Saturday, 30NOV13- Exploring the Redwoods!

Today we spent some time relaxing and driving through the Redwoods.  As you head south on Highway 101, the scenery changes a lot along the coast.  As we entered into northern California, the coast was beautiful.  The Redwoods are huge and beyond description.  Taking snapshots of them does not do justice to the size and beauty of these trees.

The redwoods are estimated to be over 1500-2000 years old.  As loggers started timbering through the trees in the US, these trees were a prime target.  Railroads were built specifically to handle transporting these trees out of the forest.  Logs weighed 100 tons when cut and placed on rail cars.  With the trees disappearing quickly, groups of people banded their finances together to buy up portions of the forest to save these trees.  They helped to build the Redwood highway through parts of the forest to bring awareness of these natural beauties to the public’s eye.   The efforts of these folks are largely responsible to the preserved redwoods we still see today. 

We drove down the Dudley R … memorial highway today.  It is a scenic highway as an alternate to HWY 101.  This highway zig-zags through the redwoods.  It is a great trip!  We stopped a few places to take a break, snack, and hike through the trees!  It was a lot of fun!  We had a blast.

At the end of the day, we found a campground around Patrick Point to spend the night.  Sounds of the Sea Campground was a nice place for the night.  It had full hookup at our site.  We were one of only a handful of campers there for the night.  We had a nice evening there to recharge our batteries and clean up a bit.   Showers for everyone!

Friday, 29NOV13- Black Friday??? Or Camping in the Redwoods?

This morning we got up and went for a hike down the trail to the beach as a family onto Harris Beach!  It was a beautiful morning!  We must have taken a thousand pictures!  We had a lot of fun down there hiking around on the sand… up and over the rocks.. around the corners… finding starfish and other creatures on the shore.  We had a lot of fun.  Growing up, we always went to the beach in Delaware or Maryland.  Those beaches are always sandy.  Even the beaches in Florida are usually sandy beaches.  The beaches in the Northwest are usually rocky or really gritty sand- if any.  With that in mind, there seems to always be a lot more wildlife on the beaches here.  There are always crabs, hermit crabs, sea annenomies, starfish.. and a bunch of other critters. Well, I guess it would be more accurate to say that the wildlife is noticeably different here than it has been at other beaches we have been used to exploring.  So, all of these differences really stick out to us here.  We had a lot of fun exploring the beach together this morning.

After our hike, we ate some lunch, packed up the camper, and got on the road.  We drove about an hour south into the Redwoods- into California!  We are spending the night at Jeddediah Smith State Park.  It was tricky to get the camper into the site here.  The campsites are beautiful!  They are nestled into the redwoods.  There aren’t any services here and the prices are higher.  The scenery is tough to beat though.  It’s times like these that make me with we had invested in some solar power to help with power when we are off the grid.  We will be fine for a day or two… but some solar would make things a little nicer.  Some Day… We are camped in a beautiful park… along the Smith River… after we set up camp, we took the bikes out and pedaled around the park with the kids.  It was a lot of fun.  Again- glad we brought the bikes. 

We will see what tomorrow brings… we might pull the camper out and head further south to see more of the trees.  It might be easier to just pull the camper with us everywhere we go.  That might be easier than trying to time our departures and campsite check-ins….  It is really free to just go… without making reservations.  When we started our trip… I thought that all of these campgrounds were going to be booked up because the reservation sites would not allow us to book sites.  In reality, the parks are pretty well empty- so no one bothers with reservations in the winter.  Again, fall / winter camping is a great way to see all of these parks without dealing with the crowds.  We have met some great people out here on the road… makes me want to be a full timer for a few years after the Army…  We will see how it goes.—Either way, it sure beats fighting with other shoppers at Walmart to save $50 on a TV that no one needs… right??  J

Thursday, 28NOV13- Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!

We enjoyed waking up at Harris Beach State Park.  The front of the park faces the ocean.  There is a long hiking trail that leads down to the water.  The coast has a lot of huge rocks that stick up out of the water.  The way the waves hit the rocks makes for a beautiful coastline with water and foam spraying up into the air.

