USA – Week 2 - Coos Bay to San Francisco.

The Golden Gate Bridge





An ex giant redwood

Oregon Coast

Happy camper

Otter Point

Little Myrtle



The Oregon Dunes



Monday 28/5 – Moving on day again to day. Still in Oregon we are headed for the dunes area of the state. Education time again… There is an area that stretches for 50 miles down the coast from all the way down from Florence to Coos Bay. It is known as the Oregon Dunes area. The dunes can be up to 300 feet tall and up to 3 miles inland!! Our stop was at Coos Bay and we were having a treat in a motel tonight, by we know how to live!! On the way down we stopped off at the dunes and had a stroll out on the sandy masses, quite impressive. We checked into our digs and headed off to Fred Meyer for some retail therapy but were thwarted by the Oregon Police Department dealing with some fool who’d locked himself in a nearby store with a gun so we had to second rate shop at Safeway across town. The motel had a spa and sauna so we were in luxury for a night. Spa was great, motel comfortable. Mrs D got a TV fix and I got an internet fix and all was well with the world.

Tuesday 29/5 – With the gun seige over at Fred Meyers, we headed on in for some shopping. Then it was off down the coast towards a place called Golden Beach. En route today we called in at an ‘aminal park’ a mini zoo to you and me. We were petting a 6 month old lion cub, a 5 month old black leopard cub and a 3 month old black bear. There were all sorts of things wandering around from llamas to deer and goats. All good fun but the big cat enclosures were a little on the small side for our liking. Lunch time looming, we stopped on the coast at Port Orford before arriving at ‘the secret camp’ in Golden Beach. Superb little site with a character owner – Donna who appeared a little on the fresh side when we were checking in. Camping among more trees but lovely facilities. Super…..

Wednesday 30/5 – A morning stroll around giant Oregon Douglas Firs and Port Orford Cedars. A lovely wee trail dedicated to a former conservationist warden Frances Shrader. After this we headed off to see what was allegedly the biggest known Myrtle Tree on earth. A staggering 88 feet tall and 42 feet round the base with a 70 foot canopy spread. What a whopper. Late afternoon we headed for a spot on the coast known as Otter Point for another stretch before dinner at site. Now you know all about Slim in Corfu, now we have Myrtle the moggy, who sat with us all evening. A very pleasant litle thing apparently abondoned there by her owners, how could they!! Anyway we fussed and fed her before heading off to bed. What is it with cats and us?

Thursady 31/5 – “ Bye bye, going to California, bye bye.” Off to California today and the Giant Redwood area on the north coast. The tallest trees on earth. Obviously a trip all about trees of varying sizes so far!! We stopped off at a couple of good view points along the way and arrived at Hiouchi mid afternoon. Ace place, a campsite free of trees!! At last we could see the sky and the sun!! Lovely big site, good facilities and the use of an indoor area in the evenings. We had a local stroll though a grove of massive trees before a beer and grub in our huge plot.

Friday 1/6 – A day out of the car today with a reasonable hike planned. We were heading on the Hiochi trail then a loop on the Mill Creek Trail and back via Hiochi. Keep up please. Trails superb, trees jaw droppers and we had an unplanned fording of a river to deal with. There was no mention of this in the local guide!! However Mrs D took it well and quite enjoyed the challenge. Sadly the trail was a little longer than anticipated so a quiet evening followed with tired and weary feet.

Saturday 2/6 – The plan today was to leave highway 101 for highway 1 on the last coastal stretch down to San Francisco. Pick up a campsite en route and ease on down into San Fran the following day. Big mistake, the road was windy, narrow, the famous fog was rolling in and every man and his dog in California was out camping as every site was full!! After many hours of coastal road we decided to head inland away from the fog. Still no empty campsites. We ended up back on the 101 in a posy little town in a motel we both had to go out selling our bodies to pay for it!! What a chore………………Not the best of days. Missed out on the sausages we’d bought for camp dinner too.

Sunday 3/6 – We checked out of our Travelodge and were away fairly early. As we were only 60 miles from San Fran it didn’t take us long to get there. We arrived via the famous Golden Gate bridge where we stopped for a while, had a walk to the end of the bridge, took far too many pictures and cooked the sausages, they were great!! It was then a short drive to our digs for the 1st night. Nice tidy spot next to the railway into town and across from the mighty Pacific Ocean. More TV fix for Mrs D and more internet catch up for me. We did manage a walk along the beach before we beers n bed. The San Francisco adventure begins……………………..

USA – Week 1 - Seattle to Newport

1st camp at Fort Steven and BIG crisps



Longest Bridge



Big Tree time

Cape Disappointment Lighthouse

Fort Steven Beach

Driftwood at Cape Disappointment





Fort Steven Seafront

Whale Watchers Camp



Local Brews



Another Campfire & More Crisps

MONDAY 21/5 - An early start out of Leeds Bradford got us into Amsterdam for 8.40am. The overweight baggage we were worried about got through OK with 3 kgs to spare, we did have almost 2 bags of camping gear tho’!! We had just over an hour in Schipol before we boarded for Seattle. A reasonable flight with plenty of aircraft type food and aircraft type movies on a screen you almost need binos to see! Got some great views of the icy wilderness of Greenland and Canada on the way over. All was going well until we came to land in Seattle. On approach and going into land when the engines roar and we are seriously going back up again. Problems with space between landing aircraft was reported, super just what you want to hear. In to land again, same thing happens but bad weather to blame this time an even better news. Third time lucky the captain quips, what a comedian when we are all worried to death. Thankfully he finally gets the plane on the ground in the pouring rain.

