Northwestern Oregon & Southwestern Washington (National Parks Trip #3)

This post represents another installment in the series documenting our West Coast National Parks trip in the summer of 2017.  Alan and I, along with our 18 year old daughter, Kyra, logged a total of 8,513 memorable miles of adventure over the course of five and a half weeks during the months of July and August.

Despite the fact that Alan, Kyra and I were excited to be moving on to Washington and the three National Parks we would be visiting in that state, our last day on the Oregon coast was bittersweet.  All three of us had fallen in love with the State Parks and State and National Recreation Sites in Oregon that allowed easy access to the beaches and waters of the Pacific Ocean.  Leaving all that beauty behind wasn’t something we were looking forward to.  But, new adventures awaited, and we made the best of our final day on the coast of Oregon.

Back to the Coast after a Disappointing Visit to Crater Lake National Park (National Parks Trip #3)

This post represents another installment in the series documenting our West Coast National Parks trip in the summer of 2017.  Alan and I, along with our 18 year old daughter, Kyra, logged a total of 8,513 memorable miles of adventure over the course of five and a half weeks during the months of July and August.

Whenever we visit a National Park, our preference is to camp within the park itself – assuming there’s a campground that will accommodate our 32’ travel trailer.  On this trip, though, we had planned a one day visit to Crater Lake, and it seemed like it was more trouble than it was worth to haul the trailer all the way east to the National Park for just two nights.  So, I decided to look for a campground west of Crater Lake, trading a longer drive on the actual day of our visit for a shorter one during which we’d be towing the trailer.  It wasn’t ideal but, as with any trip of this magnitude, concessions were inevitable.  As it turned out, this particular concession proved to be beneficial.

Another Favorite Place - RVParkReviews.com!

Rather than just provide a complete list of my favorite websites under “Check out my favorite places!,” I decided to add them one at a time and let you know exactly why I like them.  That way, you’ll be able to determine whether or not the site might be of interest to you.  Besides, I believe that these sites do such an awesome job of providing information and/or entertainment that it really is a pleasure to bring them to your attention!

RVParkReviews.com has become an invaluable resource for me whether I’m in trip planning mode or we’re traveling without reservations and simply need to find a place to spend the night.  I’ve been known to spend hours digging up info on a campground that we may need for even just a night or two.  I’ll bet you’re wondering why.  Alan wonders why sometimes, too.  But, truthfully, his idea of a perfect campsite and mine are pretty similar.  We enjoy the larger size and more natural surroundings of campgrounds found in State and National Parks.  We’ll both gladly forego hookups for “a room with a view” and, of course, we both want someplace safe and quiet to lay down our heads at night.  Although we do stay in privately owned RV parks when the need arises, we don’t generally search them out or require any of the usual resort amenities when we’re staying at one.  Our perfect campsite would be on public lands - on a lakeshore or riverfront, deep in the woods or at the edge of a meadow with a view of the mountains.  Because I feel so strongly about the sites we choose, I’m willing to devote time and effort to online research trying to match our preferences to campgrounds in the area in which we’ll be traveling.  That’s where RVParkReviews.com comes in.  Photos included in this post are all from campgrounds I found with the help of this extremely useful web site!