McKenzie Bridge area OR

Oregon State is well known for its beautiful Coast, it is easy to travel along this coast because wherever you stop you cannot get wrong.

The endless beaches, the rock formations ,the lighthouses and the villages along the coast are just outstanding.

But the Central area of Oregon provides endless pure nature for ones that love hiking ,lovers,waterfalls,lakes,volcano and mountains .

We settled with our 5W for the next 5 days in Belknap Resort & Hot Springs in McKenzie Bridge OR.

A very beautiful Resort that includes RV C.G ,cabins to rent, and a fantastic natural hot pool where the hot water comes from an under ground hot spring.

There are many things to do in the area besides soaking in the pool but we chose to hike to waterfalls and visit the Volcanic Center at the McKenzie peak, at the end of each day we still had time to soak in the hot pool that closes at 9PM.

This is just an excample of the falls around this area,it sure is a Waterfall paradise.

At the McKenzie summit we climbed the "tower" to see the huge Lava fields and learned some history on how and when the volcano irruptions happened, the sights of the Lava beds are unusual and very impressive.

And this is the view from the top.

There is so much to see in Central Oregon,we are going to come again in the next Spring.

Along the coast North of Florence

The bright blue skies welcomed us early in the morning and was a great sign for another great day.

Usually I do not waste energy on things that I cannot change ,like the weather but still it was a nice change from the foggy mornings lately.

We drove North along the coast to Darlingtonia State Wayside to see a whole bunch of insect eating plants, they do it by producing smelly liquid that attracts the insect to land in the "mouth" and there is no way out...

 

Amazing what  kind of surviving tools nature gave to these plants so they can survive.

From there a short drive to Sea Lion Cave gave us an opportunity to see some Sea Lions only from the view point  because the elevator was under maintenance for the day.

 

The vistas along Hwy 101 are just  fantastic and sometime looked like taken from a picture made by a very tallented painter with a huge imagination.

Heceta Head Lighthouse is one of the most visited and photographed landmarks on the West Coast, we had a very imformative guide tour by a volunteer that enjoys very much his job.there is a short easy half a mile trail from the parking lot to the Light House.

The trails of Cape Perpetua wind through miles of old-growth forest with breathtaking ocean views,where waves hit the rocks throwing drops all over the place.

It is a very popular stop for ones traveling Hwy 101 eather way and there is also a good possibility to view whales close by.

Yachats known as "The Gem of Oregon Coast" welcomed us with all of their 703 people , the village is located at the mouth of the Yachats River. Long known as a vacation destination ,it draws those who appreciate the area's unique qualities.

  

Talking with locals we found out that they just “lost” the only bank and the only gas station ,I hope it will not be the a downhill road for this beautiful place.

The last stop today was at the South Jetty in Florence just as the sun was making its way down towards the horizon – and what a picture it was…..

And a very good way to end this great day.

Florence OR

It was one of these days that everything went wrong…

It all started when the owner of Darlings Marina RV Resort C.G in Oregon did not want to honor the Passport America discount although he is in the latest P.A book, "I told Passport America to take me off the list , so if you have a problem with it direct you complain to them" he said.

As we had a reservation and paid for one night each (we were with friends) we decided to pay the full amount and stay for one night instead of three planned.

The owner pointed us to our site and said that there is no sewer hookups and no central dump in his C.G...this was already too much for us and it showed from our body language because the next thing he said was " I always have problems with this P.A people, so I will refund you and you can go elsewhere"-and so we did ,not before he tried to give us only half of the deposit and only after we asked for the second half he eventually gave it to us.

We called a few C.G and finally were able to get 2 spots in a C.G that belongs to 1000 trails, but when we came over we could not get in because "you should make the reservation through this number " " but we just did " we said...and here again we had to move our rigs from the gate and make the call again to get the reservation.

You would think that this concludes the misfortune???NO, it only started.

After letting us in the C.G we were given a few site options (it is a huge C.G ), so we pulled the rigs all over the place and all the sites that were supposed to be free were taken.

So we came back to the gate (blocking the way in/out) and were given new options....this time we got in.

Backing into the site my friend overheated his truck ,we had to drive to town to get transmission oil while leaving the rig blocking the only road to this part of the C.G....

But from now on it was all good.....a good dinner with some wine and we forgot all the rest.

We woke up to a beautiful day ,got our hiking gear and headed to Sweet Creek near Mapleton.

 

All along the 1.5 miles (one way) there are many cascades, pools and rich vegetation, sometimes it felt like entering another planet.

 

On the way back to our "home" we strolled the beautiful Florence Old City with its shops,bars,resturants and marine port.

And saw some colorful people….

It is all apart of life and we take it as it comes trying to make the best of the situation.