Oregon and Northern California coasts
In the morning we moved from the RV side away from all of the Calss A's and 5'ers over to the regular camping side
where all good truck campers belong
The creek out back
Our campsite was also adjacent to the trailhead down to the south falls
This is the historic South Falls Lodge built back in the 30's by the Civilian Conservation Corps
First view of the South Falls. There's not a lot of water this time of year but it was still pretty spectacular
You need some people in the picture to get the perspective
The trail is about seven miles and there are ten waterfalls but you can do as we did and just see the biggest ones at
the north and south ends. Every fall you pass takes you deeper into the canyon of which you have to climb back out.
This is the lower south falls, just under a mile from the upper south falls back near the lodge
Another view of the upper south falls as we headed back to camp. We'll drive up to the north end and see two falls up there
This is the lower north falls from the road as we head up to the trailhead
There's a really deep cut behind the north falls where the trail goes
Lots of steps to get down there (and back up again)
The trail behind the falls, it's almost like being in a cave
Heading back up the trail past the parking lot for the upper north falls
The inspiration for spooky fairy tales?
If we had come a week or two later I think we would have seen some spectacular fall colors - they were just beginning to come out
Upper north falls
As I said, the river is pretty tame this time of year, late spring would probably be the best time to see the falls roaring
Back at camp after hiking about 5 miles total and climbing a few several hundred steps - a hearty BBQ'd chicken dinner
YUM!!
Who said that camping had to have anything to do with suffering
In the sky I can see the clouds thickening, tomorrow we head for home
Sure enough the rain starts about 4 am. I was smart enough to have everything packed and tied down before going to bed
so we had some toast and a cup of tea and headed off for the coast
We hit the coast at Lincoln City and headed south on 101
Sea air and seagulls
There are many bridges like this along the Oregon coast but each one has it's own individuality
Since we've been on this route before in beautiful sunshine it's not so bad to see it in a different light
besides that, all the bugs are getting washed off the front of the truck and camper!!
There are a lot of small towns to go through so one needs to be aware that this route takes much longer than say I-5
But, so long as you aren't in a hurry to get anywhere in particular...
We stopped at one of the many state parks and beaches along this route to have lunch with a view
Continuing on I kept wondering if we'd outrun the storm and break out into the clear but it didn't look like that was going to happen
Coming into North Bend and Coos Bay
Each one of these bridges seems to have something different about it
Snaking our way through Coos Bay past what has to be the biggest pile of sawdust in the world
(not in this picture)
Another park, another stop for a stretch.
Despite the weather and being mid-week all of the state park campgrounds we passed were full of campers
Continuing southbound
Getting close to California now
We make it across the border and find a spot at Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park on Hwy 199 just east of Crescent City
This is a real nice park on the Smith River and we seem to have outrun the storm because it's not raining
at least not yet but it's on it's way so I fire up the BBQ as soon as we set up camp
There are some nice sites along the river - great mid-summer camping here
Appetizers, we're gonna live it up on our last night out despite the threatening weather
Last campfire - it's been a great week and a great trip that we will remember for a long time to come
The rain caught up to us while we slept but again, we were ready to just pull out in the morning and head for home
You see a lot of RV's and campers along the coast route
And there's always plenty of road work being done
I took a bunch of pictures along the coast but somehow the autofocus setting on my camera had gotten changed
so with the heavy rain I ended up with a lot of very clear pictures of raindrops on the windows
The rains hit us hard this day and really slowed progress down. The GPS said we would be home at 2:30 when we left the campground
but in actuality we didn't get home until about 6:30
You can definitely tell we are in Humbolt county by the corner Hemp stores
South of Ukiah the rains stopped and we had clear dry pavement
But soon reality was about to hit us in the face as we approached Santa Rosa and hit the peak of the Friday evening rush hour
Vacation was definitely over
But hey - there WILL be a next time
HAPPY CAMPING EVERYONE