Tillamook to Crater Lake – 7/25/24 to 8/8/24
It has been just about 2 months since we left home and since then, we have traveled 3,600 miles through 7 states, stopped at 42 overnight locations, visited 5 National Parks, and driven from 0’ elevation (yes, we drove on a beach) to 8,541’, seen deer, elk, moose, buffalo, bear (1), kayaked, biked, and scootered some amazing places. We’ve stayed at 2 places with alpacas, a cattle ranch, a goat ranch, a flower-growing farm, a cranberry and blueberry farm, a brewery, a smokehouse, a winery, and a casino, as well as many state and some National Parks. While it has been fun and we don’t miss the heat, we miss our friends and the fellowship at home, but we are about halfway through our trip.
From Tillamook, WA, we drove south on US101 along many beaches and then crossed the Columbia River as we left WA, going over the huge Columbia River bridge with 2 huge arches.
We drove into Cannon Beach, wanting to see Haystack Rock, one of the top 15 sea stacks in the world. (Did you have to look up “sea stack” like Paula did?) Cannon Beach was super-congested, but we followed signs to RV parking…only to find the longest one was 40’ (remember we’re 60’) and all were filled. We had to follow the road to the last parking lot and got ourselves into a mess, with very little room to turn and many people staring at us with questioning faces of “What are you doing here?” Tom had Paula get out to watch spacing until she told him to stop, that we weren’t going to make it. He got out to look and told her to get in and drive very slowly. (She figured out he wanted her to be the one to cause the collision rather than him.) When it finally got too close for his comfort level, he decided he needed to detach the Jeep so we could get through. We got out of there and said to each other, the next time we think about going somewhere that might be questionable, the mantra is: “Remember Cannon Beach city center.”
The better highlight of the day was arriving at Blue Heron French Cheese Company, a Harvest Host (which one of Paula’s knitter friends told us about), with its huge grassy lot with room for about 100 rigs. When Paula checked in, she was told we could stay up to 5 nights. Paula asked, “For the same price?” (Remember Harvest Hosts are free!!!) “Yes.” We had planned to stay 1 night, possibly 2, but when we found that out, we decided we’d be there a bit longer. We were faced with some extra time before we needed to be at the FMCA (Family Motorcoach Association) 109th International “Adventure Peaks” Convention & RV Expo we were attending on August 14-18. Where better than free? We ultimately asked for an extra night (making that 6 nights) and they said it would be fine. We got delicious sandwiches at the deli there before settling in and watching some Olympics, which had opened that day.
We didn’t have much sunshine while in Tillamook (one day we had rain for over 24 hours), but our time there did allow us time for blogging, sewing repairs for Paula, some minor rig repairs for Tom, watching the Olympics, etc. In addition, we bought some jerky from the Tillamook Country Smoker and went on a Tillamook Cheese Factory tour ($15 by reservation, including cheese tasting).
Tillamook also had a Tillamook Quilt Trail featuring 104 wooden barn quilts. Though we did not specifically do the trail, we didn’t have to go far to see many of them. As a matter of fact, the first was at Blue Heron, where we were parked.
We toured the Tillamook Air Museum on our way out of town. During WWII, blimps patrolled out of Tillamook to guard against enemy submarines. The two hangars that housed them were the largest wooden clear-span structures ever built. The second one was built in just 27 working days. Unfortunately, Hangar A burned down. In Hangar B, which housed the museum, we saw a picture with 5 blimps inside. The hangar was 1,072’ long, 192’ high (over 15 stories), 296’ wide, with an interior area of over 7 acres (7.5 football fields). It was huge! Inside were many displays of WWII aircraft as well as many smaller planes, including several experimental ones.
Our travel days were short, again eating up some more time. We drove 40 miles to Neskowin Creek RV Resort, a very packed nothing-to-brag-about campground. Our navigation system had us turn just ¼ mile short of the campground into a small private gated community which required Tom to disconnect the Jeep so we could turn around. Our next stop was just 42 miles to Beverly Beach State Park. Enroute, Tom followed a road that took us closer to the ocean and we ended up on a narrow one-way road. Paula wants to know why she always ends up on the “drop-off” side! The pictures just can’t convey how straight down the cliff is to the water. But, we came through alive, and both agreed it was one of the prettiest stretches of the OR coast we had seen yet.
Unfortunately, Tom messed up the reservation date for Beverly Beach (he had made it for the following day), but they were able to accommodate us in a space for which someone did not show and we decided to stay 2 nights.
