Sep 07 2017

Cannon Beach

Did you know that there is not a single RV park on the ocean front in this part of Oregon.. We found a spot for a single night at the Cannon Beach RV Resort. If we wanted to stay another night we would have to move to another spot and this is usually a time waster, so we decided to just stay for the night – good thing we did.

There’s really nothing at Cannon Beach except the beach. Although there are many stores in the downtown area, but it’s not for anything you need, probably whatever you buy will just end up in the landfill. There are so many tourists and their dogs, must be a trendy location for dog owners.

Oh, before I forget – we went to the Tillamook factory on our way to Cannon Beach. We just love their cheese and ice-cream!

So.. after Cannon Beach we are pretty much done for this trip. And guess what, we’re home now! We know everybody can’t wait to see us again! Back to school tomorrow and back to work on Monday.

Sep 06 2017

Florence, OR

As we approached Florence, we saw an endless stream of RVs travelling in the opposite direction – we guess that these people must be wrapping up their long weekend and heading back home to the city. Seeing all those RVs gave us comfort – that we’ll be able to find a spot at a campground.

After spending so much time in the smoke and heat, we thought that the coast would provide us with relieve from the smoke. Well, we still see the smoke, although not as bad as what we’ve seen on this trip thus far.

We spent 2 days at the Carl G Washburn State Memorial campground.

Beach by our campground

It’s a smaller sized campground with full hookups at $31 a night and it has a 1/2 mile trail to the beach. The free showers were a bonus as we were in a situation that left us without running water for a couple of days – made worse with the water restriction at Crater Lake. The valve to the hot water tank cracked on Sunday – so, “Macgyver” tried fixing it with goop that has long past its best before date. That fixed the original leak but the valve sprung a new leak… Fortunately it was an easy job and we found an RV repair shop in Florence that replaced it for $75.

Two main attractions in Florence are the sand dunes and the Sea Lions Cave. We headed to the sand dunes and rented 4 ATVs. There is a lot of paperwork for the rental and I got quite nervous signing all the waivers. There is a section that states that if a child is hurt, the parents could be jailed for child endangerment… Fortunately all went well despite a few exhaust burns on the legs. Everyone had fun, and Jeff had a really good workout moving/dragging/pulling/lifting the kids’ ATV whenever it got stuck in the sand and the kids seem to get stuck every few minutes! Unfortunately we don’t have any pictures of this activity.

The visit to the Sea Lions Cave met with some resistance as someone had visited it previously and only remembers the noise and stink. Since the kids and I really wanted to see it, he had to come along. Although I did give him the option of waiting for us in the truck, which he declined.

Eager children running down to see the sea lions

There were no sea lions in the cave – it’s the wrong time of the year. The sea lions were out laying on the rocks. We could see them from high above from the viewing platform. It’s nice seeing the sea lions, but I’m pretty sure there won’t be a repeat visit unlike someone…

Sea lions on the rock

Next stop, Cannon Beach. We are going to try and find a nice RV place on the beach…

Sep 04 2017

Lake Tahoe and Crater Lake

We spent 2 days in the Lake Tahoe area just relaxing. We thought that Lake Tahoe might be a tourist trap like Mammoth Lake but it turned out to be quite ok. The state campground we stayed at was very nice – we had a fair-sized site with a large picnic table, large campfire ring and hibachi. The kids had fun making s’mores using the backpackers stove I bought on Amazon.

Laying out the ingredients for s’mores

All they needed was to collect kindling like twigs and pine needles along with some bigger sticks and they’ll have a fire going. The whole s’more roasting activity requires effort from the kids – we figured it’s better that it’s them doing it rather than the adults… Besides if we had a regular campfire they will be gorging on more s’mores than they should. Doing it this way in some ways controlled their pace as they had to tend the fire with every s’more. Despite that they had a lot of fun with this activity, no complains from the kids or parents.

Slow and deliberate roasting

We were not exactly walking distance to Lake Tahoe but our campground was right beside Fallen Leaf Lake. It is a smaller lake with warm and clear water where the big kid and little kids spent time at. We also visited the “downtown” area in Lake Tahoe. This is essentially the base of the ski hill with the gondola still taking tourists up the mountain. Don’t think it’s an worthwhile activity as the sky is still hazy from all the wild fires in the region.

