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.

From the Mouth of Dogs

Hi everyone, this is Bubba (talking) and Skruffy (barking…hee hee, I’m so funny)  Dad said we could have a turn doing the blog tonight, so here it is.

Lot’s of action down at the water today.  Don’t know what these birds are, but I haven’t had a treat for over a month now (I miss my Uncle Arnie so much) that I wanted to jump in and catch one for an afternoon snack.

    

Dad gets so excited when the water is smooth as glass like it was for much of the morning.  Hey dad, if you like it so much, why didn’t you take us for a walk down there again today, huh?  All your shots were from way up by the RV.  Besides, there is FOOD down in that water.

Oh, you’re right…that is a good reason…that boat is going super fast, and if I was out chasing birds in the water, I could be history…good point.

[Whisper]  Hey Bubba, do I get to talk yet?

[Loudly]  No Skruffy, you little shrimp, this is MY story.  YOU are the one who constantly gets your picture taken.  This waterfall, that lake, even inside a Big Tree.  So there…

[Louder]  DAD!  Bubba is being mean to me…

[Chuckling]  Ya, go tell Dad…like THAT worked for him when he was a kid, it ain’t going to work for you either….I hope.   Now, where were we….

Dad said another reason we can’t go down there today, beside the fast boat, the yummy birds, and the fishermen…is because there are CRAZY people here today.  This guy took his boat down and tried to launch it in the river.  There are no boat launching ramps down there, and he tried backing in into the river two times.  The last time he got stuck…but by the time Dave got off his lazy butt and got the camera, the guy had pulled out of it with his 4x4 truck…but it sure made a racket.

That was right as the sun went over that big hill again on the other side of the river.  Now “if” he got it in the river, what was he going to do with it?  Dad said that if he got it in, he sure wasn’t going to get it out without going to a boat launching site….I think he was right.

On one of our walks Dad found the site which has electricity…it is right there by that funny tree.  Someone moved out today, and someone else paid for the site and they are moving in tomorrow.   Dad said that this is not a fair way of doing things…but hey, it is Oregon, they do things differently up here.  For instance, every now and then you smell a strange odor in the air…like someone is burning something, but it is not wood.  I think it might be incense or something like that.  Dad says it is wacky tobacky, what ever that is.  We have not smelled it here, but sure did in other places…come to think about it, we smelled that in California too!

BUBBA!!!!

Oh no, that “favorite little doggie” must have gotten dad’s ear.  Just enough time to share this last picture of the night.  Hope you enjoyed it…and hey, if someone wants to come and rescue me from the “dog house”, we are at Huntley Park near Gold Beach (dad said I was suppose say that first thing…but hey, I’m just a dog), and we will be here for another week.  BYE

See Dad, Bubba didn’t let me say anything.  BARK BARK BARK  Take that you big Cocker Pooper

Glassy Smooth, Fire Alert …

Huntley Park, Gold River Oregon

After feeding the dogs this evening I looked out over the water and…it finally happened.  The Rogue River was as smooth as glass.  So I took me a little walk to get some pictures.

Nice and peaceful one second….

…to one of Jerry’s Rogue Jets flying down the river.  Actually I did not mind, got the perfect picture of it. 

These are the boat tours we see the most.  for $50, you go from Gold Beach up to Agness…a 32 mile trip.  An hour for lunch, and then back again…64 miles total.  Not only do they carry passengers, they also carry the US Mail…one of the few Mail Boats around.  They also have two other, longer trips…check out their website if you are interested.  As for us…we will pass on it.  So much for the nice smooth glassy water.  I could have stuck around and waited for the glassy effect to return…but there will be other days.  The tide and the winds have to be just right…an hour later, the water was running down the river faster even though there was no wind.  In the morning around 7-8 I had seen it too, but the fog was not good for pictures.

