We left Eureka and set off to complete the northern California drive via hwy. 101. Our destination? Jesse M. Honeyman Memorial State Park near Florence, Oregon.
Before that, though, we made multiple stops. First we drove through Redwood National Park and made several stops along the way. One place we stopped was at an elk viewing site. So sad, no elk sightings for us. The elk in the park are Roosevelt Elk and are the largest elk in North America and only live in the rain forests of the Pacific Northwest, specifically Olympic and Redwoods National Parks.
no elk sightings for us
It took us several hours to reach Crescent City where we stopped at the National Park visitor center, had lunch, and let the kids play for a long time at a really big and cool park nearby. Before we left town we viewed the Battery Point Lighthouse. Too bad it was high tide and we could not cross the water to physically tour the buildings. Darn.
Next we set out for the Oregon border and some wonderful, winding, driving along the coast and cliffs. Beautiful!!!
An interesting focal point is when the Oregon dunes abruptly begin in Coos Bay. It is so odd and then they continue on for around 40 miles. Crazy!!
For the life of me I cannot remember the town we stopped in when we were starving. It was around 3:30ish and not quite dinner time and the town hardly had any restaurants. We randomly selected a nice little cafe and went in. The cafe brought out large pieces of paper and crayons for the girls and had a big basket of toys which made them happy. This made James and me very happy, too. We had the best darned pizza and lemonade! It was the perfect refreshment to give us some renewed energy for the last hour or so of driving.
I had to take a picture of it since it made me so happy!
I know he is not showing it, but James is very happy here. :)
Alas! Jesse M. Honeyman Memorial State Park. This park is awesome and one of my top 3! The park is about 2 miles from the beach, has over 400 sites and it totally wooded. The bathrooms are clean, free hot water showers, a huge playground for the kids, plus a fresh water lake for swimming, and of course the dunes! So much to do so little time.
the girls riding their scooters throughout the massive park
Six months earlier I reserved a yurt for our stay. Since we were taking such a long trip we really did not want to lug our tents so a yurt was the perfect option for us. Many Oregon state parks offer yurts as an option.
Isn't it cute? It has electricity, a locking door, windows, and a heater which we actually did use. The temp. did get down into the 50s at night.
one half of our yurt
climbing a dune. The sand is so soft and the dunes are massive.
mossy tree on nature trail to dunes
Cleawox Lake
dunes down to Cleawox Lake
264 miles (many of them winding)
around 6 hours of driving time
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