Harris Beach State Park, Brookings, OR

State Parks
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…
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Cape Blanco State Park, Port Orford, OR

State Parks
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…
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Jessie M. Honeyman Memorial State Park, Florence Oregon

State Parks
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…
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South Beach State Park,Newport, Oregon

State Parks
[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…
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Fort Stevens and Nehalem Bay State Parks, Oregon

State Parks
 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…
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The Gorge in Oregon

Traveling
The Gorge loop is a drive that you can take on both the Oregon and Washington side of the Columbia River with more than 150 points of interest. We stayed on the Oregon side mostly because we again picked a rainy, foggy day and we just ran out of time during the day.We had again been advised to park our 5th wheel and take just our truck through the Gorge which was very good advice.The road was nicely paved but very narrow and of course in was in the foothills of the mountains so we had a lot of climbing.The road took us through the rain forests of Oregon and we saw spectacular waterfalls.Multnomah Falls is the most spectacular with a 620-foot drop, the second highest year-round waterfall in the…
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Wallowa-Whitman National Forest, Oregon

On Our Minds
 We didn’t have to drive very far into Northeastern Oregon to start to see the beauty of the state. We had been told by so many fellow RVers that we were going to love Oregon. We could already see what they meant. It was beautiful. We still saw the farm land that we saw in Idaho but we also saw mountains and valleys.  We decided to go into the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest for our first few nights of camping in Oregon. We found this spectacular campground in the National Forest about 20 miles from Baker City called Union Creek. They were in the process of closing it for the winter so we were only able to stay for three nights. It was beautiful! All sites were surrounded by huge red…
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Idaho

On Our Minds
 We spent eight days in Idaho. The country we drove through was almost all farm land so we saw a lot of cows and fields; potato, grain, corn, and sugar beet fields. Sometimes you can say that farm fields are a beautiful site especially in the fall but field after field got to be just a little tiresome.  We did visit a very nice park in the center of the city of Idaho Falls which was our first stop. We didn’t find the park until the day we were going to leave which was too bad. It had a very beautiful waterfalls and a walking/ bike path that ran along the Snake River which ran through the town.  Our next stop was at Twin Falls, Idaho. Here we stayed at…
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Thoughts

On Our Minds
 Joe and I have been on the road now for about 6 weeks. A few things I know for sure –  We have seen some amazing, beautiful country and we’ve only been in three states.  We miss the kids and grandbaby a lot and at times it really hurts.  Travelling with two 14 year old dogs is like travelling with 2 two year olds (except you can’t leave the 2 year olds in an RV by themselves for a few hours).  And most of all I know that we are truly blessed in so many ways.
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Yellowstone – Grand Teton National Parks

Yellowstone – Grand Teton National Parks

Campgrounds
 We spent four days in Yellowstone and three days in the Grand Teton. We wish we would have spent more time in Yellowstone and less time in the Tetons.We were told that we picked such a good time of the year to visit these two parks because supposedly after Labor Day it was less busy.Boy was that wrong!Both parks were very busy.We stayed in Fishing Bridge RV Park in Yellowstone at the east entrance and it was full every night.There were several campgrounds that were already closed for the season.The roadways were also very busy.   The last time we were in Yellowstone was about 38 years ago. We didn’t remember a lot except of course for Old Faithful which hadn’t changed.Maybe age makes you appreciate the beauty of the park…
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