2020

The Metolius River

Netarts Bay

The Blue Basin

The Painted Hills

For once we found ourselves ahead of the times purchasing our motorhome a year before the pandemic that no-one saw coming. We were grateful to have the motorhome this year and used it as our self-contained bubble for both day trips and multi-day vacations in the Pacific Northwest. While it wasn't the year we had planned, and who's was, we had enjoyed some beautiful outdoor spaces.

June: We had meticulously planned a trip to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons immediately after purchasing the motorhome. Stay tuned for the trip that did finally occur in June of 2021! In lieu of this we used the vacation week to visit Cold Springs Resort in Camp Sherman, Oregon. Mr. Purse had camped nearby years ago with friends, but it was my first time staying in the area. While the nearby general store and fish hatchery were closed we did enjoy strolls and drives along the gorgeous Metolius River. The RV park is small and scattered amongst some cabins. We probably wouldn't stay there again because the sites were so close together, but it is a good option for staying near non-campers.

July: We traveled with my parents to Beverly Beach state park on the Oregon Coast near Depoe Bay. This is one of our favorite state parks with lots of trees, although walking to the beach can take a while depending on what site you have. We stopped at one of our favorite restaurants, Side Door Cafe in Gleneden Beach on the way out for takeout. On the way home we stumbled upon the thrilling sight of whales making their way into Depoe Bay.

August: We spent our anniversary weekend at the Netarts Bay Garden RV resort, lucking into one of the smaller end spots that looks out over the bay. It was the relaxing weekend that we both needed gazing out over the bay watching the pelicans wheel and dive. We made advance reservations to tour the cheese factory in Tillamook. When we arrived, the line for ice cream stretched well into the parking lot. Fortunately with our reservation, we were ushered to the front of the line and enjoyed an almost private self-guided tour of the facilities. 

The last week of August we returned with my parents to one of our favorite RV parks in Oregon: Honey Bear by the Sea in Ophir. We paused in the JC on the way down to visit some good friends and admire their recently remodeled home. It's a long drive for one day so we spent two nights at the Umpqua Riverfront RV Park near Elkton. This was a lovely, quiet park along the Umpqua River perfect for fishing and getting away from it all. It was a longer detour from our route than we anticipated, so we don't know if we would use it as a stopover again. We stopped at Bandon before arriving at our final destination. It felt crowded and busy for COVID times so it wasn't as enjoyable as in previous years. Mr. Purse took my Dad golfing, but other than that we didn't do much at Honey Bear which is no problem for us. My parents dog enjoyed their new dog park.

September: We finally took our thrice rescheduled trip to the John Day Fossil Beds and Painted Hills in southeast Oregon. Accommodations are sparse in that area but we enjoyed our stay at the tiny Fish House Inn and RV Park in Dayville. It was bucolic nestled along a quiet road with only eight sites and a flock of resident chickens. Mr. Purse employed his farm skills when called upon to assist with an escaped chicken named Snowball on our second morning. The three units of the fossil beds are quite a distance from each other but we visited two. Our favorite was the Painted Hills. We unreservedly recommend the pie at the Dayville Cafe a short walk from the RV park.

On the return trip, we played a few holes of golf at the Condon city golf course after putting our greens fees in the payment box. Much of the course was not irrigated so it felt like concrete if you hit the ground. I settled for practicing my pitching and putting. We spent the final night of this trip at Ainsworth State Park in the Columbia Gorge. The trees were pretty and there were plenty of them. Unfortunately the park is between the train tracks and the interstate so it was noisy and a bit unsettling after our quiet stay in Dayville. We wouldn't stay there again unless seeking a short getaway from Portland.

October: We snuck in a final trip with my parents to LL Stub Stewart State Park in Buxton Oregon about an hour from home. This is one of the newest Oregon State Parks and came highly recommended from a friend. We were skeptical but enjoyed our stay and are looking forward to a repeat October visit in 2021. The sites are well-maintained and pretty. For recreation there are miles of hiking trails and disc golf.

A (motor) home of our own - 2019

   

 As the days got warmer and the clouds started to clear during a typical Oregon spring, I shared with Mr. Purse that I was feeling a bit gloomy that we hadn’t made arrangements for another RV trip this summer. Maybe we should start “thinking” about buying an RV of our own? It would be easier, right? Not having to repack each trip? Knowing how everything works? Leaving on a trip at the spur of the moment? But not this summer! Only an fool buys an RV at the beginning of the season and pays top dollar. And definitely not a new one!

Fast forward to the last weekend of May when we drove our new 2019 Winnebago Navion 24V off the lot of the RV Palooza after dining on a complimentary BBQ lunch. You know what they say about the best of intentions ...

One of the first things we learned is that Oregon campgrounds, particularly state parks, are reserved months ahead in the summertime. Because we weren't planning on buying an RV, we hadn't made any reservations prior to June. I'll summarize our trips below and there are a few photos above. We enjoyed some nice stays in 2019.

June: Our maiden voyage was to the Silver Spur RV Park in Silverton. It was recommended that we stick close to home on our first trip, so we did. The park was nicely appointed with a pool and clean, private restrooms. We spent most of a day in downtown Silverton and managed to find my favorite Robata Apricots at the Farmer's Market. The trip went smoothly and we were grateful for some of the appointments Winnebago has added to keep owners from making costly mistakes.

