Trip to Washington and Oregon October 2009, Day 5

Day 5, Beverley Beach State Park to Lighthouse Beach

I was up before daylight and trekked through the park in the dark to get rid of some garbage. The park is in a forest with enormous trees. The campsite is huge, and it was surprisingly busy for October. Many people were making use of the long weekend to have one last summer-like outing. The weather was amazing, more like late summer than early fall. The park is on the other side of the highway from the beach.

This was a disappointment till we noticed the underpass. Nice solution! We went for a good beach walk at first light. Alas, I forgot the camera. Oh well, if you've seen one beach......Actually this was a bit different because of the early morning light. There were patches of fog and the colours were all soft and shimmery.

After a second breakfast, hobbit style we headed South again. Nex stop: Cape Perpetua.

This should have been filmed, but I need to learn that. The place is filled with the sound of rushing water boiling up between the crazy black rocks in a geyser-like manner. The ranger dropped by while we were poking around the tide pools. He told us to come back some time on a stormy day for a much better show. He was also looking for some resident marine mammals, including a whale, but nobody obliged today.

On to laundry in Florence, what a waste of precious daylight hours, really. But a traveler's got to do what a traveler's got to do. The need for laundry was a consequence of packing light, and we had packed light just in case we had to abandon Thing if it broke down and would cost too much to fix. Thank Hermes that didn't happen! We had seen Florence last in 1979. In early spring that year we did a short coastal car trip that started with the ferry from Victoria to Port Angeles. A dear friend looked after our 4-year old for 4 or 5 days. We lived on Vancouver Island at the time and I was pregnant with our son. We made Florence the turn-around point. It was a small village. Now it is humungous, with ugly strip development along the highway.

Just a pretty stretch of road, somewhere.

Judging by the map the next likely campsite on the ocean was Umpqua State park, but when we got there the campsite was quite a way from the ocean. We love salt water and don't get to be near it all that often. When we are in the neighborhood we like to make the most of it. The friendly ranger at Umpqua suggested we try Sunset South of Coos Bay, right on the beach.

Photo above: The big bridge near Coos Bay.

This required some city driving, but the signage to the recreational areas was really clear. Alas, when we got to Sunset we found that it was on a small sheltered bay. Probably a perfect beach for taking kids on a hot summer day, but not the place if you want to watch waves roll in all the way from China.

So we picked the private resort that we had noticed on the way in. Oceanside RV park is right on Lighthouse Beach, though you can't see the sea from the campsite. Nice site, nice people, perfect location, but the spaces in private parks are always smaller and the prices way higher than in those wonderful State Parks.

We had plenty of time left to do what we came for, another walk on the beach. I warned you this blog would be boring.

Chris is not the kind of guy to ask someone to take a picture of the two of us, so I cheated by taking our shadows.

                                            End of Day 5