This guy from Reno moved in next to us today with this massive Toy Hauler, and on front of his truck he had a bicycle and a motorcycle.  He is alone, but he knows some other people in the park…but could not park near them because of his massive size compared to where they are camping.  Inside the Toy Hauler he told me that he has a 4 wheel off road contraption (my word, not his).  Any way, this is his first outing with his “new to him” toy hauler.  Had it for a short time, just put new batteries in it, and it was not holding a charge very well.  Seems there was a manual cut-off that he did not turn on, so when he had the generator going yesterday, that he had to jump start with his truck, it did nothing.  Not having a volt meter with him, I took mine over and by 7:30 he was getting 13.3 to the new batteries, and they had charged up to 12.7, so we hope all is well. 

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Of course, YOU might have thought that I working on this guy’s electrical problem was the cause for the Fire Alert…but no, it was not I.  We ALL know the importance of our Firemen and Firewomen…their bravery on a day in and day out basis cannot be surpassed.  So late this afternoon we were concerned as we heard a siren which seemed to pass down the road, and then it turned around and head back our way.  And there was some talk we could not make out over the truck’s public address system.  I step out and I see smoke about 8 sites down, and I think the worse.  Bolster that with the signs along the highway which say, “Fire Alert HIGH”, I am very concerned.  Then I faintly make out the PA announcement….a fund raiser BBQ tomorrow down in Gold Beach.  And soon three firemen politely walk up and ask if I want to buy some tickets.  The smoke I saw…just a normal campfire.  Now I understand that rural fire departments have to raise money…but there seemed to be a lack of common sense in this case.  I really thought we were going to have to evacuate due to a fire.

This morning we were into our fifth day of boondocking, so we took a trip down to Gold Beach and emptied our tanks, and did a quick trip into the store.  We are going to stay here for the full two weeks, so this should get us through until Tuesday morning. 

Huntley Park, Solar Update

Huntley Park, near Gold Beach, Oregon

Huntley Park is operated by the Port of Gold Beach.  The Port Commission is an elected group of five individuals who meet monthly and as needed to conduct the business of the Port.  Established in 1955, the Gold Beach Port District has grown to own and manage a diverse portfolio of interests in the Gold Beach area.

    

There is a camp host here, which looks to me like a full-time, year around job…even has a cover over the RV area with full hookups (upper left picture).  There is also an assistant camp host (upper right) which also has full hookups…and when they don’t have an Assistant working, then that site rents out for $22 a day, just not sure “when” they don’t have an assistant here.  There is also a fairly nice bathroom, as camp bathrooms go.  Went for a quick tour of the men’s room and found three showers, at a cost of $2, but I understand there are long time limits for that $2.  The bathroom looked a bit “industrial”, nothing fancy, but clean.

    

    

Above are just shots of some of the open spaces here…most for tents and small RVs.  I counted three, perhaps four, river spots for any size RV…but that doesn’t mean that people with tents can’t use them…we have a tent next to us right now…but on the other side, as of yesterday, it is empty.

Took the dogs down to the River yesterday for a walk.  It is not too difficult getting down there from our campsite…but from others deeper in the park one would definitely need to find a longer route to do so.  The park sits along Huntley Bar.  I am sure during extremely high river conditions the bar is covered in water…but most of the time it just gives you a nice area to “fish”, although most everyone I have seen down here were either going for a walk, or taking their dogs for a walk off leash (despite the signs that ask you not to do so). Of course, probably remembering the time she got into the Rogue River up by Crater Lake, Skruffy gets her feet wet as she smells along the bank.  This, from a dog who frankly has not enjoyed being in or near water!

Without the dogs I found the road which leads down to the bar.  I had seen a few cars and trucks down there…no RVs because they don’t allow camping on this bar, but they do along a few other of the bars west of here.  Now in actuality, I cannot say “they allow it” as much as say, “people are doing it”… a good number of people, but it is in now way crowded at all.  Access to this “boondocking area” is at google map coordinates 42.460635, -124.369402.  But here at Huntley, it is strictly prohibited…as the sign says to the right.  When we drove up to Huntley, I looked for signs in the area where people were camping along the river, and saw none.

