Back in the Northwest

We had a longer drive than we had planned today, although it was interesting and scenic.  We got started fairly early at about 9:45am, and headed again up US101.  Miss Travelaire was so thankful that we aren’t traveling up that awful I-5.  The road today was perfect for Miss Travelaire, partly 4-lane and partly 2-lane with passing lanes every few miles.  And there don’t seem to be any big trucks, just the odd one.

The first thing that slowed us down a bit was a detour into the Avenue of the Giants, that’s giant redwoods, of course.  Now we’ve been here before a couple of times, but Doreen doesn’t remember any of that, so it’s all new to her.  I think maybe we have this same picture from a 2015 trip with Eric & Sarah & family, but with people in it 😀.

When we finally arrived at our planned destination, Sue-Meg State Park a little north of Eureka, we found that it was full.  The attendant there suggested we go on to Elk Prairie Campground, another California state park about a half hour up US101.  So on we went and into the campground.  Now there seemed to be about a half dozen sites in an open field in full sunshine that were nice, but they were occupied.  Then there were probably 60 or 70 sites in the bush where there were absolutely no campers.  And it was not hard to see why, because the place was dark and run down.  It looked like no one had attended to this campground for years.  We picked out a spot and thought about camping, but after a while we decided this was not the place to be, so we packed up again and started north again on US101.

Driving along the coast as you approach Oregon, the ocean beaches become quite scenic.

By this time we were far enough north that we just continued on into Oregon where all their state parks are great.  We landed at Harris Beach State Park (N42 04 08.2, W124 18 37.3), where everything indicated there were lots of available spaces.  But as we drove around the campground, every site said “reserved.”  Finally we realized that you have to reserve a site and pay on the internet before you can occupy it.  This seems to be the new thing these days, not much to my liking for sure.  But here we are, finally settled in.  So far, Doreen hasn’t made an appearance outside, so it’s just Harley again for the campsite photo 🙁.

Today’s Travels.          Complete Journey