The US immigration nightmare was actually quite quick and painless after the fingerprinting and the face photo. With bags in hand we set off to find our motel. We found it OK but due to the famous Seattle rain we were wet through when we got there. A quick change and we headed down town to find some fuel for our camping stove. After a train ride into town and a five mile hike across town we got some and headed back to the digs to get some sleep. What you have to remember here is actually 3am in the UK and we are now 9hrs behind the UK and well knackered trying to get onto US time.

Tuesday 22/5 - Up and off after a great nights sleep to get our hire car. So it’s a haul ass back down the road to the airport (no rain this time) where we board a bus to the biggest car hire lot you’ve ever seen!! Then we get the most obnoxious person on the desk who pretty much forces us into a better bigger car because apparently the car we have hired is so small and unsuitable and we need to upgrade. After a while we go down to the garage to get our upgraded car where we see a lady driving out of the garage in it!! More discussion at desk and we finally get a car. (More on this later.) Off we go onto the US highway at max speed of 55mph. After a bit of a mess looking for a turn off and getting lostish in a town, we finally arrive at our first camp.

Fort Steven State Park is just over the border from Washington State in Oregon. It was a lovely setting in a forested area but the weather was cold, cloudy and damp. It was a massive campground with good facilities and wild deer wandering about all over the place. It was also pretty quiet but that was all set to change.

Wednesday 23/5 – We had heavy rain overnight so the tent passed the wet test as we were all dry!! Good start, we then went to the office to ask if we could stay another night as we liked the site and were hoping for better weather when the dreaded “Memorial Day Weekend” was brought to our attention. Apparently the whole of the USA would be out camping at the weekend and there wouldn’t be an empty space on a campsite anywhere. Well we rang here and there and ended up in a cute little library in a local village on the internet which was free (a camp park ranger put us on to it) trawling the net for a campsite. We did find one eventually down the coast, not where we wanted to be but it was OK apart from the rip off price. With the weekend sorted it was back to getting on with the day and our new surroundings. Again, we need more stove fuel and local friendly ranger has put us onto ‘Fred Meyers’ a mega supermarket that sells everything it was well fave with Mrs D. All stocked up we returned to site and had a walk before dinner by the lake, very nice just cold and damp.

Education time, pay attention please. Fort Steven is on the south shore of the mighty Columbia river, a natural boundary between Washington and Oregon states. Historically Fort Steven protected the south side of the river and Cape Disappointment the north. What you probably don’t know is that the Columbia river mouth is 5 miles wide, thus the need for the two defences. Both these areas are now state parks and are connected by the longest bridge in North America which is 4.2 miles long. Quite a sight to see, even more of a sight to drive across.

Thursday 24/5 – As our camp pitch was so cool and damp due to the millions of trees around us we had breakfast by the lake in a shelter as it was raining again. Then we drove across the afore mentioned long bridge to Cape Disappointment State park where we had a walk up to the lighthouse and back and around the park. It was actually not raining and there was a strange round yellow thing in the sky for a short while before the rains returned. A lovely area with loads of park information. We then headed back via the local town hoping for a dry night so we could get the tent away dry. We have managed to get in the spirit of the American campfire. Oh yesss, every camp pitch has a fire ring so we are now adept foragers of wood and kindling. There was an incident one evening whereby we had lit our campfire and were letting it get going when a blue coloured bird flew down and flew of with a box of swan matches!! There's gotta be a joke there somewhere……..

Back to the car…..by now we have had chance to see a few cars and we are convinced we are in the car we originally booked. Remember, the one “which was so small and unsuitable and we need to upgrade.” It was actually quite a nice car apart from the awful fuel consumption (it does half what our splendid diesel does to the gallon.) That aside we have paid for an upgrade and we believe we are in the wrong car. The problem is we need a Budget office to go to sort it out and we don’t think there is one until San Francisco so it will have to wait.

Friday 25/5 – Moving on day today, so up and pack up after breakfast. No rain overnight either so tent goes away dry, yippee!

We had 162 mile drive to the next camp which will get us through the memorial day weekend. It was a lovely drive down the coast and we also took a ‘scenic drive’ alternate and had free coffee in a village store. “just put a donation in the box” the lady said. We then sat and watched them all digging for clams with a butty & our free coffee. Arrived at ‘Whale watchers resort’ late afternoon and it was as we expected a hideous massive campground with more rules than the constitution but our pitch was OK but sadly more damn trees. We cooked dinner, had another campfire and got a reasonable nights sleep.

Saturday 26/5 - A cool cloudy day was started with a walk down to the site office area to hear a short memorial day speech by a uniformed war veteran. Very short but very to the point. I suppose a little akin to our remembrance Sunday stuff. Afterwards we headed to the local town of Newport. A bit of shopping, sightseeing and walking around Yaquina Head Coastal Park and viewing of a lighthouse, seals and seabirds. Late afternoon we headed to ‘downtown’ (central to you and me) Newport. We found the old town on the river, a splendid brewery pub with lots of beers and good food. Well we would wouldn’t we! Full of food and drink we headed back to mega site for bed, no fire tonight.

Sunday 27/5 – Breakfast down the road en route for a change and we were heading for Yachats & Perpetua Point. A good bit of walking down by a blow hole and something called ‘the devils churn’. A deep narrow rocky inlet with lots of noise, bit weird. Drove back to mega site late afternoon for grub and fire.