#3 - Coveys Great Adventure - Oregon Coast

October, 2014

When we left off, we were leaving California and headed to Oregon. It turns out that September is the most popular tourist month on the coast of Oregon. “Good” weather and the return of the salmon to spawn means that campgrounds are sold out months in advance. We wanted to spend a couple of weeks at Nehalem Bay State Park but couldn’t get a reservation beyond four days, and we also couldn’t get the starting date we wanted. Plan B lead us to discover a nice private RV park called Bandon By The Sea in, yes, Bandon, OR, and Ft. Stevens State Park near Astoria.

We spent two nights in Bandon By The Sea and saw a distinctly different life than we were familiar with. The place was filled with guys (and gals) who lived to fish. Salmon fishing season is an annual event that their entire year is scheduled around and they are determined to make it memorable. Diesel pickup trucks towing boats started up around dawn as truly committed anglers headed out to catch crab and salmon despite whatever the weather was like. By 10 o’clock the successful ones started returning to clean gear and fish, but the real diehards didn’t come back until late afternoon. I talked to one couple that has been coming to the same park for the same two weeks for over 20 years. Interesting, to say the least. 

Bandon is a former commercial fishing center that has transformed itself into a destination for tourists and groups like car clubs. There is something going on almost every weekend all summer and into the fall. It is a fun, interesting place to spend a day or a weekend.

We still couldn’t reserve the dates we wanted at Nehalem Bay, so we headed up to Ft. Stevens State Park near Astoria, OR, for a couple of days until our reservation at Nehalem opened up. Ft. Stevens is on the peninsula that forms the southern shore of the infamous Columbia River bar, one of the most dangerous ocean passages in the world.  The Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria is worth a visit to tour the old lightship and to see the truly jaw-dropping pictures of the seas that this combination of geography, tide and wind regularly generate.

Ft. Stevens also has a large lake

Ft. Stevens was our first experience with Oregon State Parks.  They have really figured out how to do it right. These parks are clearly taken seriously and highly valued by the people of Oregon and that is evident anywhere you look.  The entire place was spotless and I don’t

recall a single piece of graffiti. It turns out that we overlooked many interesting things to see and do at Ft. Stevens. We were so focused on getting to Nehalem to meet friends coming down from Washington that we didn’t take the time to check out the whole park.  We will certainly return for a longer visit.

Lucy discovered the elk herd

We finally arrived at Nehalem Bay State Park on September 19. Arriving on Monday turned out to be a smart move because many campsites in the first-come-first-served section were vacant. We took a quick tour and picked a site surrounded by trees that was 200 yards from the pounding surf and settled in for two weeks.

Nehalem Bay is a smaller, quieter and more remote park than Ft Stevens. Again, like Ft. Stevens it is located on a spit of land that creates a large, relatively shallow, sheltered bay. One side of the park faces the ocean with ready access to miles of wide, oure white sand beach dotted with pieces of driftwood where the surf is constant. The bay side now hosts literally hundreds of boats chasing the salmon run. Half the sites in the park appear to have an aluminum skiff attached to the ubiquitous diesel pickup parked out front. The line at the launch ramp in the morning is very long.

Wow, this is great!

Lucy and Schroeder love the beach. They are allowed off leash on it and we take full advantage of it.  They run nonstop, going from one pile of seaweed to the next, rousting every seagull within range. They come home and collapse for a few hours, completely zonked out.

Ok, when it isn’t raining. This is the Oregon coast and rain is a fact of life here. It rained some or all of the first 10 days after we arrived, including three straight days when it poured and blew  non stop. Living in the coach with two dogs in the rain is a challenge. Damp dogs have a distinct “air” all their own, and clean up is never-ending. During the height of the storm the beach was spectacular. Blowing sand, horizontal rain and sea spray may not sound like fun, but it was fascinating to see how fast the beach changed.

We planned to stay here two weeks through the end of September and then slowly cruise through central Oregon and eastern California on our way back to SoCal for the holidays, but an opportunity to be camp hosts changed our plans. We will stay in Nehalem for another month, working in the park and exploring the local area. More about all that in the next edition.

PS: Rather than imbed photos I’ve decided to try this. Let me know what you think.

Cheers,

Bob