We left Lake Tahoe for Reno to drop off Ashleigh at the airport and then onwards to Crater Lake, Oregon. Again, not really clear skies leading to Crater Lake. When we arrived in the late afternoon, we lucked out and was able to stake our claim on a powered site. This means we could turn on the A/C with the 34C heat. We also wondered where the crowds were on this long weekend…

The next morning we headed to the park’s Visitor Center to see if there are any fun ideas/activites during our stay. The drive there was not very good – we can’t see anything above the tree tops.

Poor visibilty in Crater Lake National Park

When we arrived at the Sinnott Overlook, there was no blue – no lake, no sky. The visibility and air quality were so bad that we decided against doing the scenic rim lake drive.

View from Sinnott Overlook.

We had planned to stay longer but with these conditions we decided to leave on Monday – Labour Day. If we could leave now we would but trying to find another camp spot along the Oregon Coast on a long weekend would be quite challenging. So, we’re making the most out of our stay and doing the laundry. So… while I was killing time at the laundromat, I walked to the notice board to read about the fire. Hmm… apparently Crater Lake is on Level 1 Fire Notice – which means that there is a possibility of an evacuation. Nice. This explains everything…

So… we woke up this morning and the truck was covered in ash but the visibility was a tad better. Along the way out of the park, we got a glimpse of Crater Lake through the haze. We were driving to Reedsport, Oregon but a wildfire further West along our route changed our plan. We were asked to drive further North towards Eugene and then onwards to Florence.

Aug 31 2017

Yosemite

We made our way to Yosemite Valley via the Tioga Pass Entrance. We were enjoying the view and the drive and then the rude shock… What?! A tunnel that’s only 10’4 at the curb? In all our research we have not come across any information of low-clearance tunnels along the Tioga Pass. So we stopped and waited for traffic on the other side to clear and then drove down the middle with the 4-way flashers. That was definitely not planned and I found it quite stressful.

When had a “fun” time finding our campground as the roads have changed, the GPS map was not up to date and signage wasn’t very good. In addition, traffic congestion was quite crazy and there were people everywhere, you can imagine Jeff didn’t have a lot of fun towing the 5th wheel under these conditions. We finally made our way to the campground – and it was a nice spot with a view of Half Dome. After lunch, we went to the Visitor Center to pick up Ashleigh. She flew to Fresno and then got on the bus to Yosemite to join us for a week. The pick up was an adventure in itself as we circled around for 30mins trying to find a place to park. Traffic congestion hasn’t been that bad since then, we think it’s just a Saturday thing.

Relaxing in the evening at our campsite with Half Dome in the background. Still too warm for a campfire

Our constant campground companion

We did a few hikes while at Yosemite. We hiked to the top of Yosemite Falls, Vernal Falls and Nevada Falls. The hike to Upper Yosemite Falls was only 11.6km but with an elevation gain of 2700ft it took us 5 hours to complete.

Upper Yosemite Falls

On another day, we hiked to two other waterfalls – Vernal Falls at 1000ft and Nevada Falls at 2000ft. Before we reached the top of Vernal Falls we had to climb over 600 steps on a steep granite stairway. The most enjoyable part of it was getting some cool relief from the waterfall spray and seeing the waterfall close.

Up the granite steps to Vernal Falls

Vernal Falls

Top of Nevada Falls

Neveda Falls. We had a break here before heading down via the John Miur Trail

Yosemite is also known for it’s giant Sequoia trees that are as old as 3000 years old. Unfortunately for us, Mariposa Grove which the biggest tree grove is closed for restoration this summer, we had to make do with the other two groves in Yosemite. Seeing the giant sequoia in one thing, but realizing that those trees have been around before the Roman Coliseum, before Angkor Wat, before the Great Wall of China really does place it into perspective how old the trees are.

Among the giants

At the Tunnel View

To see Yosemite valley from a high vantage point, we drove to Glacier Point. We had a clear view of Half Dome and the whole valley but behind us was a large plume of smoke in the distance – there was a wild fire close by that has been burning for days.

Looking at climbers on Half Dome

The day after our visit to Glacier Point, the road leading up to the summit was closed, probably due to the wild fire. We were glad that we did not miss the opportunity to go up to Glacier Point where many iconic Yosemite photos have been taken from.

View of Yosemite Valley from Glacier Point

Fire in Wawona area

With the wild fire not too far away, we have seen ash from the fire all throughout the park – along the trails, at our campsite, on the truck etc. It was quite bad a couple days ago when the fire was 44% contained and we could even smell smoke from our campground.

From Glacier Point

Looking at climbers. They are so high up that you can’t see them with your naked eye

Mirror Lake

We’re off to Lake Tahoe to spend 2 days. We’re not too sure what we do or see there…

Load more