Oregon Coast
Dec 10
"We are spending this week driving up the coast of Oregon and Washington to our next housesit in Seattle. Today was a really fun day spent on the beach! We went back to Coos Bay where there is free roadside camping allowed for one night every 30 days. Last month on our way up the coast to Idaho we had stayed here for a night but it was so rainy with crazy storm waves, today is so beautiful and sunny. It was amazing to wake up and have the ocean right there! I made coffee and Dan made a modge podge sandwich of leftover rotisserie chicken, bacon and cheese for breakfast. We brought chairs and towels out to the beach and hung out for a while then went for a walk along the water to cliffs at the end of the beach. It was 50 degrees and sunny, there were lots of people out walking on the beach and surfing, even some crazies swimming. I think everyone was so excited to see the sun. Driving a little further down the coast we found a campground close to the ocean that had nobody here when we arrived, not even a camp host. This area has a bunch of huge sand dunes that we’ll check out tomorrow. We’ve really lucked out with the weather, supposedly it hasn’t been this warm in December in Oregon since the 1940’s."
Dec 11
"Someone ended up coming by in the morning and making us pay $25 for the site. I made coffee and we drove the 2 minutes to the beach. There were a couple people walking far away on the shore but we pretty much had it to ourselves. Part of the beach was covered in driftwood and there were a bunch of driftwood forts we roamed around in. It was another beautiful sunny day. Continuing down the coast we stopped at a parks center that suggested a beach called Wax Myrtle Beach. To get to it was a 3 mile walk along a river with views of the ocean the entire time and then about a half mile sand path leading to a big beautiful beach. Nobody else was around and it feels pretty crazy how lucky we’ve gotten with weather and having these places to ourselves. We hung out there for a little and headed back. There’s a campsite right along the river trail that was closed for the season, but it would be fun to come back in the warmer months and camp while being able to walk to the huge beach. As we kept driving Dan saw a thrift store and pulled in. Behind it was a laundry and shower business, it had been 3 days since our last shower so we decided to go for it, $3 for 8 minutes. Mine was a little gross and smelled like cigarettes but I feel a lot better now. All of a sudden it was 4:15 and the sun was starting to set. We looked for a place to cook and camp on the beach with no luck but did get to see a crazy colorful beach sunset and walk out on the sand while it was happening. We’re sleeping at a spot we found on the free campsites website, a small paved road off of 101 with a little turnoff about a mile down. Kind of weird but we didn’t want to pay for camping again. Dan made fettuccini, zucchini, and mushrooms on the back hatch in the dark. We hope to get up earlier tomorrow and cover more ground."
Dec 14
"A little after I finished writing we heard noises in the woods for a while that spooked us out. We had heard a car along the road but saw no headlights and then it stopped somewhere close to us. My spookedness rubbed off on Dan and we decided to leave around 11 PM. We drove a little further down 101 and saw a pull off for beach access. It was a parking lot down a little hill close to the ocean, with no signs prohibiting over night camping, so we decided to give it a go. The ocean waves were loudly crashing but we couldn’t see anything until we woke up and the ocean was right there out the window. I’m so happy we decided to move from the sketchy woods and get this view. We continued our drive along the Oregon Coast and it was really stunning with a lot more cliffs then when we were in California. We stopped at a few spots along the way like Thor’s Well, a spot in the cliffs waves fill up a hole in the rocks that would shoot water straight up when big waves came. Driving up to the top of Cape Perpetua was my favorite. There is a lookout 800 feet above the sea where you can stare down at the incredible ocean and down along the coastline. We decided to cook lunch up there overlooking everything, another crazy beautiful lunch. Finding a place to spend the night has been the hardest part about our travels since many campsites are closed for the season and there’s signs banning overnight camping in most spots but it always seems to works out. We found a place to park the car for the night in a town called Oceanside right off the road with views of the ocean again! It seemed like the town was pretty dead because it was winter so nobody bothered us. The next day we made our way to Cannon Beach, and walked around the big rock formations. Driving a little further down we found a beach that you could drive onto so we parked on the sand and had pizza in the sun. That night we made it to Astoria, the end of Oregon. We crossed the massive bridge to Washington to check out a rest stop that allows overnight parking along the Columbian River. There was about 5-7 other vehicles spending the night as well. The evening was spent watching The Goonies, which was filmed in Astoria, eating candy and falling asleep as headlights passed on our left side."
