9/27 Pacific Beach State Park, WA

This is one of my favorite campgrounds and very hard to get into because it is directly on the Pacific Ocean.  I have several times made reservations early enough to get one of the sites that are directly overlooking the beach.  The sites are a little too close together and there is no shade, but the sounds and views of the ocean more than make up for that. 

My site was the third on the right here.  Unfortunately, they do not let you pull in forward into most of the sites, so while I can hear the ocean, I just can't see it from my chair!!

 

 

There are more sites on the other side of the roadway, but they also face away from the ocean--not a well planned campground!

 

 

 But this is the view behind my motorhome.  This first photo looks south, away from the state park and over the clear stream that comes out of the mountains into the ocean:

 

 

This is an enormous beach!  You can get worn out just walking to the water's edge. 

Great views!!

This photo shows the river and the RVs camped along the edge of it and the ocean. 

You can see my multicolored rig in this photo. 

When I was last here, a couple of years ago, this stream was only about 10' wide.  Now it is about two or three times the width and has a very fast current.

I took this photo right when the tide was changing, so some of the water from the stream was going out, but the tide was pushing some of it back to the shore--a very confused river.

The photos I posted above were taken a couple of days ago.  I was planning on today being sunny again, but it was foggy and drizzly all day, so the following photos show that fog.  This one shows the view to the north, except you really can't see much in the distance.

 

 

There were some big birds on a sandbar at low tide where the river meets the ocean.  I originally thought they were white pelicans, but as I got closer and used my telephoto lens, I realized they were brown pelicans, which I did not know existed in Washington.  I looked them up, however, and discovered they were an endangered California subspecies.  There are only about 1,600 of these, according to the state website.  

You can see more clearly in this closeup that these are brown pelicans.  There were about 50 of them.  Their yellow heads show these are adults. 

On the other side of the river were quite a few seagulls.  

Love these views, even with the fog and light rain!!

9/20 Tillicum Beach Campground, Yachats, OR

I stayed about a week at Bullard's Beach and stayed here six days--you travel a lot more slowly when you are retired and no longer have to meet an external schedule!

Tillicum Beach Campground is a federal facility owned by the U.S. Dept of Agriculture and the U.S. Forest Service.  It is managed by a consignment company, But seniors with the federal card still get a discount on camp sites.  It is a little unusual for Forest Service campground in that about half of the sites have electrical and water connections.  Some sites can be reserved in advance and some are first-come, first-served.  

However, I always make a reservation for Site 27, as I know I can get a good satellite signal from that site and also have a partial ocean view, assuming someone with a tall vehicle parks across from me!!  The sites directly overlooking the ocean are all non-hookup sites, and since the campground has no showers, this does make it difficult, but as any realtor will tell you, location counts!!  

Unfortunately, there are two important things this campground does not have--a dump station and cell service.  The location partially makes up for this, but I really wish they would at least get cell service!!

The first three photos are of the campground.  You can see the sites along the beach in the first and third photos.  The second photo shows a site across from these. 

And this is my site, across from the ocean-sites, but with a good satellite signal. 

On this day, I went for a beach walk.  You can see how the bluff was eroded a few years ago, and the campground managers added some rocks to help prevent erosion in the future.

My favorite time to take a beach walk is at low tide because you can see things that wash up.  Also, the sand is harder and easier to walk on with my beach shoes.  (I used to wear my good shoes on the beach, but decided that was a bad idea, so I got some beach shoes I can get wet.)

Even with low tide, there were a lot of big waves a few hundred feet out.

This is a little river that empties into the ocean.  It was very clean-looking water and easy to walk across.

By the time I headed back to the campground, the tide had gone out even farther.  This water is only an inch or so deep.

It is very hard to see, but hidden behind these trees is a private home.  Looks like a great place to live. 

And, there is some fog coming in from the south, so time to get home to my motorhome.

9/11 Bullard's Beach & Bandon, OR

This part of the Pacific Coast is one of the prettiest, with the highway running close along the shore and mountainous forest coming down all the way to the ocean.  It really is a drive that everyone needs to do at least once.  Here are just a couple of views. 

I am on my way to Bullard's Beach State Park from the south, but before I get there, I have to stop in the little harbor town of Bandon.  First, it has one of my favorite bakeries, and second, it also has a really nice little book store that has a lot of little gifts. Also, there are a few RV parking spots in a paved lot at the west end of the old town and a big dirt lot next to it where you can park a big vehicle. 

There is a harbor and a few seafood restaurants on the right and a bunch of gift shops on the left.  There are also a lot of carved artworks along the harbor, as you can see from this fish along the roadway.

This view is towards the entrance of the harbor and the small lighthouse at the tip of the peninsula across the way.

This is a closeup of the lighthouse. 

The next few photos show some of the harbor wood carvings.

 

 

 

 

This is the entrance to Bullard's Beach SP.   I have been here several times before, but it is always a nice place to stay. 

It also has one of the best recycling centers of any state park I have visited in Oregon.

 

 

The next-to-last day, I drove to the beach and lighthouse.  Unfortunately, the flies were horrible in both places, so I stayed only long enough to get 8 bites on my legs!!   Luckily, these flies did not hang around the nearby campground.

 

 

From the lighthouse, you can look back at the town of Bandon. 

One last photo of my motorhome and me.