Devil’s Lake
It was an easy drive from Champoeg to Lincoln City. Much easier, in fact, than driving through Lincoln City itself, where despite reasonable speed limits, the average speed was about 5 mph.
It’s a bit colder by the ocean, but not horribly so.
We got some chores done, including purchasing a higher quality hose to replace the cheapo one that kept falling out of the holding tank spritzer inlet. The new one is cast brass rather than stamped, and it fits and holds much, much better.
So, this is Devil’s Lake:
with B at the end of the boat launch.
First lake that we’ve come across that isn’t way down. Sold its soul? Nah, it’s connected to the ocean.
Down the road to History
Detroit Lake was so pretty and the light was so great that 2 more photos are presented:
A pair of fearless ducks just strutted around our camp site and preened for the camera!
It was an easy, and for the most part, a very pretty journey to our current location, Champoeg State Recreation Area, where it is alleged that the process of Oregon becoming a State was begun. There’s not much of the town left as a flood washed it away.
The state park is full of trees, and the cottonwoods are losing their leaves fast.
We can’t visit somewhere on this trip without taking a photo of water, so, here’s the Willamette River.
Such a pretty drive
Today we set off from LaPine State Recreational Area, near Bend, OR in freezing conditions, North through Bend and then on Hwy 20, then 126 and 22 to Detroit Lake SRA.
Oh boy, what scenery! The Cascades, Three Sisters, Mount Jefferson and Mount Washington. And all the trees. The road winding down from the high plains, all so beautiful.
Then the camp site overlooking the lake. Temperatures warmed up to T-shirt conditions (and we sneaked a clean up of the trailer with buckets of water and brushes and chamois leather).
This is paradise.
The Weather was Warm
So there I was, watching the thermometer creep up, from 31 degrees overnight to a balmy 69 or so.
I made lunch out of assorted bits and pieces of left-overs, and then off we set to explore.
After trying the Lava Cave and the ‘High Desert Museum’, what we found was the unbelievably beautiful state park: Smith Rocks.
Then we went on a glorious local road to Prineville, and its museum, which was splendid.
Rain, rain, go away
Thursday morning, we woke up to rain in Junipers Reservoir RV Park near Lakeview, Oregon.
No matter, we decamped, and headed north on US 395, after waving at an enthusiastic Lance owner as we exited the park.
It was rainy, cold and dirty on the road and then on OR-31, so the Xterra and trailer became pretty darn filthy.
The rain eased, but it was still cold, and we turned off to where we thought we might stay – Ana Reservoir RV Park, and oh dear, it was just a parking lot with no visuals to redeem it. So, we backed out of there quickly and headed to where we had reservations for Friday and Saturday at LaPine State Recreation Area. There we found a spot to stay in (but we had to move to our reserved spot today), and it was cold. We lit a fire, but that only worked for a short time to keep us outside.
Eventually, we scuttled back into the trailer and its warmth.
Overnight the temperatures killed our traveling Basil plant (but they are only $3.99 from Trader Joe’s), and in the morning it was cold and damp, again. I guess that this is Oregon.
Changing topic. This state campground is wound around the Deschutes River, and boy, is it ever pretty…..
Here’s me, by the river
Back at the campground, we saw a coyote twice just wander into our site and mooch around for a bit. B went and told the camp host, who said that the campground closes at the end of the month, and the wildlife seems to know that it’s about to happen, and they start regaining their space. Cool.
Eastward Ho!
We headed East from Ashland on Oregon 66, which was pretty darn twisty for the first few miles (but now we’ve done Scott Mountain, it was a breeze). From then on it was high plains to Klamath Falls, and then 140 further east after a couple of 5k feet passes to end up at Junipers Lake RV park, where interestingly, and not remembering, we’d spent a night maybe 7 years ago in another trip to Oregon.
The park has changed a lot since then. It’s tidied up, has decent facilities (including functional wifi and a laundry) and is currently hosting a Lance TC and another Lance TT 🙂 .
