  Looking ahead to the weather forecast for those areas show mid to upper 80's to close to a 100* depending on where you are. Since we don't like hot weather, if we did we would be home, and almost never stay in campgrounds with electrical hookups, we decided to head to the coast instead.  We'll take cloudy, overcast, but cool, to a clear sky, blazing hot day. So, in the morning, we head to Tillamook then south from there.

Estacada Area

Wednesday

The plan was to stay in this campground longer, but an unanticipated need for some dental work for me took us toward Salem on this beautiful, sunny day. We were finished, and on our way, by noon time. After some Chinese takeout from Safeway, we headed for the BLM administered Molalla River Recreation Corridor near Molalla. There is a county park near Molalla, where for $5 I dumped the tanks and filled up with water.

We're in the heart of the Willamette Valley. This was the destination of the pioneers traveling the Oregon Trail. There are farms everywhere. A lot of them, I suspect, are still in the original pioneers family. We stopped at a roadside stand and bought some wonderful raspberries and blackberries. There are cherry trees, Christmas tree farms, berry fields, vineyards, fruit trees, on and on.

 Raspberries

 Later in the trip we're going back to the Hood River Valley that we enjoyed so much on previous trips. There is a network of roads around Hood River that is called the Fruit Loop. We'll drive the Fruit Loop. :-)

The Molalla River Rec. Corridor is something a little different. There are named “campgrounds” but the campground is simply a wide spot in the road with a metal fire ring. The only way you really know you've arrived at a campground is by spotting the fire ring. Then you see, nailed to a tree, the name of the campground. The campgrounds are all free. We drove the paved road following the Molalla River for perhaps ten miles just looking around. We came across a very nice “campground” called Mama Bear. (44.99580 -122.48907) It consisted of one fire ring. The river was very accessible from this site and Gopher and I took a little walk along the riverbank. Our site was surrounded by trees and lots of wildflowers.

 Wild blackberries. Will be ripe in a few more days.

 There must be a lot of logging going on in the area because logging trucks, really loud ones, came by perhaps every thirty minutes.

Molalla River Rec. Corridor 

 Our campsite

 The river next to us

 A pretty stream

Identified two new trees today. The Vine Maple and the Rocky Mountain Maple.

Thursday, Friday, Saturday

Loggers go to work real early. The loaded trucks started racing by at about 5am. The three of us were up, dressed, fed, and on the way by 6am. One night at Mama Bear was enough.

Our very early start got us to Estacada by 7:30. The plan was to stay at one of the USFS campgrounds along OR 224 which follows the Clackamas River. We started in Estacada and drove through every campground we came across, looking for the perfect site. Every campground we tried, except for Carter Bridge, has lots of reservable sites. Every one was reserved for the weekend. The sites that were not reserved were either taken or tent sites or just not very nice. After touring campground #4, we came across the Sunstrip campground. (45.15081 -122.10633) It's a very small campground, having only nine sites but the site usually taken by the campground host was available. We have a very large, level, pull-through site right on the bank of the river.

The campground host stopped by to collect the camping fee of $10/night. That's expensive compared to the FS campgrounds we stayed in around the Cascade Lakes area. This campground has a pit toilet, a hand pump for water and trash collection. We had been paying $7/night for sites like this.

After admiring the Lazy Daze, the host commented on our great site. He manages three other campgrounds and said we have one of the best sites of all “his” campgrounds. All the good sites are already take. Good thing we got such an early start.

The sun shined on Thursday until almost noon time. We'll take it.

The river is popular with rafters and kayakers; on Saturday in particular.  No more sunshine for the weekend. We decided to go to the Hood River area on Sunday to explore the Fruit Loop.
 

 Our campsite

 Our view of the river

Quartzville Recreation Corridor & Back Country Byway

Monday and Tuesday
We left our nice boondocking spot west of Sisters about 9am heading towards the Quartzville Recreation Corridor and Back Country Byway. The east entry point is at the intersection of OR 22 and Straight Creek Road (FS 11).

Quartzville Rec. Corridor

The road, which is all paved, and well maintained, starts out as a narrow two lane road for a few miles, then changes to one lane with frequent turnouts for the majority of the drive, then changes back to two lanes past the Rocky Top Bridge.  There are no guardrails but if you're starting at this end, you're on the inside and not the cliff-side. It's a long way down from the road to the bottom.
There are a lot of rocky slopes along the road and, in places, the road is narrowed to one lane by small rock slides.  Some of the rocks which had tumbled across the road, but not over the cliff, were big enough that you sure wouldn't want to get hit by one.

A small rock slide over the road

 There were beautiful trees.

 And lots of wildflowers

 And waterfalls

Little waterfalls were everywhere

Disbursed camping rules vary a little depending whether your in the Willamette Forest on in the BLM administered portion of the Corridor. We found this great boondocking spot just across the "new" bridge from the Bridge #6 area. We're right on Quartzville Creek which is a National Wild and Scenic River.   44.57629  -122.30109

 Our campsite

 "old" Bridge #6

In 1969 there was a great flood in this area. "To observe the power of this flood, stop at Bridge #6 where you can still see the remains of the original concrete bridge. Imagine the water level and force needed to toss the old bridge aside."

 Quartzville Creek behind our campsite. The water is crystal clear. And colder then a well diggers arse, as they say.

 The "old" Bridge #6 in the background.

Recreational gold mining is a major attraction in this area. But not here!! Do you suppose they still shoot claim jumpers?

I Identified one more tree today, and learned more about another. The new one is the Red Alder. Learned something new.   The Western Redcedar isn't a true cedar, rather it's a false cedar. The word Redcedar is not separated into two words in order to let readers know this fact. If a Redcedar was a real cedar, it would be spelled Red Cedar.

Some Northwest Indians called the Redcedar "shabalup" meaning "dry underneath". The dense, frondlike branches shed rain much like an umbrella. This morning, when I let Gopher out first thing, it was raining. Again. Once more.  I stood under a nearby Redcedar and was perfectly dry. In fact, about two feet out from the trunk it was very dry, in spite of the all night heavy rain. The Indians were right.

The weather for most of Monday day wasn't too bad. Overcast but no measurable rain. The serious rain started in the evening and continued well into today. The last time we've seen sunshine was last Thursday, the 21st. The solar panels and batteries are really struggling to keep up. So far, I haven't had to use the generator, but nor have the batteries been able to fully charge.

 Free firewood. As long as you have a really big axe.

There is one "regular" campground in the area, administered by the BLM, called Yellowbottom. We took a look and can't imagine why anyone would actually want to pay money to stay there.  All along the road there are a limitless number of great boondocking spots right along the creek. If you were driving a 4WD vehicle, like the Siberian Tiger for instance, there are dozens of dirt FS roads to explore.  West of about the Rocky Top Bridge, where the creek ends and the Green Peter Reservoir starts, are lots of spots for the fisherman and boaters. Some people were camped on the shore with their boat parked right next to their campsite.

As an aside, there is no cell phone service in this area.

Some people camp in tents. This guy keeps his RV in a tent. At least most of it.

 

The weather was really gloomy this morning, Tuesday, so we decided to continue on in search of the sun. The rain forests are nice, in their own special way, but they are so dark, damp and gloomy. A few days is about enough for us.

Came across this piece of OR history on US 20.

This afternoon we are in the Santium Flat USFS campground on the Detroit Lake.  $7 for old folks. We were here during our '08 trip and remembered it for it's nice, opened sites right where the Santium River ends and the Detroit Lake begins. There is no privacy between sites, and there is some road noise during the day, but we need some sun.  Not today but hopefully tomorrow.