Brookings OR

Leaving California behind, we arrive in Brookings, OR, the first coastal town on 101. Although we've passed through Brookings before, this is the first time we will be spending some time here. We land at AtRivers Edge RV Resort. The resort is a little ways east of town along the southern bank of the Chetco River.

You can only enter the RV park when you're heading east. (This is us leaving.)

After three nights at AtRivers Edge, we pack up and move to Harris Beach State Park, also in Brookings.

Harris Beach can be a difficult campground to get into, so we jump at the chance when we find an opening there.

We take a bike ride from Harris Beach State Park into Brookings











to Chetco Point Park.

The weather in Brookings has been wonderful, and we are lucky to get an additional day at Harris Beach in one of the few campsites with a partial view of the ocean. 

We set up our chairs to enjoy the view...

But wait, we don't have satellite reception at this site. We'll have to move the satellite dish..

...so we can enjoy the view (the Golden State Warriors game).

We are enjoying our stay in Brookings, so we add a few nights stay. This time we move northeast along the Chetco River to Alfred Loeb State Park. It's only 8 miles from the coast, but there's a surprising rise in the temperature. Luckily the park is green and shady.

Salamander and crawdad

Continuing northward

Leaving Ocean Cove and heading north, we hit one of the sharpest, steepest turns... especially if you're towing... Hwy 1 has to offer on the way to Albion River Campground in Little River. Once we arrive in Little River, it's another steep, narrow, winding road down to the campground. It's rainy, so the water is a little high, and the RV park is right at the mouth of the Albion River, so at high tide, it's one of the most frightening places I've stayed. (Yes, I do have a wild imagination!) We stay two nights, and I am anxious to move on!

Our last stay along the coast is in Fort Bragg at Pomo RV Park. No ocean views from Pomo, which at this point, I'm okay with. The sites are nice and private with trees and shrubs creating a partition from your neighbors.

While we're in Fort Bragg, we check out the Asian Fusion restaurant. It's very highly rated, so we're anticipating great Thai food. We're a little disappointed with the food, but the service was great. It's a family run place, and the waitress did her best to make the whole experience good.

We spent some time walking along the Noyo Headlands. The trail there eventually led to Glass Beach. It's kind of interesting to see, but also a disturbing reminder of how much garbage had to be thrown into the sea to create this.

We follow Hwy 1 north, which eventually turns into Hwy 101 and heads inland. Our next destination is the Ancient Redwoods RV Park in Redcrest.

It's raining while we are there, but we still manage a hike on the Rockefeller Loop in the Humboldt Redwoods State Park.












Rain and redwoods do seem to go together.

  

Our final stop in California is the Klamath River RV Park in Klamath. Klamath River RV Park is just a beautiful, green park with river views from almost everywhere. It's far enough off of 101 that it's quiet and peaceful. 

It's a pretty low key area, so one of our chosen activities is sitting, sipping and watching the river flow by.

While we are there, we take a drive along Klamath Beach road... 

We follow it as it winds its way up a hill until we find ourselves at High Bluff Overlook looking back down to the spot the Klamath meets the ocean.

Back to the California coast for cooler temps

We only have about a month and a half to travel before we come back to central Cali for a family function. As the warm weather will be coming soon, we will hug the coast for this trip. We leave Yosemite and head to on of our favorite RV Parks in Half Moon Bay, Pillar Point, for a few days to start the trip.

Half Moon Bay is close enough for us to take a day trip to visit Twining Vine Estate Winery in Castro Valley to do some wine tasting and to pick up a wedding present.

Sunday, May 12th was Mother's Day, so Tom made Wendy a steak dinner. the meal started with two types of crostini (the idea was borrowed from an appetizer we had for our anniversary in Morro Bay). One type was sliced filet mignon with an olive tapenade and the second was portobello mushroom, pepper jack cheese and sliced artichoke hearts.

After the weekend in Half Moon Bay, we head north up Highway One to Ocean Cove Campground. Tom has been here before, but it's my first time. Ocean Cove is apparently a hot spot for fishermen. However, fishing season hasn't started yet, so we are able to get an amazing campsite. It is dry camping, so we are only able to stay for a couple of days.

In Tom's opinion Ocean Cove rivals any spot on the California coast for it's beauty.