We relaxed around the camper in the morning before heading into town.  We were set on finding a restaurant to eat Thanksgiving dinner in… but we ended up stopping at a Fred Meyer instead.  They had a ton of stuff in there!  We got a few odds and ends there to make for a great thanksgiving dinner back in our camper.  We also did some other shopping while we were there as well.  Those stores are great- if you haven’t had the chance to go in one of them before.  I picked up a few odds and ends to fix some different things.  We even picked up a nice set of LED Christmas lights to light up our awning at night at the campsite. 

Willie who??

After our expensive adventure to Fred Meyer, we drove down the coast and looked at the Redwoods with the kids!  It was great.  I’ll tell you, pictures don’t really show the enormity of those trees.  They are beautiful!  It is difficult to imagine that these trees were alive when Christ walked the earth… and they are still here.  It is amazing to walk around in the forest of these trees. 

After our trip south, we headed back to the camper and cooked up a Thanksgiving dinner.  Traci does a great job cooking with all kinds of different means at the campsites.  Dinner was great!  We built a small campfire outside.  I sat down and took a few snapshots of our setup there..  What a great day… we found paradise..  great fun!

Wednesday, 27NOV13- The day before Thanksgiving

After we looked around the park, we realized that there were very, very few sites that were still available.  With the holiday weekend, all of the motorsports folks were packed into the park.  With all of that activity, Traci and I decided to get back on the road the following day.  We didn’t plan on spending Thanksgiving there with the crowd, so we wanted to make our move on Wednesday, so we could relax the following day for Thanksgiving.

We got up in the morning and went for a hike out in the sand.  IT was neat to get out there to see where everyone was riding.  It looked like a lot of fun.  It reminded us a lot of the Little Sahara camping and biking days that we used to enjoy while living in Oklahoma.  Traci and the kids had a lot of fun rolling down the sand dunes.  Rhoda absolutely loved the dunes.  We took her off the leash (don’t tell anyone.. ).  She raced up and down the dunes and had a lot of fun.  – Which was great since she relaxed the rest of the day on the road.

After our hike, we got on the road and headed down the coast on HWY 101.  We stopped at Harris BeachState Park in Brookings, OR.  It was a great park!  The park had more than 100 sites.  About half of them had full hookups, but we stayed in a water / electric only site with a better view of the beach.  It was really nice!  We setup for the night and were even able to enjoy some TV together with the kids.  The park provided Cable TV as well. 

Some shots at the beach at Harris Beach State Park

Tuesday, 26NOV13- Happy Birthday to Jacob!

We had a great day today!  We got up and had Cake and Ice Cream for Breakfast.  Some people think that we shouldn’t do that for breakfast, but hey… Birthdays only come one a year… so something special is in order.  We got up and had presents all wrapped up for Jacob and sitting on the table.  The kids were all sleeping together on the pull-out sofa to keep each other warm, so it was nice to put the presents up on the table for in the morning.  We also blew up some balloons and put them around the inside of the camper too.  We got Jacob a remote control helicopter and new scooter.  He has been asking for those things for months now- so he was really happy.  Traci also picked out a really funny card the plays music.  Jacob loves those cards.  The kids also picked out some Lego figures and a dog figure for him to play with.  He was pretty excited about his birthday!

After we finished up the birthday festivities, we got the camper on the road.  We headed down the Oregon coast to Honeyman State Park.  We saw some beautiful sites along the say down the coast.  The weather was great!  We didn’t realize it, but Honeyman State Park offers ATV riders direct access into the large Oregon Sand Dune parks that cover about the southern 100 miles of the Oregon coast.   We pulled in and set up our camper in the midst of a motorsports parade of the latest quads, dune buggies, dirt bikes, and high-tech campers and toy haulers.  Once we got set up, we rode into town and got some pizza with the kids.  It was a great ending to a fun day. 

Jacob's Birthday and Super Mom!

At a pullout along the coast.  Beautiful View!

View of the Pacific from the Oregon Coast