Alfred A. Loeb State Park, near Brookings Oregon

   

The Alfred A Loeb State Park website says it best:

Your first impression of Loeb may well be the fresh scent of the myrtlewood forest ... a crisp, eucalyptus-like fragrance.  The park is nestled in a grove of these lovely trees, many of which are well over 200 years old.  The pristine Chetco River runs clean and clear along the southeast edge of the park.  (http://oregonstateparks.org)

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The sites are not too close, the park has water and electric at the 48 sites, with many sites well over 40’ in length, all back in.  There are some tent campters here, but they pay the same as RVs…$22 per day.  There are also three small cabins, $40 per day, and each cabin faces the river.  The three pictures above show the area to our left if facing the motorhome (picture upper left), to the right where you can see our motorhome on the far left in this picture (picture upper right) and another which shows our two neighbors to our left, then us and barely in the picture our neighbor to our right (bottom picture)  The campground road is straight for about the first five sites on each side, then there is a loop…the upper left picture is where the loop starts…the bottom picture is taken from where the road loops back to itself. 

    

Picture above left is the three cabin as viewed from the road to their own parking area.  Picture right is one of the cabins facing the river.

I was surprised to find a few vehicles down at the river.  When we entered the State Park we then immediately turned into the campground…so somewhere in the day use area is a road giving access to the river.  I know that just a few miles upstream is the Miller Bar Campground, and this National Forest Campground $10, $5 with senior pass, allows camping right on the river stream.  Personally, I would have to think twice about driving my motorhome along these rocks…but after walking it, it is very solid…just think about how it has been under water during parts of the winter though…

This is the Chetco River, a 56 mile long river that descends rapidly from about 3,200 feet level down into the Pacific Ocean.  The Chetco River is mostly undeveloped, protected by the Rogue River – Siskiyou National Forest and the Kalmiopsis Wilderness. The upper 45 miles of the river is designated Wild and Scenic.  The name “Chetco” is from the The Chetco Indians once lived along the banks of the river.  The last full-blooded Chetco died in 1940, but around 1,500 descendants of the tribe remain...although they once were one of the largest tribes on the Pacific Coast of Oregon.  And yes, people swim in the river, which runs very easy in this area.  We saw many people walking along the road in swimming clothes with towels, and later they walked back, many time very wet. 

The park is about 8 miles from Brookings and Highway 101.  The weather is just a bit warmer this far from the Pacific, but by no means is it hot.  In fact, it is just a little more comfortable, and I expect the night time temperatures will not be as cold either.  Not sure how long we will stay here…paid for one night just to see how we like it…my guess we will be here at least through Wednesday night…perhaps through the whole weekend.  Unfortunately there is no dump station, but there is a free one just north of Brookings less than 10 miles away. 

All the above was written on Monday night…it is now Tuesday afternoon.  I paid for two more nights here, and on Thursday we might very well extend through the weekend.  It was a very quiet night.  Of course, our holding tanks cannot handle through the weekend, but we have devised a plan in which I drive to Brookings, and Marcia and one or two of the dogs will stay in the campground holding our spot.  After seeing the “vultures” come in this morning grabbing just abandoned sites very quickly, it is the only way to ensure we will have a site when the motorhome gets back from Brookings.