
Today is a rainy day, which seemed like a good day for laundry, yet another lighthouse and an aquarium before heading to Beverly Beach State Park for a two-night stay. Yaquina Bay Lighthouse Laundry Queen was our first stop which sits up on a hill with a very slanted parking lot. We chose to do…

Our travel adventures today included a farmers market, a river walk, a lighthouse tour, and a hike around a clear lake with views of the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. Sorry to disappoint our friend Paul, but we did not rent an ATV to try out on the dunes. Every campground we passed was clearly…

We went back to Shore Acres today because there is a large parking lot for Tony to safely run around for his morning exercise, and there is more of the trail toward Cape Arago State Park for us to explore. We then found a salt marsh to hike at the South Slough National Estuary, thanks…

There are three state parks altogether here just west of Charleston and south of where the Coos River meets the ocean. Only Sunset Bay has a campground. Today, we hiked up the connecting trails that included part of the Pacific Coast Trail to Shore Acres and the formal gardens that are there. We parked Usain…

Our journey today took us north on the 101 to Sunset Beach State Park, which is south of Coos Bay. We continue to enjoy the scenic drive along the 101. There are a few interesting signs we see repeated along the highway. The “slides” signs indicate unstable hillsides and the tsunami signs warn about that…

Each day this trip we are trying to keep up our morning exercise routine from home. Tony dons running clothes and finds a bike trail or neighborhood (or even a large Walmart parking lot once) to run a 5K while I take my yoga mat and the picnic blanket outside for a quiet bit of…

No traveling today for us as we find plenty to do here on our third and final day at Sue-Meg State Park. Ceremonial Rock The hike up Ceremonial Rock this morning brought to mind the opening Circle of Life song of Lion King. It’s a tall rock with the park’s highest views of the tree…

The Rim Trail at Sue-meg State Park follows the coast line along the cliffs with several places to climb down to the beach or up to lookouts on big rocks. The day started out very cool, so we were wearing warmer clothing with hats knowing that the fog would eventually burn off and sunshine would…

King’s Creek was our destination for hiking today. Parasitic Beauty Along the drive, I finally saw a place to pull over so I could get pictures of a really cool plant that I saw yesterday growing along the park road. The Snow Plant is bright red and is found in conifer forests like this one.…

For our first full day in the park, we wanted to drive the scenic road from our campground to the visitor center at the other end with hikes and stops in between. Lassen Peak Hike Our first stop/hike was up Lassen Peak, which is correctly labeled strenuous. There are areas of snow where some kind…