South Beach Campground, Olympic National Park

 

Last time we were at South Beach Campground, part of Olympic National Park, was in August 2015.  We arrived around 5 pm, and barely made it into the park.  It is a first come, first serve park, costing $10 with National Park Senior Card.  Today, we got here at 2:30...and the park wasn't even half full!  It is nearly 9 pm, and there are still a couple of spots, and people are still coming in.  Last time we were here I think we stayed 3 or 4 nights...today it will be just one night.

   

The left picture above is the north side of the park, the right is the south side.  I took these about 90 minutes ago...now the empty spots are nearly all taken.

Thought this mural on the Ace Hardware in Raymond WA looked kinda neat...the whole town was full of metal art pieces of animals, Oregon Trail wagons and oxen, and stuff like that.  Looked like a neat little town, and we enjoyed eating breakfast/lunch there along the side of a park.

 

 

Much of our trip today looked like these pictures...lot of trees, lots of open road, very little Ocean.  Accidentally missing a turn for Highway 101 and we ended up going about 10 miles up Long Beach...which is a peninsula that ends at Leadbetter Point.  At least I caught it before I went the entire 20 miles before finding out I missed a turn.  That's what I get for not using the GPS, which is a rare thing not to have it going.

 

GOOD NIGHT!

Trip Memories 2 – some previously unpublished pictures

Yesterday’s post we covered the first part of our Washington trip from the Port Angeles area through La Push.  Today we start with South Beach, were I will start with a panoramic sunset…nothing like a sunset over the ocean, and we had some real nice sunsets in South Beach.

South Beach where the campsites have no boundaries, camping is cheap ($7.50 with senior discount), and the campers are as friendly as can be.

   

Where people come to walk, fish, relax and just kickback listening to the ocean, basking in 72 degree weather.

And the sunsets can be out of this world…

And we have now exited Olympic National Park…but we have the rest of the Washington Coast and half of the Oregon Coast to go…

Our next stop was at a Casino in Ocean Shores where we were surrounded by Seahawk Fans, but it gave us a chance to do laundry.  Then we had an overnighter in Long Beach (above), and all of our stops from here on out are one-night stops until we reach the Sacramento area.

Besides, after spending all that time with the Seahawk Fans, EVERYONE else looked pretty friendly.

Our next stop was in Tillamook, and we had some nice ocean views…

….and some very nice taste buds explosions.

Next we went to Newport, and on the way, Marcia was surprised that we stopped at one of her favorite Ocean views…this little waterfall to the right off-set by the motion of crashing waves all around.

Even the birds enjoyed the view….

And Newport brought our last sunset along the ocean.

On our way to Coos Bay we got a dose of reality again as to what some Ocean Days look like.  Thank goodness we had seen this area back in 2012, but it would have been nice to enjoy to its fullest again this time.

Inland we find I-5 near Roseburg, and we find a couple of covered bridges in the Tri-City area.

And although we had not encountered smoke from the fires yet, we did encounter some helicopters which are fighting the fires.

But as we get close to Medford, and on into California, the smoke is thick at times…yep, the fires are bad, real bad.

There are many reasons we choose going to Washington and visiting Olympic National Park and cruising down the ocean shores.  We had not been up into Washington like this before, we knew it would be cool, we knew it was doable in four weeks, though five or six or even seven would not have been enough to get a full feel of it all.  But high on the list was that it would get us out of the heat, and had we known that so many fires were going to blow up in the areas, staying away from the fires would have been high up there too.  Along the ocean the fire dangers were there, but not as high as east of I-5 was. Overall, we enjoyed the trip immensely, and are in awe of that which has been provided to us for enjoyment.  Next trip will be a number of week away as we spend time with family, and with mom’s surgery next week.  But something tells me that our next trip might also be along the coast…because I am fairly sure these fires will still be burning….

Some Beach Days Are Just Gloomy

This panoramic shot kind of sums up the day on the beach today.  Cloudy, foggy, cool.  Sun did show up for a few hours so Marcia got her needed dose of sunlight (otherwise…well…we won’t talk about it), but the foggy, cloudy cool part came right back around 4 pm.

By 8:30 or 9 pm, this is the closest thing I could find to a sunset.  Keeping the mist off my glasses and off the camera was hard to do, but at least I got something!

While the sun was kind of out, Tino (left) and Gil (right) wanted a picture of us with the rocks that Gil had created.  He is very talented, I have seen a few picture he was drawing and they were real nice.  (I don’t know that bearded guy in the middle)

On one side he wrote the date and the place, on the other he drew a picture of a shark.  Gil’s real name is Joseph, and autographed them as such.  This is just the kind of stuff you run into when camped at this beach.  The longer you are here, the more friends you make.

