Homeward Bound

 We arrived back in Oregon on April 1 to beautiful weather. We stayed at Harris Beach State Park in Brookings for 3 nights. That afternoon we walked the beach and also went to one of our favorite places in Brookings, Chetco Point Park, the park is on a peninsula that juts out into the ocean and has lovely views.

Chetco Point

Walking at Harris Beach

This was probably our last day in Oregon without rain. On Sunday it rained off and on but we managed another nice beach walk and then it poured rain on us on our way back to the trailer. Luckily Oregon has very nice state parks with hookups so we did not have to worry about our solar panel catching enough sunshine to keep us supplied with electricity. 

Monday we explored Samuel Boardman State Scenic Corridor, a 12 mile stretch of beautiful shoreline along route 101 north of Brookings. It has several parking areas along the road with ocean views and we took several short walks at Natural Bridge, Arch Rock, Whaleshead Beach and House Rock Viewpoint. This is a very rugged and beautiful area. We also managed to walk a bit around the state park some more and have a campfire that evening.

Arch Rock

Arch Rock

Natural Bridge

Whaleshead Beach

On Tuesday we moved north for a two night state at Cape Blanco State Park. Cape Blanco state park is about an hour or so south of Coos Bay and 5 miles west of route 101. It is in the middle of nowhere. On this trip we picked parks we don’t get to as often because of their distance from home. Most of the time we were there it was very windy and rainy, but we fit in a couple of nice walks between rain showers. The Cape Blanco Lighthouse is very nice and we saw it from most of our walks.

On Thursday we moved to Sunset Bay State Park which is situated on the Cape Arago Peninsula west of Coos Bay. Our first campsite was partially covered in water and even had algae growing in the puddle under the picnic table. That gives you an idea of how much rain the area has had. We asked if we could change sites and were readily accommodated to a ‘drier’ site. 

One of our favorite things to do there is to visit nearby Shore Acres State Park which was once the estate of timber baron Louis Simpson. Although his  lavish home is long gone, the formal gardens remain and are beautiful year round. Sometimes we walk the trail along the ocean bluffs  from our state park to the gardens. It is a lovely trail with views of Cape Arago Lighthouse, but this time it was quite the muddy mess and we were very grateful for our hiking boots. 

Shore Acres Gardens

Cape Arago Lighthouse

We also visited South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve a little ways south of the state park. It has some very lovely trails. We hiked the North Creek Trails this time and besides the beautiful forest and wetlands we saw 2 newts and zillions of skunk cabbage.

We had planned to spend 2 more nights at South Beach State Park in Newport, but the rain forecast was so bad that we cancelled the reservation and drove straight home from Sunset Bay, about a five hour drive and we had rain the entire trip. In fact since we arrived home, it has rained at least part of every day. We joke that we should hire ourselves out as rainmakers.

We enjoyed our trip despite the somewhat strange and often wet weather and saw lots of beautiful places. We hope that you have enjoyed hearing about it.

Northern California

After leaving Hearst San Simeon State Park we headed inland to route 101 and got as far north as a KOA in Salinas. After spending the night we continued north skirting the Bay Area and crossing Carquinez Strait into what I think of as Northern California. Our destination was Bothe Napa Valley State Park between St Helena and Calistoga California in the heart of Napa Valley Wine Country. Talk about a lot of vineyards! It seems like almost every square inch of land is covered in grapevines. The campground was very nice. Things are starting to turn green with lots of wildflowers including trilliums and plenty of poison oak.

On our first day there we strolled the streets of St Helena and then we visited some wineries. Our first stop was at Beringer Winery where we had a glass of wine and walked around their lovely property. We also went to Charles Krug Winery, had a great time there, had a very nice server and tasted 6 different varieties of their wine. Two wineries were enough for us tor one day as there are so many wineries all around and the cost for tasting are more than twice as much as in Oregon.  

Beringer Brothers House at Winery

Tasting at Charles Krug

Charles Krug Winery

Beringers Winery

Charles Krug Tasting Room

The next day, we took a nice 3 mile trail from our state park to the Bale Grist Mill State Historic Park. It was really neat. The mill was built in 1843 and operated until 1903. The state parks acquired the mill in the 70’s and restored it to operating condition grinding its first wheat again in 1998. We took a one hour guided tour and our guide was very good and answered all our questions about the mill and how grain was ground, then he ground some grain. We bought a bag of flour and later made pancakes with he flour. We walked back to our camp, drove into Calistoga for some lunch and then strolled the main street. Later in the day, we took a walk on the Redwood Trail in the park. This is one of the farthest inland places that redwoods grow.

On Sunday, March 26, we drove west to route1 on the California coast and our next campground - Van Damme State Park just a few miles south of Mendocino. We set up camp and drove to Mendocino Headlands State Park and took a beautiful walk along the cliffs of the Pacific Ocean. The headlands are very lovely and the ocean was a very beautiful almost Caribbean blue. After our walk there, we drove to the Pygmy Forest Loop Boardwalk with very old tree but stunted here because of the poor soil. After supper, we went back to the Headlands and saw a very nice sunset.

Pygmy Forest Boardwalk

The following day, we went to the Mendocino Coastal Botanical Garden. It was very nice with rhododendrons, camellias, magnolias, heath, heather, succulents and conifers and very nice trails throughout. Some trails went out to the ocean bluffs,  some went through wooded areas and some went through formal gardens. Afterwards we drove into Ft Bragg and walked at Noyo Point Headlands. We wanted to see the “glass beach” but didn’t see any glass. (It was originally a city dump). Our final stop of the day was Point Cabrillo Light Station State Historic Park. It is a very nicely restored light house and keepers houses. Rain began about 6 pm and rained and even thundered most of the night and next day. We took walks around the park and down to the beach whenever the rain let up enough.

Glass Beach

Point Cabrillo Light Station

On Wednesday, March 29, we moved north on routes 1 and 101 to Elk Creek Campground in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, part of the Redwoods National and State Parks complex. We have been to the Redwoods many times in the past, but have never spent too much time in the southern end of the park. The trees are magnificent and so old and huge. We learned much about the trees and how they were almost harvested to extinction before people started fighting to preserve them. We took many different hikes in the two days we were there and continually marveled at how huge the trees are. We also were very lucky to see many elk grazing in the nearby meadow. 

After our stay at Prairie Creek Redwoods we moved north to Oregon. But more about that next time.