Down the coast #2

We stopped at an RV park near a beach that I fondly call the tree graveyard. Its weird, but I found the driftwood and soft green plants with pink flowers beautiful. I really enjoyed this beach.

Watching the sunset

My favorite

Down the coast #1

The first beach we headed to was Moolack beach. It was supposed to be good sea glass and shell hunting. Not so much, but still a lovely stroll on the misty beach.

We found a ton of these sand crab things. They are so cute and don't pinch or anything. They wiggle their butts back into the same if you bug them too much. 

We found more dunes!

We drove over so many bridges!

Oregon is pretty, huh?

Those are seals, not slugs

Oregon!

Did I say I love Oregon? I love Oregon! At least I think the countryside is the most beautiful. 

We randomly stopped at a sign for Salt Creek Falls and we stumbled into the LOTR set! It's ridiculous how stunning it is.

And another tunnel. Tunnels are fun

Flexibility!

Here's where plans got a little hinky. The plan had lately been to go to Mt St Helens next, then Mt. Rainer, then back down thru the desert to Death Valley and Zion (the shuttle just started running again which we need).  At one point, it also included Olympic National Park and the San Juan Islands. However after more research, we realized covid had closed the really good viewing site for Mt St Helens and the Ape Caves (lava tube hike). Between this disappointment and the amount of wiggly roads up to Mt Rainier with a car sick Laura, we drafted a version 12 and decided to drive down the coast.  Then over to Death Valley and Zion. That's what we're working on now. Next post will be our trip towards the coast 

Crater Lake

On the way north to Crater Lake, we enjoyed watching Mount Shasta go by.

We stopped at a closed visitors center for Crater Lake and were surprised with a gorgeous little hike. I'm completely smitten with Oregon now. It's just the prettiest! Later, we drive thru some lovely little mountains that were very easy to get over, no crazy pukey 10mph turns out anything. And the coast!! Well-you'll have to wait for later posts...

Anyway, the closed visitors center was adorable.

And like I said, the hike was gorgeous:

Snow!

The snow stakes are high here!

Crater Lake is amazing, just beautiful. We made the kids watch a video of how it formed the night before and that was actually really helpful. I wish we had been doing that all along with each park. It seemed to help their interest level. 

I don't even know how feet get this dirty

Wizard island is actually a 2nd tiny volcano inside the crater!

Lots of snow on the north side. In fact I really wanted to give down to the lake so we could jump in, but most of the Rim Road is still closed due to snow. I'm sad, but relieved I didn't have to be so brave-i know it's super cold. I'll be back. Love this place!

Another river night

We made out way up towards Crater Lake, but stopped short at another river campsite!

Literally right on the river!

At different parks, we've been surrounded by old RV-ers who say hi, give you some advice, and go inside their very established sites with dog  fences and flower pots; and younger city RV-ers who live in a gravel parking lot and are busy living their life and getting home from work late. This park had another kind - the weekender RV-ers who want to hang out with you and have corn hole tournaments and play their music on the outside speakers and cook outside and bring boats. Unfortunately, we are yet another set of RV-ers, mostly city folk on a longish road trip whose fascination with the RV-ness of it all may be waning. Also, I'm not very social. We didn't end up playing corn hole.

But we did work on the RV some and get the gray water tank draining better-yay Jim! And we waded in the river a bunch. Laura and Jim tried so hard to catch a crawfish. They were 9" long! Basically a tiny lobster, really. But the suckers were too quick. Still fun! The 3 of them jumped off the dock into freezing deeper water and I eventually got myself all the way wet too, but just for a second. 

A very nice night.

Redding, CA

So, I forgot to mention that it's been hot the last week or so. Like HOT. 100+ everyday. Any water we get near has been very welcome!

As we packed up the RV from the Redding river site, we said good by to our friendly geese.

We headed into town to a place called Turtle Bay Exploration zone or something like that. It's kind of a wildlife museum/zoo. We had bought tickets for a reserved time due to covid and there were probably only 3 other families in the whole thing.

It took forever, but we finally found a turtle

What is happening here??

The tiniest fawn I've ever seen. When we walked up, it was nursing from mom, then she moved away and it followed. I think this part was wild animals that come and go freely.

Nice little place.

There's also a cool bridge next door called the sun dial bridge. Jim had seen it in nerdy magazines and worked on some buildings by the same architect