Our Adventure Driven life so far (part 2)...finally

 So procrastination is one of many shortcomings of mine 😆...finally though...almost a year later, here is part 2. 

    We begin the second half of our trip leaving Acton CA. and heading north up I5. Our original plans were to make camp at Yosemite national forest, though because of covid our camp was closed. Side note: When planning your trips, always have a backup plan or be ready and make adjustments to your plan on the fly. We were lucky and were able to quickly adjust our plans. We made camp a bit further north in a town called Oregon House. Our camp was about 2 hours west of Tahoe national forest. It was a beautiful park right on a lake with an incredible view of rolling hills and mountains in the background. Wildlife could be seen all over the place. It was not our original plan to visit this park or area but we were very glad we did, as this time of the year if Yosemite was open, would be packed with visitors and harder to take in all the sites, here though, the short amount of time we were here, we enjoyed it and were able to see all that was around us. 

some friends we made at camp

                                                                       View from the camp

    After a week of exploring and relaxing in this beautiful area, we packed up, hitched up, and headed further north. We were now headed to a new state, and like the ones before this, it's one that I will have visited for the first time...Oregon. We got back onto the I5 and headed north. The drive was incredible. Even towing a travel trailer twisting and turning along the winding mountain road through the Mt. Shasta National Forest I felt relaxed and in awe at the amazing views of this mountain and landscape around it. Cheryl might tell you it wasn't so nice 😅...as the drive could be scary for some...but for those who love great scenic byways and roads, it's a great drive. After Shasta, the road calms as we drive further north and enter Oregon. We connect onto 38 then get onto another breathtaking road, 101, this highway runs up the California and Oregon coast and the views of the pacific ocean and its beaches looked like one giant, long, postcard. It was also my first time seeing the Pacific ocean in person...I was in total awe. Though had to keep my eyes on the road so we could make it to camp. Our camp was in Florence OR, not far from the ocean and South Jetty beach. Florence is a small beach town, lots of great seafood there as well as cool small town activities. The most interesting place...and activity for me here was the sand dunes. The Dunes were quite a sight, they towered over the beaches and were a hike to get to the top of them. Because of the size of the dunes, they created a sport of sorts to enjoy them, it's called sandboarding. Same concept as snowboarding but different in how the board is controlled. The dunes are also used by tourists and locals for running their sand rails, buggies, and quads on. South Jetty beach is also an amazing place to watch the sunset after an hour or so of falling on your ass while attempting to sandboard. There are tons of hiking trails and cool spots to visit in this area. Another one worth mentioning is Heceta Head lighthouse. This area has a nice rocky little beach, with stacks out in the water, and a scenic trail up to the lighthouse. Not far from the lighthouse another cool spot (somewhat touristy) is the Sea Lion Caves where hundreds of sea lions call home. 

Some racing on the Dunes

Heceta lighthouse 

Heceta Head

Sea Stacks at Heceta Head

After a week in Florence and the South Jetty area, we headed further north up the 101 to a place that awakened the childhood in me...Astoria OR. I have never been here before bet felt as though I have seen so much of this place before...and I have, through movies. It was, maybe still is, a popular spot for many movies including Kindergarten Cop and my childhood favorite the Goonies. Lots to do and see in this area. There is a DIY tour of the Goonies filming locations but...I warn to stay away from the Goondocks (the house at the beginning of the movie), as it's a private home and the residents do not care for random people just driving up their driveway for pictures. Haystack rock is also a landmark sight to see here, and one of the Goonies movie locations. The prison from the movie still stands today and is used as a museum for the Goonies and other films that were shot in the area. One of the Jail cells is set up just like it was in the movie. Other than the Goonies sights and its memory lane for us fans, there is a ton to see and do here, like the Astoria Column, the Megler Bridge, Ft Stevens, Cathedral trail is great for hiking even mountain biking and for a great photo backdrop, there is the Peter Iredale Shipwreck. There are amazing small beaches along the coast too, my favorite being Sand Dollar beach, the beach is covered with sand dollars an amazing mountain view, and a very pleasant, constant cool breeze...that causes the sand to move covering your footsteps in minutes.  Seaside a town right down the street from our camp offered great views of the ocean, sunsets as well as restaurants and ice cream shops out of this world, I recommend Zingers for some great homemade ice cream.  

