Our last stop in Oregon before hitting California was Harris Beach State Park.  I’ve said it so many times as we’ve travelled across Oregon that this state has the best state parks and Harris Beach is just another example.  The park sits atop the bluffs overlooking a spectacular view of rock formations on the beach and in the ocean.  Two relatively easy trails took us to the beach where at low tide we found the wonders of the tidepools.  One day while exploring the tidepools we saw well over 100 starfish along with many other tiny sea creatures.  We were also lucky enough to enjoy three nights of magnificent sunsets over the Pacific. As we have walked the beaches along the coast we have been collecting small rocks.  Different are…

Our next stop going south on the coast was Cape Blanco State Park.   This again was a beautiful state park with all the sites very private and we had a wonderful site sitting on the bluff overlooking the ocean.  The only bad thing about the park was that it did sit about 250 feet above the ocean so to go to the beach you had a very steep climb down and then back up.  On one end of the park was a single lane road that went to the beach but even that was a difficult climb going back to the park. Cape Blanco Lighthouse sat on the far end of the park overlooking the sea on one side and a bay on the other.  Because of the time of…

On our way to our next site we stopped at Heceta Head Lighthouse and had a nice tour. This lighthouse is going to be closed for two years to be renovated.We visited this lighthouse’s twin two days later about 40 miles farther south on the coast.The second lighthouse, Umpqua Lighthouse, was run by the Coast Guard at one time and was in much better condition than its twin.We also toured this lighthouse, 52 steps to the top, and were able to go into the lens as it was rotating. [gallery link="file" columns="2"] This was an absolutely beautiful lens that was installed in the lighthouse in 1897.We were in awe of the craftsmanship and engineering that went into making this 2 ton lens which came from France. Again our drive along…

[gallery columns="2"] Driving south on the coast from Nehalem to Newport we saw again more beautiful coast. We didn’t do a lot of stopping just because it is hard to pull over with the 5th wheel.Our next stop was South Beach State Park in Newport.Newport is a larger seaside community.When you drive into a town and the first thing you see is a Wal-Mart you know it is a larger community.Newport has two lighthouses, one when you enter the town and one when you leave the town.Yaquina Head Lighthouse sits on a cliff as you enter town.We spent an entire afternoon at this lighthouse. After climbing 105 steps to the top of the lighthouse we went down another 70 steps to the rocky beach shore to see the tidepools.I was…

 Our first stop on the Pacific Coast was Fort Stevens State Park, another one of Oregon’s beautiful state parks. This park is Oregon’s largest state park with almost 500 sites.We were so excited about getting a nice shaded site not thinking that we weren’t in Minnesota in the middle of summer.Our site was very nice but very dark and very, very damp because it was so shaded.We felt we were in the middle of a rain forest.Of course, it didn’t help that it rained a little every day of the four days we were there.Even with the on and off rain we got in many walks on the beach,biking on the wonderful bike trails this park had, toured the very interesting Fort Stevens and went to the farmers market in…