It probably was a good sunset out there somewhere…but not anywhere near us.  But we have had a great time here at South Beach Campground…we would not hesitate coming back in the future.  Tomorrow we head on south to Ocean Shores where there is a casino to park at, a grocery store to stock up, a laundry mat for dirty clothes, and a great Land and Sea Buffet for Friday’s nights dinner. 

Stormy Start, Glorious End

Got the dogs out at 8 am, the sun was up, no wind, it was a beautiful start…but just 90 minutes later we hear thunder off in the distance.  This shot is out of the window of the slide pointed the same direction as if we were driving.  That does not look good. 

Start to hear pitter-patter on the roof, and this shot is out our main entrance door…looking a bit like a rainy day.

This one here is a panoramic which shows it stretches way out into the ocean.  Weather radar shows that the storm is out in the pacific, and we are just going to get the tail as it snaps through the coast line. Should not be a problem.  Little after I sit down and KABOOM!   A huge lightening bolt and thunder blast.  You can hear the panic of those in tents…car doors slam, cars start up and out they go.  Not packed up to leave, just getting in the car and leaving until it blows through.

The waves are kicking up, everyone is off the beach…an hour later, it is gone, over, kaput. 

I go out on the beach later with our neighbors and we sit and watch the waves…Tino tries to fish but has no luck.  There are three dead Seagulls, two about eight feet from each other, the other one about twenty-five feet away from the other two.  Gill and Tino wonder what happened…and I say, “They must have got hit by, or were affected by, the lightening.  They (Tino and Gil) were gone during the morning storm, but others came by who were here and we all decided that it had to be the lightening because there wasn’t a dead bird anywhere else in sight, and no one had seen dead birds yesterday or the day before.

LOOK DAVE, I HEARD THAT THUNDER JUST A SHORT TIME AGO, NOW YOU HAVE ME OUT HERE SITTING ON THIS HIGH TABLE!  ARE YOU CRAZY??  IT’S SKRUFFY THAT LIKES TO HAVE HER PICTURES TAKEN, I LIKE TO LAY DOWN ON ARNY’S GARAGE FLOOR AND GET ALL DIRTY.  GOT IT????

Later, as Marcia is preparing dinner, I look out and see what looks like rays shinning down onto the water…hard to capture with the camera, but I got some of it.

The anticipation was high throughout the park that tonight’s sunset would be better than the fantastic one we saw last night.

People were walking their dogs…

People had their cameras out, and this lady in the lower left had a tripod set up and she was snapping shots left and right.

It definitely got couples out…even Marcia came out (on her GoGo) and we enjoyed a time around the fire with our neighbors watching the sun go down.

It was not as good as last night…some say the one last night was a “once in a lifetime sunset”, but I don’t believe them…for them, it might be their best one, but I hope to see one as good, if not better, if I keep looking.

Each and every sunset is different from the other sunsets.  They are a wonderful sight to behold…and they are over before you know it.

Nope, this was not as “great” (as everyone around was saying) as last nights sunset…but it was still a great sunset…I think any sunset you can see over the water, or over a long stretch of land, or even in the mountains as long a mountain does not obscure the view too early…all of these are great sunsets.  Another day is over…another day to look forward tomorrow when the sun appears again...and another sunset to anticipate and to enjoy.

A South Beach Day

A steady wind brings out the kite flyers.  The wind was steady all day…right up to when the sun set, then it stopped. 

The two RVs across from us up and left this morning, people snagged their spots real quick, and thank goodness for us, they were both tent campers…so we now how this view outside our open door.

So I was able to see the kites flying, and got the two kite pictures right from our front door.  Tonight Marcia will be able to see the sunset right from the front door.

I remember getting kites when I was a kid…we would see how long of a tail, made from scraps of clothing, we could get on it, and how high we could go.  I think the kites were under a dollar $1, and expensive ones were up around $5.  Well, that was then…this is now.  Today kites range from $10 up to…now hold onto your seat, $1,700.00!!   Yes, that is a bunch.  Want to see what you get?  Click here for the Amazon link.  Have fun…

With few clouds all day I thought the sunset might be a little boring…but were we surprised.

Then the sun started to hit that outer bank of clouds sitting way out off coast…and things started to happen.

 

 

The sun seemed to morph from one sun, to two suns, to a mushroom looking thing, to an hour glass….people all around said they had never seen a sunset do that before.

Overall it was an interesting sky…but the close up on what the sun was doing was a rare sunset…that’s for sure.

And then it is over..just leaving the reflection off the high clouds that stretch out over the sea.   Yep, another hard day kicking back at South Beach Campground.

Note:  Using the solar today which limited our generator use a bit…but our neighbor Tino was in need of battery power so I hooked him up an electrical line and charged up his batteries along with ours…it even provided him power to heat up his water tank for a shower too.  We are going to stay until Friday, then start the trek down the coast back to the heat of the valley of Sacramento.