We woke to find that we were still shrouded in fog, so we had a chilly and damp start to the day. We packed up quite early (early for us anyway!) so that we could get somewhere that Müfit could do some work for an hour i.e. anywhere outside of the state park we were in.
As we were about to leave, the sun began to peak through, and by the time we drove out of the campground to Sunset Bay itself, the bay was suddenly completely clear of fog, so it was nice to get to see it properly.
We headed back to the town of North Bend (nothing to do with the more famous city of Bend, Oregon though!) which we had driven through yesterday, and parked in a Walmart. The kids and I went in to buy a few things while Müfit did a bit of work, and after an hour or so we drove further along Highway 101 so that he could join a work call in a nicer setting than a Walmart car park!
We found a county park with a massive day use parking area that was completely empty. This was great as it meant that I could have a little walk with the dogs, off leash, without having to worry about anyone. Müfit had his call and the kids did a little school work, then we had lunch.
After lunch we continued further north along the highway, stopping at Umpqua Lighthouse. There was a large enough parking area that we could pull off the road, facing the ocean, with the lighthouse behind us. This was apparently a whale viewing area and although I had my binoculars, there weren’t any visible whales!
We stayed here for an hour or so as well, again doing a little work. I got the blog up to date!
By this time it was getting close to check-in time for the state park we were heading to. It’s pretty annoying, and strange, that check-out time is 1pm and check-in time 4pm. What’s the point in them being empty for 3 hours? Do they go around cleaning each campsite every day?! Anyway, we didn’t have far to go and there was no rush, so we took a little detour off the highway and drove down into another park where there was access to the dunes, the beach and ocean. All along this section of the Oregon coastline there are massive sand dunes and it’s a popular place for dune buggying!
We took the dogs up this very steep dune and were greeted by some great views from the top. The ocean was just below so the kids ran with the dogs. Charlie made us all laugh… when he’s on snow he likes to run and roll in it, then take a mouthful. He obviously thought that the sand was going to be like the snow, and took a mouthful of it. Poor Charlie! He got quite a shock 😦
From here it wasn’t far to the state park, Jessie Honeyman State Park. We had booked a full hook-up site in advance so we knew we had a space, but as we drove off the highway and into the park, Müfit’s mobile data connection was lost again. He was mad (understatement of the year!). It’s very frustrating though – you had a good connection on the highway, but venture more than just a few metres off the highway and it’s lost.
We drove around to our site to check if we had anything, but it was very sketchy, so back out of the campground to the highway, across the highway, and into the day use area which is by a lake. Here we had a perfectly fine connection, so why couldn’t it work in the campground? 😒
We stayed here for a while as there were a few other things that Müfit had to get done. The bigger annoyance is that he has a call scheduled for 10am, so that means we have to be packed up and left our campsite and back over to the day use by 10am.
When we drove back to the campground we settled into our spot. We had an even larger site than last night which was very private as well, and there was a little trail leading out from the back of it. Müfit and I went out with the dogs, following the trail onto a bigger trail which led up onto some massive sand dunes.
The ocean itself is a long way from here but the dunes spread for miles. We walked around a bit and found a trail, then followed another trail but got a bit lost! Well, we weren’t exactly lost – we knew where we wanted to go but couldn’t find a way to get there so we trampled through some shrubs and found a steep narrow trail with a broken fence. We continued down and could see that we were coming out within the campground – it’s a huge campground btw – but then saw a sign pointing outwards toward the campground saying that the trail was closed because the dune was unstable. Whoops! There was no sign at the top! Anyway, we made it back in one piece 🙂
Bolgil Family Adventures 