Monday, July 29, we FINALLY reached the Pacific Ocean coastline! We headed from Reedsport to Newport and our next campsite. Boy, oh boy! The tourists sure love the Oregon coast! As soon as we turned onto highway 101, the traffic was extremely heavy, RVs and campers all up and own the road, touristy beach shops and eateries, and all other signs of a typical beach town. Gee! Am I back in Virginia Beach, VA, which was home until we started RVing fulltime? You couldn’t tell the difference! One reason for all the traffic was the Dune Fest in Reedsport. People come from all over with their ATVs and dune buggies for events out on the large Oregon sand dunes that run for several miles up the coast. We passed by several dunes but didn’t stop.
The traffic thinned a bit until we hit the next town, where it was heavy traffic all over again. Traffic was always heavy and bumper to bumper in Newport any time we went to town to Wal-Mart or to visit attractions. Crazy! A few of the private campgrounds were already booked up until August of NEXT year! At the state park in Newport, we got one of the last 2 sites for the time we wanted. We had made a reservation about a week and a half ahead and just happen to be lucky.
We were hoping for nice views of the water but the weather didn’t cooperate. When we headed north, we thought we were seeing brown smoke in the distance and got a little worried. We asked somebody where the fire was and they said it was fog! And that was at 3:00 in the afternoon! So there went our views! Shucks! You can tell that from the road on the edge of the cliff. You are supposed to see ocean!
We did hit one overlook where the fog had moved out enough to get a few pictures. It was quite a temperature change and was cold and very windy. It was in the upper 50s, and stayed cold and windy our entire visit to Newport.
South Beach State Park is one of our favorite campgrounds. This was our 3rd visit since 2004 and 2010. The whole campground was packed with kids, bikes, dogs, and noise, plus lots of RVs/campers coming and going every day. We didn’t remember it being so busy. The place is very popular. Check-out is at 1:00 PM and check-in is at 4:00 PM . It was just like shift work at a factory! One set would leave and line up at the dump station while a long line formed at the check-in shack before 4:00 to let the next group in. Funny to watch. The campground really has a nice wooded setting and they allowed fires. Of course, we backed up as far as we could over the end concrete log because we are so long and still had a tight fit parking the truck. We had an open field behind us so we didn’t feel cramped. Other sites were pretty small and so close together that you could see what your neighbor was having for dinner!
The campground is located on the beach side of the road and has trails down to the beach. The trails range from 1/4 mile to 1/2 mile. They are all paved to a certain point, then the rest of the way is either over sand dunes or down a sand hill or both. We took the 1/2 mile trail with our bikes and should have taken the 1/4 mile! Having to leave the bikes and walk quite a way through soft sand and back was hard on the legs and backs. The 1/4 mile trail, which we discovered too late, was paved all the way to the end before having to walk down the dune to the beach. Oh well, the extra exercise was good for us. From sea to sea! Raised on the Atlantic I just have to put my feet in the Pacific. The picture below says “Atlantic to Pacific 2014”. What looks like blue sky behind me is a wall of fog! Argg..Can’t see anything! The 2nd picture at sand level shows a shadow across my feet, which is the blowing sand. It got into every crevice of any kind! We walked out that morning at low tide. Doug rested while I was playing on the beach. You can see I am wearing earmuffs! But a visit to the beach is always a must!
In the afternoon on the 1st and 2nd days, you could see the wind described above just blowing the fog and mist inland right over the campground. But it didn’t stop us. We drove out to the Yaquina Head lighthouse just across the bay. It was still so foggy that we couldn’t see much. THEN…on the 3rd day, the fog moved out to sea, we had sun, and a beautiful day! Went back to the beach for better pictures. This time the picture says “Yea! No Fog!” In the 4th picture you can still see fog on the left rolling away from shore.
We also returned to the lighthouse. Much better! It was even colder and windier than the day before. It was freezing! Behind the lighthouse is a huge rock that the sea birds love to nest on. There must have been a few thousand birds! There are other rock formations out in the ocean that the seals like to use. What a life! Just sleep, eat, swim!
With fog - without fog! Doug climbed to the top on our visit in 2010.
So we did have at least one sunny day on our stay at Newport. Now that’s what I was expecting.
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