August: We spent our anniversary at the Guaranty RV Park in Junction City the night before attending a free RV seminar at Guaranty (the dealer where we purchased the motorhome). It wasn't the most romantic day, but we learned quite a bit and felt it was a worthwhile time expenditure for newbies. The most memorable item they discussed was avoiding the "tower of doom". Following the seminar, we visited one of my close friends who moved to JC a couple of years ago on our way out to the coast.

We parked at the Sea and Sand RV resort near Depoe Bay for the next couple of nights. This is one of the nicer private parks on the Oregon coast. We found the sites near us to be a little close together, but they have a wide variety of sites. We got one of the last sites available that could accommodate our motorhome because we booked "only" a month ahead. It's just a short walk to the beach from this park and there are oceanfront sites if you are lucky enough to snag one. Once again the trip was relatively uneventful and we were grateful that our Winnebago appeared to be well-assembled and have few problems from the factory.

September: I stumbled upon a Labor Day weekend cancellation at Ohanapecosh campground in Mount Rainer National Park. I have fond memories of this campground after camping there as a child when my parents brought home one of their trailers. The campground was gorgeous and we had a large site under a canopy of old growth forest backing up to the Ohanapecosh River. 

This was our first experience "dry" camping with no water or electrical service. Our Navion has a compressor fridge which is good because we don't have to worry about keeping the coach level. However, it can be a detriment when dry camping because you absolutely need to have electricity to keep your food from spoiling. The majority of RV refrigerators can also run off of propane. The motorhome has solar panels on the roof, but they don't do much good when they are shaded by trees. The house  batteries do charge when driving, but we didn't drive anywhere the first day. By dinnertime, the house batteries were getting precariously low, so in a campground populated primarily by tents, we were "those people" shattering the quiet when running our generator to get the battery charge up. Lesson learned that we either need to drive or park in the sun every day when dry camping!

We met the Jones' from Colorado who have a 2016 Winnebago similar to ours and traded customizations and stories. We took a couple of day hikes and drove up to Paradise for some lunch and looking around. There is WiFi access in the Paradise visitor center and it was entertaining to see everyone huddled on their electronic devices at the one place in the park that had Internet access.

For the third year in a row, we stayed at Honey Bear by the Sea in Ophir on the southern Oregon coast. Every year it gets a little better as they improve and add features to the park. It's over 5 hours from our home so we usually try to stop somewhere on the way down. In 2019 we stayed in Richardson Park and had another opportunity to visit our JC friends. It was cold and rained a bunch that night, but the rest of the trip we had nice weather. My parents joined us on this trip and took the jet boat tour from Gold Beach with Mr. Purse. 

October: Our final trip of 2019 was to Silver Falls State Park, again accompanied by my parents, this time in their new motorhome. This gorgeous park hosts the trail of ten falls and is about as nice as a recreational area can be without being designated a National Park. Unfortunately, it was colder than we would have liked and the days are pretty short by that time of year in the Pacific Northwest. This was the first time we set up camp in the dark, but we managed to accomplish it. Also we learned that our electric heat pump does not work so well if the outside temperatures are below 40 degrees. It's supposed to switch over the propane furnace, but it can't if you have the propane valve off for travel, which we did. The first morning was a chilly wake up call, but we figured it out and were grateful it wasn't a problem with the motorhome. The second morning we awoke to a small coating of snow and ice on the ground! We gingerly made our way back to the interstate and knew it was time to winterize the motorhome for 2019.

Photo notes from left to right:

1. Our 2019 Winnebago Navion at the Sea and Sand RV Resort near Depoe Bay. We nicknamed it Harvey (the RV), but the Jones' we met at Mount Rainier had already appropriated that name. Mr. Purse has suggested Seymour
2. The Grove of the Patriarchs at Mount Rainier.
3. Silver Falls near Ohanapecosh campground, not to be confused with Silver Falls State Park in Oregon

Happy Trails to You

As you may have gathered, your intrepid narrator ran out of steam in the closing days of our adventure. After arriving home we estimated that we covered about 3400 miles in 2.5 weeks. Whew! This is an overview of the last few stops we made on our way home to Oregon. The descriptions are in the same order as the images above:

1. Statuary at the Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center in Grand Teton National Park
2. A parting image of Jackson Lake from our accommodations at Signal Mountain Lodge. We will be back!
3. The warm, mineral water pool at Indian Springs Resort & RV near American Falls, Idaho. It was both a step back in time and a refreshing respite after a long day on the road.
4. Shoshone Falls in Twin Falls, Idaho. The Niagara Falls of the West.
5. Checking in for our last night out at the "Old West" themed Mountain View RV park in Baker City, Oregon
6. Wagon ruts on the Oregon Trail visible near the Oregon Trail Interpretative Center also in Baker City. Happy trails to you!

One Perfect Day

We drove up for the day from our lodging in Grand Teton to Yellowstone National Park. The rivers in Wyoming were swollen with spring run-off as they were in Montana making a short hike at Lewis River Falls worthwhile.

West Thumb geyser basin isn't among the well-known areas in Yellowstone, but it is one of our favorites because it includes a wide variety of geological features in a small area. We saw mudpots, brightly colored pools, and dormant geysers along the boardwalks. One section of the trail follows the shoreline of Yellowstone Lake. The lake level is currently higher than normal and a few of the features we saw during our previous visit in September were covered by water this time.

We attended a ranger talk where we learned more about the science behind the colored pools and geysers. A highlight was viewing a mother and baby elk nuzzling each other, through binoculars, at the center of the geyser basin.

We found a lakeside table at the Grant Village area for a late lunch before heading south to Signal Mountain. A perfect day in Yellowstone for me ...