Beverly Beach was a very large campground and on this Saturday, they were packed! It took quite a while to get the paperwork settled, but we did manage a very pretty hike through an old-growth forest that surrounded the campground. Beautiful and we all, including Whisper, needed some exercise! We ended up on the beach after walking under Highway 101. It was very wide and windy. We both agreed Beverly Beach was one of the nicest campgrounds where we had stayed so far.
Before leaving Newport, we visited the Oregon Coast Aquarium, voted one of the top 10 aquariums in the US. We thought it was quite small and not nearly as good as the Monterey Bay Aquarium or the National Aquarium in Baltimore.
We began heading away from the OR coast, making our way to Crater Lake before continuing to Deschutes, OR for the RV Expo. Tom, for some reason, had planned our first Walmart overnight (Paula guessed we had to do it once, just to experience it.) No sooner had we pulled into the Walmart lot in Roseburg than we saw the sign “No Overnight Parking.” Uh oh. Tom got on the Harvest Host website and found Melrose Vineyard just 5 miles away (plus 3 other vineyards in town). He requested a stay and with a follow-up call 90 minutes later, we were granted permission. It was a beautiful property which hosted weddings and other events. Within 10 minutes of parking (all alone with a beautiful view of the property), we were on their patio with an order in for their meat and cheese plate. Tom even picked blackberries the next morning for breakfast. He admitted as we pulled out…it was better than Walmart.
As we traveled away from the coast, we immediately saw a change in temps. We went from daily highs of mid-70°s to 90°s! The forecast for the day we left Roseburg was 99°! Our AZ friends, who were experiencing 113°, would quickly trade with us, but it was an abrupt shift for us.
We got off the interstate and took a more scenic route along the Umpqua River. Along the way, we stopped and picked more blackberries – 2 quarts in about 15 minutes. Our 90-mile day took us to Valley of the Rogue State Park on the Rouge River. It was a very nice open campground with lots of trees. Whisper got a bath and haircut followed by napping while Mom and Dad watched more Olympics.
Our next stop was Sunset Campground on Lake of the Woods, just 60 miles down the road. After settling in and a short nap, we walked on a path with a nice cooling breeze next to the lake. Later Paula enjoyed an instructional knitting video from our hammock. (She’s always trying to improve her knitting.) Temps were more comfortable again.
From Lake of the Woods, we drove about 45 miles to Chiloquin near Klamath Falls, OR, the closest we could get a campsite to Crater Lake. We reserved it for 3 nights to give ourselves time to take in another NP. The campground was called Water Wheel Campground, named after the old water wheel. While in a bit of disrepair, it was interesting (at least to Tom).
On Aug 8, we experienced smoke for the first time on our trip. The Parks Fire in CA had burned 430,000 acres and was only 37% contained (picture from the Watch Duty app) and many fires in OR were contributing to the hazy, smoky skies with poor visibility.
Our 28-mile drive to Crater Lake elevated us to about 6500’, and the skies cleared a bit, but we were still unfortunately disappointed in the color of the lake, not the “Crater Lake blue” we had seen in pictures. (Photoshop removed most of the smoke from the picture below so it is much bluer than it looked to us.) Oral history of the Native Americans said they witnessed the collapse of Mount Mazama 7,700 years ago. Within a few centuries, a lake 2000’ deep (with 4.5 trillion gallons of water but only 21 square miles of surface area) appeared in the caldera. Crater Lake gets 41’ of snow per year (an average of 1.3” per day), and there is no input or outlet of water from the lake. Evaporation and seepage keep the lake level relatively unchanging.
Paula asked a park ranger why the lake did not become stagnant and did not get a satisfying answer. By googling it, she read that scientists figured a drop of water remained in the lake for about 150 years before it seeped out or evaporated away. Thus, a new lake was created every few centuries.
We had planned to drive the 33-mile rim road around the lake, but part of it was closed for maintenance (part of a 5-year plan to repair the East Rim Drive built in 1930). Part of the road was, like others we have driven, cut out of the side of a cliff with a huge drop-off, but at least some of it had guard rails! But the park did allow dogs on some trails, so while one of us watched the 20-minute film about the park, the other walked Whisper on the .7-mile Lady of the Woods Trail. Whisper got more exercise that day than we did. (She did it twice!)
Next, we head north to the Deschutes County Fairgrounds for our first-ever RV get-together, the Family Motorcoach Association (FMCA) 109th International “Adventure Peaks” Convention & RV Expo.
Below is a slide show of random images of our travels.
Thanks for joining us!