    

Picture to the left above is the west end of the Bar, looking out to the west…you can see the sky is just a bit hazy out towards the ocean, which is 7-8 miles away.  Picture right is me turning 180 degrees and looking to the east…you can see the length of Huntley Bar and the curve in the river…and the bluer sky.  Talked to neighbors who arrived the day we did, but left the next day…both were raised in Oregon, one was raised near the community of Agness, just a 20 mile drive from where we are to the east along the river.  They said that in Agness, the temperatures can reach over 100 degrees during the summer…yet here at Huntley Park the temperatures are nearly always mild.  The road beyond Agness will eventually lead one to I-5 near Grants Pass…but it is a paved, mostly one lane forest road which gets no traffic during the winter.  Unfortunately, not everyone knows this…there is a story in the NYT dating back to 1995 of a salesman who wanted to take the scenic route home in November…got snowed in after his truck went off the road, decided to stay in the truck until help arrived instead of walking the 18 miles back to Agness.  Help did not arrive until the wreck was found in May.  It just shows you how quickly the climate changes in such a short distance. 

    

Today I walked to the far eastern portion of the campground, and looked for access down to the river.  The land is higher up from Huntley Bar than it is down where we are…although there is a path shown in the picture upper right, it was too steep for me.  Now when I was a kid, I would have just got on my butt and slid on down it…but those days are long ago history.

Saw a couple of Kayakers headed upstream on the Rogue River, against the flow.  Not sure what this conversation is about (picture right), but my guess is that “someone won” because just a few minutes later they were headed down stream nice and easy at a fairly fast pace.  Most of the boats that we hear are tour boats, which go up the river, and then back down again, about six or eight times each day…there are two different companies that offer the tours.  Next are the fishing boats, but not many as most go to the mouth of the river at the ocean where the Salmon enter the river. 

Every once in awhile I get an inquiry about our Solar…and since we just put in new batteries, I thought I would give an update.  Our Solar is a “Go Power! GP-PSK-120 120W Portable Folding Solar Kit with 10 Amp Solar Controller” that we got from Amazon for $543.99 back in October, 2014.  We also bought a 60’ extension for $69.   The solar system has gone up $50, but the cord is still $69.  It is a 120 watt system, includes the controller, and offers two different ways to connect to the battery.  We really felt that for our occasional use, this was the best way to go.  It is stored under the bed when not in use, or in the front seat at night once the sun has gone down when we are at parks where we do use it.  Yesterday when we got up our house battery was at 12.5.  Today they were at 12.4.  The ocean fog does not burn off until around 11 am, there is a bit of a haze during the day, and we loose the sun around 7 when it goes behind the small mountain on the other side of the river…so we get around 8 hours of use.  It boost the battery back up to 12.7 – 12.8 during the day, but by 7 pm it is down to 12.5 – 12.6.  At 8:40 last night we had dropped to 12.4, so I turned on the engine for 20 minutes, and like I said, we were at 12.4 this morning…but it was at 12.3 before we started to see benefits from the sun.  We have two computers going most of the day, and into the night, although I sometimes use the Kindle.  We also have to recharge both Kindles and the Aircard each day.  We have two “cigarette” type 12 volt outlets in which to do this with.  At night we also have the floor lights on from 8 pm to 7 am.  And then there is the refrigerator, the CO detector, the propane detector, miscellaneous lights that get turned on and off during the night (there is a LED light above our heads that we keep on until we go to bed), and the pump for out toilet when we flush.  So yes, this one solar cell keeps us charged when we sit stationary for so long without electric hookups.  And for a side note…our living area TV is on the blink…and we will replace it back in Sacramento with a 12 volt LED HDTV with a DVD player.  Not that we will use it much when we boondock, but it will give us options.