Monday, June 09, 2008

We got most everything ready this morning and went over to the beach and became rock hounds :-D We had fun walking the beach and stuffing our pockets full of stones.


We tried our best to be out by shortly after noon (GA Time). We finally got left at around 1 pm (GA Time). People kept talking to us... which is fine.. that is part of traveling the USA... meeting people. The man that told us about this park, Redwood Trails (Stone Lagoon) Campground, stopped by and gave us a couple of agates. I don't think we picked any up while playing rock hounds. The man next door told us they had a window fall out somewhere along the road.. they have no idea when. He replaced it with a piece of plexy glass... taped in.. for now.


The drive along Newton B. Drury Scenic Drive was just beautiful.. I don't know which was better walking through the giants of driving through them.... just a treat to do both. The Pacific Ocean is very beautiful too. The color is so much different than the Atlantic Ocean. One night I would like to stay up an see the sunset over the ocean.


We got gas in Crescent City California at $4.99 a gallon.


We stopped by the Visitors Center here at Brookings Oregon. The attendant there gave us a sack full of stuff to look over.


We arrived at Harris Beach State Park (Brookings Oregon) at 3:45 pm (GA Time) We had to wait 15 minutes to get into our assigned spot. The people before us were staying until the last minute.


It was sunny when we first got here then it quickly clouded up and the dampness could be felt... the temperature was about 62 degrees and is still so at 7 pm (PT)


I managed to fix dinner... an interuption of opening the frig door and the bottom door rack falling out.... water bottle and tea bottle hit the floor and the rack hit my right pinkie finger bruising it... at least I think that is all the damage it did. A cup or so of tea spilled all over the floor. Frank got to it before it reached the carpet.... while I dealt with the pain of my finger. We ate dinner about 2 pm (Pacific Time). Pulled pork, baked beans and corn were the fare.


After dinner we went for a walk on the beach. We went downhill a short ways in the campground and then crossed the road that comes to the entrance of the park. We went uphill for a bit. We had a great view of the beach from up there. So we decided to go back and get our cameras.


Now back to the trail where we turned around... some beautiful roses. I took pictures and hope something turned out. There were also other wildflowers along the way. Then the view was spetacular and more pictures were taken. We then became mountain goats and climbed down the hillside... making those hairpin turns that the truck has gotten used to doing. Frank had his walking stick and I had my cane. I don't think we would have made the climb down without them.


We saw a squirrel before reaching the bottom... I think his name was Rocky. He sure could scale the rocks in no time. By this time we thought we might just have made a mistake coming down that hill. We found a less steep way of getting back to camp though. We climbed over rocks to get to the beach.... from soft ball size to cinder block size. The Big Rocks (several building stories high) along the shore were beautiful... one with a hole in the middle that water came through and formed a tidal pool. We didn't see any critters in the pool.


We took more pictures and went back over the rocks again to the other path. We managed to make it down the slightly steep hill going back down.... think of a slide... I kept hoping that it wouldn't become one. Next climbing over extremely large driftwood... maybe small redwood size :-D Then the walk along the beach. No stones or seashells... just dark gray sand, dead crabs and dead sand fleas. We took more pictures.


We rested a bit up by the picnic tables at the day use area. There were some girls up on one of the rocky hills feeding squirrels with seagulls waiting for their turn. The squirrels were crawling all over the girls. We looked down and squirrels were all around us too. A much different squirrel than back home. We got pictures of them... so maybe we can identify which species of squirrels it is later.


Then our gentle climb back to home. We walked up the day use area parking lot and up the road past the entrance to the campground and up to our path leading to our site... site # A-29. I'm not sure if we were in fog or if it was misting rain on the way back.


It was such a gentle walk uphill that I didn't get out of breath.... but it is easier to breathe at this lower elevation. Crescent City California's elevation was only 44 ft and I don't think it is much different here... except on the hills going towards the beach :-D


Then our showers. We decided to use the campground showers. There was enough sand in my shower stall to make a good start on a sand castle... the same for Frank. I wore my Crocs up there and kept them on while showering,,, I still managed to wash my feet. We thought about doing the laundry here, but the machines are constantly busy and a bit expensive.


After we settled down the sun came back out. You can't have perfect light for pictures all the time.


We've seen Stellar Jays here, but they seem to hide when we have the cameras handy.


We've looked at a bunch of stuff that the man at the Visitor's Center gave us this evening. It looks like there is a lot to see and do on the Oregon coast.


We traveled 76 miles today.