Oregon Coast

 October 22 – October 30, 2020

From our last campground in Washington, we continue to Oregon and move down the Pacific coast to California. All campgrounds in Oregon will be with our Thousand Trails membership.

The Oregon coast is comprised of sea cliffs, sea stacks, and beaches. Along the coast there are over 80 State parks and recreation areas. We have never seen so many scenic viewpoints and turn-offs. Oregon does a fantastic job of creating secondary roads and parking to beaches and trails. During the peak season, the entire Oregon coast (Pre-Covid) supports the tourists from the surrounding states.

The “Pacific City” Thousand Trails RV park in Cloverdale was our first campground. One detail about the Thousand Trails campgrounds is they are first come, first served. To find a site, we disconnect the car, leave the RV behind, and drive until we find what we like. This campground was positioned on a hill overlooking the ocean. There were 3 levels of road plus smaller side roads so you could almost say about 5 different levels of sites with a vertical distance of well over 100 feet. The top level had some of the most scenic views at the park as they could see the ocean. Also, on the upper level was the lodge which had a nice patio with an ocean view, an indoor pool, laundry, mini golf, and pickleball courts. Of course, Covid once more made sure you were not going to enjoy most of the amenities. We did use the patio to participate in the bi-weekly Book Club call – plus it was the only place we could get a phone and Wifi signal. The sites here were just big enough to squeeze the RV and our car into. Sites had plenty of trees and shrubbery so each site was fairly private. There was a trail from the campground to the beach and the walk was about ¼ mile.

One interesting note about walking to the beach – the beach has number markers along the shrubbery at the trail exit so you can find your way back. There a so many campgrounds along the ocean and each campground has their own trail. When you exit your trail you just find the marking closest to your trail. You do have to mindful of what you exit looks like as some of the trails exit close together.

We took a day trip to include the city of Tillamook where we toured the Tillamook cheese plant. We were surprised they offered a tour. We love factory tours but any tours we have inquired about have not been open most of this year. Actually, it doesn’t even have to be an organized tour, we just ask if we can walk around and get an education – but not this year. They required masks and limited and controlled the number of people in the building. Tours were self-guided and visitors were pretty respectful of your personal space. This facility only produced cheese but they had a café as you exited the building so we were able to enjoy their ice cream. Yum! The gift shop had all the cheese you could ever want and plenty of crackers to go with that delicious cheese.

Whalers Rest in South Bend was our next Thousand Trails campground. This campground was also large but the sites were very tight with little shade and no separation between sites. Sometimes it’s good to talk to your neighbors which was easy to do here. We got quite the education on the Thousand Trails membership from our neighbors. Everyone we met was living in their RV full time and staying their allotted time (3 weeks) then moving to another Thousand Trails campground to stay their 3 weeks there and so on. Everyone seemed very happy with this way of life. It certainly gave us something to think about. Many of the full time RVs say they move up and down the coast staying at the Thousand Trails campgrounds and recognize many of the same full time RV’s as they move from campground to campground. Each of them had “their plan”.

We spent some time in the Newport area enjoying the marinas, beaches, and recreation areas. While out on the drive near Newport, we spotted a sign for Darlingtonia Natural Site. Interesting – sounds like an adventure. This is actually a small state park and botanical preserve dedicated to the preservation of the Darlingtonia californica (carnivorous plant that traps and digests insects), better known as the cobra lily or pitcher plant. There was a boardwalk above the bog where the plants grew. Look at how thick the bog was with these plants. It would have been fantastic to see the plants in full bloom.

We spent some time at Yaquina Bay State Park. The tide was out when we visited so we were able to see star fish, anemone, crabs, and seals were relaxing on the rocks. The “beach” consists of basalt rocks which made it difficult to walk around. Yaquina Head Lighthouse and grounds are also part of the park.

Of course, the marinas are always a favorite to visit. The marina we liked, was situated on the Yaquina River near the bridge. We crossed this bridge several times in our travels and each time we did, we always detoured to the marina to sit by the boats. As drove around the waterfront, we ordered a seafood lunch to enjoy watching the various fishing boats – small to large. It appeared that we stumbled on the main tourist area. Parking was a challenge and each block of businesses had so much to see. We kept our distance and noted that everyone was wearing their masks and was respectful of everyone’s space.

Our last Thousand Trails campground along the Pacific coast was South Jetty in Florence. The sites here were very large and fairly private with many trees surrounding all the sites. It was quite beautiful. There was a very nice lodge (although closed) and swimming pool. The laundry room was huge with a fireplace and sitting area (although some of the seats were blocked off to maintain proper distancing).

This park had no access to the beach. A few miles from the campground there was a very nice state park you could access to the sand dunes and beach.  This area is not rocky like most of the Oregon coast. Instead are sand dunes – miles and miles of dunes.

The Oregon coast was absolutely beautiful. As we drove from one campground to another, we would find areas we wanted further explore. Once we were all situated at our new campground, we would pack a lunch and go back to the towns we wanted to visit. We were never at a loss for something to do.

I'll close with some signs that seemed to be everywhere along the coast. They certainly give you something to think about.

In retrospect, we should have spent more time enjoying Oregon. While we were there, we still had plans to stop at Yellowstone for 4 or 5 days on the way home. What we didn’t know at the time was 3 of Yellowstone’s entrances were soon to be closed as well as many of the interior roads throughout the park. Sadly, Yellowstone is now not part of our plans.

 

Temperature: range from upper 50’s to low 70’s day– upper 40’s to 50’s night

Air Quality: Excellent

Elevation: -17 to 350 feet

Campground(s): Pacific City (Cloverdale, OR), Whalers Rest (South Bend, OR), South Jetty (Florence, OR)

Free Camping: none