Charleston, OR

July 12, 2013

We drove about 50 miles after breakfast to Oceanside RV Park in Charleston, OR, a town just out of Coos Bay. We saw this park two years ago when we stayed at a park in Coos Bay. Oceanside is just what it says it is, right in the dunes. It is 70 paces to the beach on a path that starts at the end our site. Gail measured it. The weather was sunny, about 68 degrees and very little wind. Our site butts up to the dunes so we have a natural wind break. It is so much fun coming to a park on a Friday to watch the other campers come in for the weekend. We got settled in and went into town for lunch at the High Tide Cafe. We had some great clam chowder and shared a shrimp and cheese sandwich sitting outside with a view of Charleston Bay. Then back to the park for a beautiful day a spectacular sunset. Toward the ocean from our site there are some tent sites right in the sand dunes. We don't have anything like this in Washington. Here is a taste of the sunset.

July 13, 2013
We woke to another beautiful day on the Coast. After breakfast we went into Coos Bay for a few groceries and to gas up the truck. When we returned to the park we drove to the Bastendorf Beach area north of where we are staying. This is another real nice recreation area. There is a jetty here that we will return to explore later. When we got back to the park the surf was noisier than earlier so we walked to the beach. The tide was coming in so the surf was higher than it was when we earlier saw it.


The surf  looking over a tent camp.

July 14, 2013

The weather was cloudy today so we stayed pretty close to the camp. During the morning low tide we walked along the beach to an exposed rocky area to explore the life among the rocks and sand. We saw starfish, mussels, anemones, barnacles, skulpin/bullhead and other wildlife. The erosive affect of the wind and sea is amazing. There was a lot of sculpting and color changes in the shoreline. Then we drove to Cape Arago and Simpson Reef areas. At the reef there were Stellar Seals and Elephant Seals sunning on the rocks out in the ocean. A wildlife organization was there with telescopes for us to view the animals. We drove farther to Cape Arago and saw a grey whale swimming off shore. It was a wonderful site. At first I thought it was just waves breaking over partially submerged rocks but it raised its back and breached. We returned to camp for lunch and went to the Bastendorf Beach area to walk on the jetty. The jetty isn't very long so we walked along the beach, in SOFT sand. Overall a fun day. The clouds didn't leave us so we went in early.

July 15, 2013
We woke to another cloudy morning with promise to clear and be sunny. After breakfast we went for a long hike along paths skirting the shoreline. We did a similar hike two years ago but this time we included a little climb up a path. The "up" part wasn't what we planned on but just happened. Totally we went almost 6 miles. This is a huge old root ball from a tree blown years ago.

 

A shot looking north on the Cape Arago bluff

Back to camp for a relaxing afternoon. Gail was fixing dinner when the clouds/fog broke and the sun came out. It was a fantastic evening out by the fire enjoying our last day here.

Another great sunset.