We thought of heading east from here, but we decided to leave that to another trip, as it’s kind of high in elevation in that direction and it’s getting kind of cold around here.
Plan B is to head north. We have reservations at LaPine State Park for Friday and Saturday nights, so we only have to fill in for tomorrow night and there are multiple choices along the way.
So we are kind of circling around central Oregon with a view to finding ourselves at Joseph H Stewart State Park on the 7th October for a Lance group hug.
Eureka to Yreka (amongst other places)
After our sojourn at Eureka, we headed across country to a fine little RV park, (named BigFoot) in Junction City, which is perhaps not aptly named as it is neither a junction nor a city.
Camped in the woods
The Trinity River
We poked around the Weaverville Museum, which is mostly a collection of domestic items donated to the museum – I imagine because the owners no longer had any space for them. But it was fun to see the history of the place laid out.
Next day, we took Highway 3 north, past the almost empty Trinity Lake (which is amazing, since the last time I went past here was in 1999 on the motorcycle, and the lake was nearly up to the road. Now it is a hundred or more feet down).
The road was great until we ascended Scott Mountain, which was, shall we say, ‘technical’ for towing a trailer. I recall being down to walking speed on some of the curves riding the motor cycle, so I leave it to you to imagine how tight the curves are.
But down the other side and through Scott Valley was a breeze, and a completely different landscape of farmland instead of trees. At Yreka, we hit I-5 north and exited at Ashland, headed for Jackson County’s Emigrant Lake campground. We were lucky to find a spot, surprising on a Monday, and it quickly filled up after we arrived. It’s a beautiful setting, but again, the lake is empty.
We took a look at Golden Townsite- an old mining village. Heck, that hydraulic mining was destructive!
Lost Coast
The last time I was hereabouts was in 1999, on the motorcycle. I’d never heard of the ‘Lost Coast’ and completely bypassed it (which was probably a good idea on a sport bike).
Since then, we’d read about it and were curious to see what this Lost Coast was about.
So we headed out to Ferndale to explore further. As soon as we found the road to the Lost Coast, we understood why it was lost. The road surface was appalling! It was like it was designed to keep out foreigners. Even with our stout Xterra, it was jarring for about 80 miles all around the way – even through the Humboldt State park.
But, you know, this place is beautiful. With ocean vistas, farmland and Redwood forests, it’s, according to B, like Wisconsin has been transplanted to the CA coast.
Up and Down and Around and Around
That there just about says it all. Willits to Fort Bragg, an ever twisting and turning road (Hwy 20).
Then Hwy 1 to Legett. I’d done this stretch before on the motorcycle in 1999, coming the other way, but I didn’t remember that 22 miles of hairpin bends from the coast up to Hwy 101. Towing a trailer, interesting.
We took a good part of the ‘Avenue of the Giants’ Redwood Alley, so to speak, and that was a change in pace.
Tomorrow, we head for the ‘Lost Coast’ for an explore day.
As B sez: zig zag zig zag respite zig zag zig zag respite really pretty
Canada Geese and Wasps
We had thought about staying at the Yolo Fairgrounds while visiting with family in Woodland. But, no toilets/showers. No bueno. Dixon Fairgrounds seemed to have toilets. But it still was just a fairground parking lot.
So we decided to sacrifice nearness for a better place. And found what is so far the best campsite of this trip, at Solano Lake County Park. The campground stretches along Putah Creek (bro-in-law shared chuckles over the Creek’s name).
There were many peacocks and peahens wandering throughout the park, and a peahen with two peababies decided to explore our camp site. Aww, cute!
We took some really windy and wiggly roads today over the hills past Berryessa, Clear and Mendocino Lakes. S hasn’t seen any of this part of California before, and was in awe.
Tonight we’re overnighting at Willits KOA having failed to find our first-choice of Golden Rule RV Park. We’d stay another night to ride the Skunk Train, but the entire KOA has been reserved for some beer company’s weekend outing (shame we can’t stay for it).
Trod Bogs Sadly - Oddstray's Blog 
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