March 28, 2019 - HOME!

On March 19 we took California route 99 north from our campground near Merced. We continued until we got north of San Francisco where we headed west through wine country.The countryside was a very lovely green which was very nice after being in the desert for about a month. We didn’t have time to stop so we definitely want to come back to this area again on another trip. After we got to route 101, we continued north not stopping until we got to Richardson Grove State Park south of Garberville, California. The redwoods here are magnificent and we took a short walk on the trail through some of the huge trees. There were even redwoods in our campsite.

The next day we left the campground and headed north until we got to Redwood National Park and State Parks and took a nice nature walk, saw some elk, and our first trilliums.

We crossed into Oregon and continue north on Route 101 to Bandon and Bullards Beach State Park. It is so lovely and green. There were eight wild turkeys wandering around the campground.

 On Thursday the 21st we took an excursion a little bit south to Port Orford Head State Park. This is the site of an old Coast Guard station and it’s on a headlands - absolutely beautiful!

After a lovely walk we had lunch at Redfish Café overlooking the water with a spectacular view of the coast.

We also stopped on the way back to our campground at Cape Blanco State Park and visited the Cape Blanco lighthouse.

Our final stop of the day was at Coquille Point which is part of Oregon Islands National Wildlife refuge in Bandon. We had a nice walk on the beach that evening.

Friday the 22nd, we went to the West Coast Game Park Safari. It’s a cute little place and I even got to pet a Canadian lynx and we saw lots of big cats.. We fed deer, goats, donkeys llama, sheep and peacocks who were quite demanding.

We went to the Storm Ranch area of the BLM’s New River area. We took a nice hike on the Muddy River Trail and saw the New River which is actually a new river formed in a great flood in 1890. We also had a chance to walk around “old town Bandon” and look in the shops.

March 23 finds us continuing north along the Oregon coast stopping at William Tugman State Park near Lakeside, Oregon for the night and took a walk at Umpqua Lighthouse State Park to see the Umpqua Lighthouse.

The next day we took the Eel Lake Trail for 4 miles that goes part way around the lake. it was a nice walk and we saw newts, garter snakes, trilliums, skunk cabbage and only eight other people and one dog on the whole walk.

We also took a hike on the Dellenback Dunes trail which goes through a portion of the Oregon Dunes National Recreation area.

After two nights at Tugman, on March 25, we moved north again to Carl Washburn State Park. It rained quite a bit on that day. (Welcome back to Oregon) It turned into a very nice day. We took a hike on the Valley Trail and the Hobbit Trail to the beach and then walked along the beach back to the campground.

 We drove to nearby Heceta Head lighthouse and walked to the lighthouse.

We saw sea lions frolicking in the water below. We had clam chowder at Moe's (A famous Oregon Calm Chowder and seafood chain and a favorite haunt for us at the coast.) for lunch

and walked along the streets in old town Florence. Another fun thing we did was go to Darlingtonia Wayside and saw the cobra lilies that are carnivorous plants.

Procrastinating our arrival home on the 27th we stopped at South Beach State Park in Newport,Oregon. After lunch we explored Yaquina Head lighthouse.

It was so windy there that it over almost blew us over so we went back inland to the visitor center and saw two peregrine falcons in the rocks behind the parking lot. We also saw the Yaquina Bay lighthouse

This lighthouse preceded Yaquina Head Lighthouse because it was not tall enough to be seen far out to sea.

 March 28 was our final day of the trip. Before we left South Beach and the Oregon coast, we took another hike around the campground on the Cooper Ridge Trail. Then we sadly headed home to Portland arriving home at 3 PM.

We were gone 206 day and traveled 19,366 miles and visited 29 states. It was a wonderful trip. We saw wonderful places and had great adventures. And yes, we hope to do it again next year, although we probably will go someplace else. Keep checking the blog from time to time.

We will be taking some shorter trips and might even write about our springtime adventures in Portland!

 HAPPY TRAILS

March 19 - Deserts and Wildflower Super Bloom

 We ended the blog last time at Organ Pipe Cactus National Park. On March 9 we went on a 4.4 mile round trip hike to Victoria mine, an abandoned mine, and we saw the mine shaft and an old store building.

 In the afternoon we drove 15 miles, basically along the Mexican border, to Quitobaquito Spring. It was so unexpected to see this lovely pond with palms and greenery in the middle of the desert. In the pond we saw Desert Pup Fish and Soniata Mud Turtles.

