We had booked two nights at the Mt. Shasta KOA and weren’t 100% sure what we would do on our full day there. In the morning we decided to check out a local trail so we packed Misty onto the bicycle and headed to the trailhead. The trail was a steady climb up a hill, with plenty of viewpoints of Mt Shasta and the valley below it.
We returned to the campground for lunch and following that headed out on the motorcycle to check out the road up the volcanic peak. The ride was scenic, but fairly short only about 10 miles up to the highest point you could go, Bunny Flat. The National Forest Service Volunteer stationed there encouraged us to head out on a hike to the Horse Camp, only about a mile and half up the mountain. He warned us of some snow towards the end of the trail.
Well the snow was much more than we had bargained for and we ultimatley got lost and ended up walking around in much deeper snow than we had anticipated or dressed for. We actually ended up in a gully where an avalanche had come down a few months earlier. After some stress and some snow in our shoes we figured out where the trail was and made our way back to the parking lot and our ride down the mountain.
When we left Mt. Shasta the following day it didn’t take us long to cross the state line and leave California and cross into Oregon. We stopped at Klamath Falls to have a picnic lunch and go kayaking in Klamath Lake.
We were originally supposed to go to a campground in Crater Lake National Park however we’d got an email a couple days before advising us that due to the long winter the campground wouldn’t be opening on time and our reservation had been cancelled. We didn’t have any alternate so we had to scramble to find something. We ended up at Annie Creek Sno Park which was basically just a big parking lot used by the Forest Service in winter time but available for free camping in summer. It didn’t have a lot to offer other than vault toilets (and plenty of mosquitos) but at least it was close to the Crater Lake entrance.
When we woke up the next day we headed into Crater Lake NP. We managed to find parking for the RV and trailer at the Rim Village which was no easy feat. From there we explored on foot for a couple hours. We found out that a number of the roads in the park were still closed due to snow so we couldn’t visit them via the motorbike as we’d hoped. We left the Rim Village and headed North along the West Rim Drive until we could go no further.
We wound up staying about 30 miles North of the park at a beautiful National Forest Service campground on the shores of Diamond Lake.
We went for a kayak in the lake when we got up the next morning. It was one of the nicest lakes we’ve ever kayaked in, beautiful clear water and views of snow capped mountains on either side of the lake. Misty even accompanied us for part of the trip and seemed to enjoy it more than previous kayaking trips.
When we finally left we drove a couple hours out towards the coast and arrived at Umpqua Lighthouse State Park. It was fairly late as we had left Diamond Lake late, but we had time to go for a walk around the small lake there and down to the dunes for a view of the ocean and the lighthouse. There was a sign indicating this is a good spot to watch whales from at certain times of year, but this didn’t seem to be one of those times. The next morning we packed up the motorcycle trailer and drove seperately North up the 101 along the coast en route to our next destination, Pacific City Thousand Trails.
The drive up the coast was nice with some built up areas along the way but also lots of nice pull outs to enjoy the view. Actually too many to really stop at all of them; in the end it took us almost seven hours to drive only 200km. One of the places we stopped was the historic town of Newport where there is still a significant fishing industry. We tried to buy some local caught fish from a boat down on the water but they had already sold out for the day.
Upon arrival at the Thousand Trails just outside of Pacific City we selected our site and settled in for the night. We tried to hike up to a lookout inside the park to watch the sunset but it was too cloudy to see much.
The following day was the Fourth of July so there were a number of festivities taking place in the park. We stopped by the BBQ the park staff were organizing to eat some free hot dogs and smores. After that we packed up on the motorcycle and headed into town to get some real dinner. We enjoyed some clam chowder down at a spot on the river. After that we headed over to the beach to join the crowds settling in to watch the fireworks. If there was an organized fireworks display (as was advertised by the town on their website) we couldn’t really tell, maybe because the spot we had chosen was too far away. But there were hundreds of fireworks being set off on all sides of us down on the beach. It was quite something to see. We hung out for a couple hours until around 10pm before riding back to the campground, but the fireworks continued to ring out in the distance for at least another hour or two.
The following day we decided to take the RV into town to make it easier to get on the internet and get some work done. It was a challenge finding a spot for the RV to park down by the beach but we eventually succeeded. We decided to enjoy lunch at the Pelican brewpub and then settled into a spot on the beach to work. We stayed there most of the afternoon before heading back to the campground for dinner.
