Back to the mountains-a very special camping area

Friday/Saturday:
We've spent quite a bit of time on the coast so decided to head back into the Cascades. We drove the "old" McKenzie Highway (SR 242) which runs from the McKenzie Bridge area east to Sisters. There is a restriction of 35' total vehicle length to drive this road and it seems to be enforced and for good reason. I've driven a lot of narrow, twisty, turney roads over the years, but this just might take the prize. If your driving from the west entry, the McKenzie Bridge side, you're on the inside of the road. That way, if it get really tight, it's the other guy that falls off the cliff and not you.
 Mostly we drove it so we could return to one of our major camping discoveries of our 2008 trip.  It's a disbursed site right on  beautiful, spring fed, Craig Lake. The last time it was just the three of us. This time we shared the spot with a couple tent camping. (44.24950  -121.83721)

The lake from our campsite

Right across the street is this meadow and then miles of lava field.

This goes down as one of our all time favorites.

Florence, Reedsport & Winchester Bay

Sunday;
We headed south about 9:30. Spent some time around the beautiful Cape Perpetua area then continued to Florence. Drove through the USFS Baker Beach Recreation Area. (44.08746 -124.11787)  It was nice but nothing special enough to make us want to stay the night.  There is a very nice State day-use park called North Jetty. We spent most of the day there, then went grocery shopping then to the Three Rivers Casino parking lot for the night. It's us and perhaps thirty more RV's.  This is an upscale parking lot. Two almost new Foretravels pulled in. There is well over a million dollars there.  Years ago on I-95 near Miami, I saw a Prevost towing a Class C motorhome with the same paint scheme. If we win the Lotto, a 24' Lazy Daze would make a very nice towed vehicle.

Monday and Tuesday
Continued south through the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area (ODNRA) driving through some of the USFS campgrounds just to take a look. Most of the campgrounds appeal to the ORV crowd because of the access to the dune riding areas. We wound up at the USFS Carter Lake campground (43.85716  -124.14590). It's Monday morning so we had a choice of any site. There are a few sites directly on the lake but they are strictly for tents. We have a site, #6,  next to the boat ramp that affords us a very nice, but limited, view of the water. Like most FS campgrounds, 80% of the sites are reservable. The best of the reservable sites are 6 and 7.

Carter Lake

 
  Gopher finally got rinse off the salt by swimming  in some fresh water.

 Of course, is you roll in the dirt while wet, the swim doesn't accomplish a whole lot.

The sites, and interior roads, are paved so Carol has been getting more exercise by walking around. She's determined to lose that five pounds.

Carter Lake formed in what's called the Deflation Plain of the dune system. The Foredune is a low hill parallel to the ocean. It exists because the European beachgrass slows the wind, causing sand to drop and pile up. Behind the foredune, the wind scours out the deflation plain all the way down to the water table and provides a place for plants to thrive and for lakes to form.

I climbed to the top of a dune that's just west of the campground to take this picture. The ocean is perhaps two miles to the west.

Wednesday:

We drove to the Reedsport and Winchester Area. There are several camping choices in the Winchester Bay area ranging from resorts to the pier at the Salmon River Marina. That's where we are. It's similar to the setup at the Newport Marina. $11/night for a patch of asphalt overlooking the marina.  Nothing special but a decent place for a night. We prefer that to $45/night overlooking your neighbor. We spent the day driving around exploring this and that and treated ourselves to lunch.

The view

The "campground"

Thursday:
We visited the Dean Creek Elk Viewing Area. It's home to a large herd of Roosevelt Elk. They were cooperating this morning and roamed around close to the parking area so Carol got a good look.

We continued on looking at the FS campgrounds south of Winchester Bay.  The next two days we're staying at the USFS Horsfall Beach  campground which is just north of North Bend. (43.45395  -124.27624)  This is one of the many campgrounds that are a part of the Oregon Dunes NRA. With one exception, we're surrounded by ORV campers. We have a nice site right next to the dune and the ORV dune access road. There is an accessible walkway to a very nice beach overlook that is adjacent to our site. Very nice for Carol. On the other hand, if you're looking for peace and quiet, don't stay here. :-)  The ORV's get fired up right after sunrise. The Bluebill campground, which is nearby, is a better choice for quiet. We're enjoying all the activity and beach overlook. The ATV riders range in age from about six years old to well over 70.

The eternally happy camper

Our view

Tillicum Beach, Waldport

Sunday:
We headed out early with a stop at Fred Myers, then south to the USFS Tillicum Beach campground just south of Waldport.  We've stayed here before; it's one of our favorites. Talk about lucky. We pulled in just as site 31, which is probably the best site in the campground ,became available. (44.36522 -124.09264) We have a huge grassed area with an unobstructed view of the ocean. The sites and interior streets are paved so it works well with Carols scooter. It's so  nice, we decided to stay for the week. There is a very nice Green Market in Waldport on Wednesday plus a church with an 8am mass. The church we went to in Newport had a noontime mass; much better then 8am.
To the north of the  campground perhaps a 1/2 mile or so, is a small fresh water creek that dumps into the ocean. Each day, Gopher and I make that walk a couple of times.

Our view

The wind off the ocean never stops (Sitka Spruce)

The creek that flows into the ocean and one wet dog.

Monday-Saturday

Wednesday:
Went to church in the morning then to the Farmers Market. Carol remembered the almond cookies from the last time so we stocked up.


Identified a bird today. The White-crowned Sparrow.  Per iBird "The White-crowned sparrow is one of the best-studied songbirds in North America. Much of our knowledge of bird song and development is based on studies of this species"
If you saw a bunch of sparrows you would call them a "crew", "flutter", "quarrel", or perhaps a "ubiquity" of sparrows.

Friday/Saturday:
The campground if full, as expected, and mostly with families. The usual mix of two or three kids and a dog, or so, per campsite.  It's worth your life walking on the streets between the bikes, skateboards, scooters and such.  We enjoy it. Looking at license plates, this campground is popular with folks from Oregon, of course, but also Washington, Idaho,California, Alberta and B.C. Canada. We're here from Florida, there is a car from Illinois and another from Michigan.

It was a very enjoyable week.  Tomorrow we continue our trek south. No particular destination in mind; we'll just stop when we get there.



A 1/2 ounce per day adds up.

Over the last few months, we've both been gaining about a pound a month; a half ounce per day, more or less.  Now we both need to loose five pounds. One pound of body fat equals about 3,500 calories. If we want to lose a 1/2 ounce per day, we simply need to expend 120+- more calories then we consume on that day. Weight loss is no more complex then that. No "magic" diets required. Eat less and move more, that's all there is to it. At lunch time we frequently had some chips of some sort. 18 chips, 140 calories. One tablespoon of peanut butter, one of me weaknesses, about a hundred calories.  Back to our routine of having one cookie for desert but splitting it three ways. We started this morning on our very modest goal of losing a 1/2 ounce per day. By the time we get back home, we'll be where we want to be. Of course if it's bakery day......

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