On Sunday, March 10, we were lucky enough to get the last two seats on the ranger lead van tour of the Ajo Mountain Scenic Drive. There were eight people in the van plus the driver and Ranger Gina.  The tour was 3 1/2 hours long and we learned all about cactus, the geology of the area, and of course wildflowers. We even saw a double arch.

 Monday, March 11, we moved west to Anza Borrego Desert State Park near Borrego Springs, California. The next morning we went on a very nice hike to hike to Borrego Palm Canyon along a creek with tall palm trees at an oasis in the canyon.

The best pert of the trail were all the wild flowers. It was so unexpected and neat to see tons of wild flowers in bloom in colors of white, yellow, purple, pink red, and blue all along the trail. It seems we have gotten here in the middle of a super bloom that we have been hoping to hit since Florida having heard about all the rain the California.

Because it had rain the night before the creek was very high and we had to wade across the creek twice. One couple told us they had never seen the creek with this much water in 25 years.

On Wednesday, March 13, we took a hike on the Slot Canyon Trail. It was really very interesting with some places very narrow, having to squeeze through with steep sides. The canyon was approximately 1/2 mile long. We saw several hundred Painted Lady Butterflies that have hatched due to all the flowers in bloom. It’s amazing how nature adapts to the environment at the moment.

In the afternoon we were on the search for more wildflowers and we took the Yaqui Wells Nature Trail nature and saw tons and tons of wildflowers blooming, even some cactus blooming, and a blooming Agave which only blooms once and dies.

Pincushion Cactus

Barrel Cactus

Agave Bloom

Ocottillo

On Thursday, March 14 we again took the hike to Borrego Palm Canyon again to see more wild flowers. In the afternoon we went on a ride to see wildflowers ( These people are really obsessed with flowers during a super bloom and the rangers tell you where to see large blooming areas.) On this trip we saw beautiful Purple Sand Verbena, lots of Yellow Desert Sun Flowers, and White Desert Primrose.

Yellow Desert Sun Flowers

White Desert Primrose

Purple Sand Verbena

While driving back to camp we saw really cool Galleta metal sculpture installations - these are metal sculptures of birds, raptors, elephant, horses, sloths, tortoises, camels and more scattered all across the desert. Our favorite was the desert serpent.

On Friday, March 15 we left Anza Borrego and moved to our campsite at Palm Springs - Joshua Tree KOA. Someone at the campground told us to go to the Coachella Valley Preserve, only 12 minutes from our campground, and we took the 2 mile round-trip hike on McCollum Trail which led to a lovely Palm Grove and pond. I was such a pretty spot in the desert.

The campground had three hot tubs that were supposedly heated from geothermal pools and had minerals content that was supposed to be have curative properties. We’re not sure but we enjoyed them as they were nice and hot. On Saturday, 16 March we got up early and drove to Joshua Tree National Park to beat the crowds during spring break. The park has amazing rock piles and Joshua trees that were blooming, which was a very special thing to see.

We took several short trails including the one-mile hidden Valley Trail that was really neat because it took you into a natural valley surrounded by huge, high, rock formations.

Then we took a 2 mile hike on the Wall Street Mill Trail that took us to a historic gold milling and separation plant site where we saw old buildings and cars.

We then took the 1.1 mile round-trip Barker damn trail where we saw a store damn made by ranchers many years ago to water their cattle. The area around the pond was very green with lots of Cottonwood and Juniper Trees.

By this time, the park was getting extremely busy so we moved to more distant parts of the park and took the Cholla Cactus Garden Trail and the Cottonwood Springs Trail and finished with the Bajada Trail which was full of wildflowers.

It was a nice day at Joshua Tree National Park. / We came to back to the campground and had a St. Patrick’s Day dinner in their café of Corned Beef, Cabbage and potatoes. It was surprisingly very good.

The next day March 17 we went to The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens in Palm Desert,California. It showcased the desert pants and animals in the North American and African areas. We saw tons of animals and native plants.Our favorites were the Cheetahs which we were lucky enough to see as they were getting fed. They were really beautiful and slick animals. They also had a neat G-Scale Model Railroad.

On Monday, March 18 we headed north, enjoyed a stop at In-N-Out burgers and stopping north of Merced at McCallum State Park for the night. The campground was almost empty but we saw many birds and 5 feral cats.

That’s all for now. We are on way north toward home. / More to come…