Thursday, October 16, 2014 (Travel to South Beach State Park, Newport, Oregon)

It was an absolutely beautiful day today...what a change from yesterday! This is a very beautiful park. We had loop F all to ourselves but they were going to close it down once we left. We pulled out of our site a little later than we wanted...it was 10:00 by the time we had finished at the sani-dump and were headed south on Hwy 101.

(Remember to click on the pictures to enlarge)

We passed the Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad steam train just after we drove through Garibaldi.
The Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad is a registered non-profit museum organization. "We are an all volunteer organization that operates over the former southern Pacific and Port of Tillamook Bay Railroads.  We operate regularly scheduled trains between Garibaldi and Rockaway Beach in the summer months and special event trains throughout the year over the rest of the line. Our line extends from the Tillamook Air Museum blimp hangar on the South side of Tillamook through Garibaldi, Rockaway Beach and Wheeler where the tracks turn to the east and head up into the coast range along the remote and breathtaking Nehalem and Salmonberry River canyons."

Just thought I would throw a picture in that didn't have water in it (LOL)...the highway went inland for bit. More beautiful Oregon scenery...

We drove through Lincoln City...

We stopped at a pull-out on Siletz Bay...

A little Oregon History...this beach was hit by a devastating tsunami in January 1700...

 Depoe Bay...

We will be making a day trip to check out the many spots along the coast.

Newport, Oregon!

We went across the Yaquina Bay Historic Bridge...

It was 1:00 when we pulled into South Beach State Park...

The larger sites are on the outside perimeter of the loops and as we drove through we noticed a lot of them were reserved. So as soon as we found one that did not have a "reserved" notice posted, we backed into it. Luckily, the road is wide and we had maneuvering room. After we unhitched, and put the slides out, we had lunch and then I walked down to the main entrance to register for site D13. Again, we have electricity and water for $24/night (off season). After self registering for four nights, I noticed that the sign said that this is a reservable campground and that you can only register for two nights at a time...oh great! I eventually flagged a park ranger down and she confirmed this...I explained that we would like to stay four nights and I had just paid for them. She said that she would go and see if the site was available for the extra two nights. While we were finishing our set up, she came by and confirmed we were okay for the four nights...whew!

There is a nice big open area behind our site...

After we were all set up, we headed out for a walk. According to the forecast, today is it for the nice weather, so let's go see the beach in the sunshine! The trail from the C loops of the campground to the beach is a .3 mile walk...

 The bridge in the distance...

Are we ever going to make it to the beach?!

Finally!

Steve took a few pictures from the top of the sand dune before coming down onto the beach...

We walked along the beach to the South Jetty...this is the channel that goes into Yaquina Bay...

 Big waves breaking...

After our walk, it was time to relax in the late afternoon sunshine...ahhh... I just wish that the weather for the rest of our trip down the Oregon Coast could be like today!