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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Devils Tower and Keystone State Park

State Parks
Devils Tower and Keystone State Park We decided to stay a few days at Devils Tower, WY at a KOA with Devils Tower as a backdrop.I do not like KOAs.Too expensive for what it is but it was close to where we wanted to be.We went into Devils Tower National Monument Park and found out we could have camped there.Missed a great opportunity.We hiked the perimeter of the Tower which was 1.3 miles but took us over an hour.The Tower is so beautiful and as you go around it the face changes.It was very crowded with a lot of tourists.Again it was a very hot day and we were very glad we had taken the hike in the morning. Tragedy had hit the KOA owners the week before we came.The…
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Sakatah Lake State Park

Sakatah Lake State Park

State Parks
Weekend in the woods!  What a great place to be after sitting on a cement slab for a few weeks.  Great bike trail.  We got in a 8 mile bike ride even though the weather was not the best.  Can't wait until July 1st so we can spend more time in the woods.
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