Megler Bridge

Astoria Column

Sand dollar beach

Haystack rock

Jail from the Goonies/current Astoria film museum

   After spending a couple of weeks in the Astoria area we headed north again. This time to Washington state. Our camp was on the outskirts of a small town named Chehalis. This area was further inland compared to the last two, but we choose this location for being close to a couple adventures we couldn't wait to get to. First on my list to check out was Mt Saint Helens. I've never seen a volcano in all my life until the moment I started approaching Saint Helens. It was incredible but also filled me with an uneasy feeling. This volcano caused a lot of damage not that long ago, I remember reading about the horrors of the event in school...so needless to say seeing it in person can be intimidating in a way. There were some great places to do some exploring around the Mt. like the trail of two forests. The trail of two forests is a wooden boardwalk trail easy to walk on or even for wheelchairs to go on, what makes the trail so interesting though, is you are walking through 2 forests separated in time by 2000 years. One forest is the older pines and red cedars the other is a newer forest that was covered and burned in a lava flow 1900 years ago, the trail goes through the separation of these 2. When the lava flow engulfed the trees in the newer forest it created imprints known as lava casts of the trees. It looks very interesting and I've never seen anything like it before. There were also some other trails that I found near the 2 forest trail I explored as well, beautiful area and a great forest hike. I was planing on heading over to Ape Cave next but due to covid the park blocked it off and closed it. So I drove further into the park got some great pics of the mountain and found another trail called Lava Canyon trail. This trail started off paved and easy for most casual hikers but the further you get into it the harder the trail becomes...and you have to watch your step or you're falling off a cliff. This trail was awesome, enjoyed seeing the water rushing through the canyon even an impressive waterfall could be seen from it too. I did not complete the whole trail as it was a 5 mile trail, it was getting late and there was still more driving around the park and sight seeing I wanted to do...but fully enjoyed what I did see. You could spend days, weeks hiking around on the trails there...maybe next time I'll plan to spend more time there.  Staying with Volcanic adventuring, our next adventure we explored Mt Rainier. Mt Rainier is located northeast of St. Helens...but landscape and our experience there was different. The road to and around the mountain was covered with incredible tall pines and mountains all around. The drive was out of this world scenic and ...one of the best driving roads I driven on this trip. We made a stop at the base of the mountain in a place called Paradise. This part of the park is also used as a winter time location, it recieves on average 640 inches of snow a year...we were there in August and saw winter hikers there. The mountain is covered in snow and Ice, the landscape looked to be pulled straight from a fairy tale...felt I couldve stumbled onto a castle at any turn along the trails there. We took tons of pictures of wildlife, waterfalls, mountain views, wild flowers, the colors of the trees and mountains in the background made me understand why they call this place Paradise. 

Road up to Mt. Saint Helens

Lava flow, Trail of 2 forest

Trail of 2 forest

Waterfall on Lava Caynon trail

Paradise, Mt. Rainier national park

Mt. Rainier

   After couple of weeks in Chehalis we traveled west to spend a week by the sea...this time in Ocean City Washington. This area was a very relaxed small fishing town. We spent most our time here exploring hiden gems. One gem was a waterfall we found on the side of a road called Merriman falls. This very scenic spot and waterfall is literally found on the the side of S. Shore rd in Quinault, Washington. The entire area is gorgeous but this little spot is worth parking on the roadside and spending some time at. We also stumbled onto a field with an actual totem pole...looks to have possibly been an abandon camp ground. We also saw the worlds largest sitka spruce in Quinault. Took a trip to the rainforest resort village and ate some of the freshest salmon I've ever had, at the salmon house, while watching sail boats float by on lake Quinault. Our camp was right by the beach and we enjoyed a small hike to it and a stroll along it with our pup...overall was just nice relaxing get away. After a week there we headed back to Chehalis, for one more week, got our car worked on and ourselves ready to make our trek east to Idaho for another stop along our way homeward bound. 

Merriman Falls

Lake Quinault

Bertie and the Totem

Horse riders on the beach by our camp

    Our adventures in the Pacific northwest has been on of our favorites so far. We surely look forward to making our way out there again. For those looking for a great time and great places to explore I highly recommend these areas. If you are interested in seeing more of our trip in the Pacific northwest please check out our video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dw_bsUoYT0, if you like it, please like and subscribe as there will be more adventures coming...and thank you all for taking the time to read about our adventure driven life.