What Is It About Huntley Park?

At Huntley Park, Gold Beach Oregon

View of Huntley Park from other side of Rogue River as Jet Boat goes by

This is our third year coming to Huntley Park.  Like Loeb State Park, we just love this little place.  WHY?  Just BECAUSE is one answer.  The WEATHER is another answer.  The PEOPLE who work here is another.  The PEOPLE who gather here is another.  The VIEW is another.  The QUIETNESS is another.  Other than some flies, the LACK OF BUGS is another.  Also, being a day's drive from Sacramento area is another big plus!

Above is a panoramic view of Huntley Park from the other side of the river.  A road runs along both sides of the river from Highway 101 up to Lobster Creek, where the north side (the park is on the south side) road crosses Lobster Creek Bridge and ends…except for a few Forest Roads.  You can see Huntley Bar, with all the river rocks, and yes, you can drive down there.  At the far left of the picture, behind the brush in the foreground, is the beach that all those who want to swim, or launch a jet ski or a kayak from, is located.  Fishing boats sometime launch down there too, but more than likely they just pull up anywhere along the rocks, back the boat into the water, and they are off fishing.

The views to the east, up river.

Tried to get a picture of our motorhome, but we are under a tree, and the other trees block the view…awe shucks, but the arrow shows where we are.  No one can see us from the other side of the river which is a big plus...they can't see us means WE won't see them.

Now when I say it is quiet, I don’t mean there is never any noise.  EVERY TIME one of these suckers (tour boats) goes up or down the river, yes, you hear them.  However, it is not a obnoxious noise, and it lasts for perhaps a minute…slowly hum, then it increases to a noticeable louder engine noise, then it goes by, and soon just a low hum, then quiet again.  The 'RED' boats are louder than the smaller "BLUE" ships are.  Yes, there is traffic on both roads, but unless it is an 18 wheeler, you hardly notice.  The park itself gets a bit traffic coming and going, but again, not that bad.

To our right there is a string of smaller motorhomes and trailers…the first three or four with fishing boats.  The assistant camp host told me that they live in Grants Pass, and come over for the weekend to fish…they have been here for 3 weeks now.  So nearly $100 per week to sit there empty for 65% of the time?  Well, that makes it that much more quieter for us now doesn’t it, and so far I have only seen one person, and that was today.?

   

In fact, this year over 50% of the people camping at Huntley have fishing boats.  You can see a boat in each picture above, and there are a lot more than these five. The fishermen leave in the morning, sometimes return early afternoon, but it is not uncommon for them to return near dusk.  The Rogue River is in its early stages of a King Salmon Run.  The river water is still too warm, but at the mouth of the river, near the ocean, is where  the fishing is, and they are starting to catch them.

Not everyone uses a boat, and this guy is probably going for steelhead-trout.  He was right out in front of our motorhome, and was enjoying himself…

…until that Jet Boat pictured earlier went by and he suddenly gave up.  I have seen the Jet Boat operators pull up alongside fishing boats to try and get the fisherman to talk, but the only talking I saw was hand gesturing…showing the boat operator that he only had one friend in this world.

This Blue Heron was fishing too…and it took off as the boat approached.

As dusk arrives, I put away our solar panels each day.  So far, we have only run our engine for about an hour once.  The next day I decided that after two years I would fill the batteries to the proper level with water.  So I went down to the river, grabbed me some water, and filled them suckers up.  OK ARNY, YOU CAN CALM DOWN NOW!   I got some distilled water from the grocery store and did them right…each of the two batteries took about an 1/8th of a gallon, so I was a bit low.  Good thing is, the charge is much better.  Unless we hit an overcast day, we probably won’t need to use the engine to help charge them.