Monthly Archives: July 2013

Watched The Shining on Friday night.  Movie still gives me the creeps, but cool to see the timberline lodge from mount hood and the opening scene drive which is road to the sun in Glacier Park.  Headed there in a couple weeks.  A downside to campgrounds.. waking up to diesel engines and yelling kids rather than birds and sounds of nature.

Departed the state park on Saturday around noon.  Found a highly recommended seafood market on yelp and was located just a few miles away in Astoria.  Seafood selection wasn’t great, but decided to try a couple of their clam chowders in bread bowls.   Very delicious!  Nice picnic table overlooking the marina, Columbia river and the 101 bridge.

River chopped up with some breezy conditions

Continued our drive after lunch following the 101 through various towns.  Downloaded some maps of Olympic forest and park the night prior, so picked out an area around Lake Quinalt to check for dispersed camping.  Drove the south shore road, but didn’t see much.  The forest service maps are produced differently here than other states, which makes it more difficult to find roads with camping possibilities.  Didn’t feel like paying $20 for a primitive site.  Walked up a gravel road near town, luckily found a possibility near a trailhead with no signs against camping or overnight parking.  Enjoyed a nice quiet evening after a bike ride to check out the quinalt lodge, lake and town cemetery.

Ladies time to drive

Beautiful lake, but closed to all fishing and boating except indian tribe members

Sunday morning started foggy then cleared off into another beautiful day.  Weather here so far has been completely opposite of what we expected.  Planned to drive along the beach then up to Hoh rain forest.  Scenery not as nice as Oregon.

Enjoyed a nice guided tour of the hall of mosses at Hoh.  While waiting for the tour to start, we had lunch in the trailer and a cat nap.  Enjoyed the conversation between a park ranger and guy who received a ticket for parking his SUV in an RV slot.  He took the opportunity to throw his wife under the bus while she wasn’t around, “ya, I was driving around a couple times looking for a spot, then my wife said just park in that open RV spot, it won’t be a problem since other cars are there too.  I thought it was a bad idea, but she said it would be OK.”

Kalaloch Beach

Cold Water!!

Big trees in Hoh rain forest

Cindy took over the ranger-guided tour duties

Anyone able to count the rings?

Quite mossy, over 140 inches of rain annually

Looked up a couple camping possibilities further north.  Stopped in Forks, WA for a few groceries.  Passed on the numerous Twilight tours and merchandise.  Continued up to Bear Creek state camping area.  Specified as free in our guidebook, but Washington implemented day/annual passes for their state-run recreation areas a couple years ago.  So ends up being $10 per day or $30 for annual pass.  Figure most states will change to this format in coming years with budget cuts.  Decided to pass on that option and check out a free spot near beaver lake.  Ended up being just a wayside road pull-off, but enough for a 1 night stopover.  Found it to be too close to the road for good sleep, as the semi trucks started cruising by around 4am!

Compiled all of our footage over the last 6 days travelling through Oregon.  Enjoy!

Enjoyed a nice sunset and some good sleep at the cape lookout state park.  Ranger recommended a nearby to the point of the cape.  It was a nice 5 mile hike with a great view of the coast.  Saw 2 dolphins, a sea lion and a whale!  Hopefully got some good footage on the gopro camera.

Packed up around 1pm and headed north on the 101.  Fueled up in tillamook, then stopped for laundry duty.  Ate a late lunch at the blue wave cafe.  A great halibut sandwich and razor clam entree for us.  Satiated, we drove further north to a town recommended to us, Cannon Beach.  A quaint surf town with some touristy shops.

Great to be walking barefoot in the sand again!  But the water is a frigid 61!

Lucked out again, showing up on a Friday night at a state park and a couple folks had cancelled.  So we grabbed a spot!  Plan on exploring the park, which has some lewis and clark historical sights.  Been listening to the audio book of their travelogue.  Quite an amazing journey they accomplished back in the early 1800s.

Cannon Beach

Unsure that VCRs are still a selling point for a hotel

Peter Iredale shipwreck on the beach at Fort Stevens State Park

About 9,000 miles later and we have made it to the coast!  Wasn’t in our original road trip plan, but a great milestone and glad we made the detour further west!  Spending the night at Cape Lookout state park, hopefully enjoying a Pacific sunset tonight.

Drove a loooong way to see the ocean

Headed southwest today from our campsite near the columbia river.  Stopping along the way to see some sights and enjoy the season’s bounty of agriculture.  Plan on spending the night closer to the coast.

Round of golf in the columbia river gorge

Picking blueberries in the williamette valley

Wine tasting at the original winery that started the oregon wine appelation

Packed up and headed further north towards the Columbia River.  Crossed over the river into Washington just before noon.  Stopped at a rest area along the river for lunch, before heading west along the river to find a campsite for the night.

Plan to head back into Oregon tomorrow.  Thinking about visiting some Willamette valley wineries and then the coast.

A couple days of some long drives, but well worth it to arrive at Mount Hood.  Quite amazed at the terrain of eastern and central oregon, almost like a desert you would see in arizona or utah.  Not what we expected to see..

Once we got closer to the cascades, then it started to look like the pictures of oregon.  Some great dispersed camping and tons of area to explore.  Trees are immensely larger here.

Sweet campsite near Barlow Creek

Someone left us firewood and a makeshift table

Pulled into the area on Friday afternoon.  All pay campsites were taken due to the holiday weekend, but we luckily found a nice dispersed site right near the entrance to redfish lake.

Decided on a late afternoon hike to see more of the lake and nearby mountains.  Caught a few dink trout up at bench lake before the mosquitoes got to be overwhelming. Enjoyed a great sunset hike and bike back home.

Idaho does a really nice job of providing free dump stations with potable water at most cities and forest service campgrounds.  So we took advantage with a couple long showers in the Rpod on Friday night.

View from Galena Pass onto the Sawtooth Mountains

Another beautiful day in the mountains

Pre-shower hairdo...13 months without a haircut...