The volcanic rock formation of Smith Rock State park is a huge attraction for rock climbers. We don’t do that crazy sport, but never-the-less, we had to take a day trip here (an easy 35 from Palisades Cove) to see what all the fuss is about. Smith Rock State Park The drive to Smith Rock…

Read more

The area around Hood River is our first glimpse (yesterday) of farm country—lots of fruit trees and grape vines. We ran out of blueberry jam, Tony’s preferred flavor for PB&J, so our first stop today on our way to Trillium Lake was a market to purchase some locally made. We stopped along Oregon highway 35…

Read more

Laundry is overdue, so that was the chore for this morning. It is so nice to have a lovely laundry room at the KOA which is close to our site; it was clean and reasonably priced. After our big waterfall day yesterday, we decided to take it much easier today. Blackberry Beach To get open…

Read more

Having settled on a plan to see the beautiful Columbia River Gorge falls, we had to leave our campground early this morning and make our way back west to the town of Corbett, Oregon. The boarding site for the Hop-On Hop-Off Waterfall Trolley is at the town’s K-12 public school parking lot. We knew from…

Read more

For our second day at Fort Stevens State Park we took a morning trip to nearby Astoria and then returned back to the park to observe some military history. Astoria Riverwalk The Astoria Riverwalk is a work in progress. This is a working port area, so it will have an industrial look to it that…

Read more

Today, we got a jump start on the crowds at Tillamook Creamery, and had a lovely time eating and buying more delicious crackers, in particular Rainforest Crisps, coming in two flavors at the creamery. We then headed to yet another laundromat (one night of clean bedding ruined by a barfing cat) where I learned a…

Read more

The Devil’s Punchbowl is at the northern end of Beverly Beach, so we planned to walk the beach to get there rather than try to park Usain in the busy area. That’s a great plan as long as you check the weather RADAR (we did), the rainstorm shows up on RADAR (it didn’t), and you…

Read more

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…

Read more

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…

Read more

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…

Read more