Where did we leave off? Monday of our second week...
We decided to spoil the kids and rent some 4 wheelers so they could ride them at the sand dunes/Steve's ATVs. We told them we would play at the sand dunes but didn't tell the we would rent ATVs. Henry wasn't tall enough to ride in a large UTV (where all 6 of us could have rode together) so we decided to rent smaller ones that they each could ride on their own.
They are ready to go
They all passed their basic training, Henry had a really tough time turning at first but eventually figured it out
They had a close course just for kids and we had it all to ourselves
Of course I had to try one out for a second
Lyza also took some turns but it wasn't her thing
Nixon picked it up really quickly
It was hard to keep up with them
After that we went to a book store for something more Lyza's style
It was an old bank that still had a vault inside
Lyza got a new book. We were hopeful that a 1200 page book would last her the week.
Then it was time to drive to our next camp ground
Our next camp was at Sunset Bay
The boys loved having their bikes for the camp grounds
We made some tuna melts and grilled cheese sandwiches
After dinner we walked to the beach to explore. We found lots of these sand shrimp.
And some crabs of course
It was a beautiful evening (until Nixon slipped on a rock and cut his hand so we had to get out of there)
Lyza reading her book in the dark
Here is Kim's account from that evening:
We had an eventful night. Around 3 am I was woken up by a clanging sound. I got out of bed and looked out the window on the door at the porch but didn't see anything. I was cold and tired so I got back in bed. I laid there for a minute but had the feeling I should get up and check again. I didn't have a flashlight available so I used the flashlight on my phone and went out to the little front porch of our yurt. When I went out I discovered that we had left the food box out and the lid was off and there was an empty Reese peanut butter cup wrapper on the ground beside it. I quickly shone the light around me to discover 4-5 racoons around our yurt. When we went to bed our plastic food bin had our water bottles sitting on top. The racoons had knocked them off when they got the lid off of the container. The metal water bottle falling off is what woke me up. I scared the racoons off the best I could and then pulled the food bin inside. We also had a soft sided cooler out they tried to get in but they were unsuccessful. I pulled everything inside the yurt while trying to keep the racoons away (they were pretty aggressive and tried to come and get more food while I was pulling the bins inside) and then went inside. I got back into bed and then heard a bunch of growling and fighting coming from the other side of the yurt. I went back out again and saw they had gotten a bag of wheat thins that they were fighting over. I scared them off but before they ran away they picked up the bag of crackers to take with them. It was all quite eventful and Daniel and I had a hard time getting back to sleep after that.
The next morning after a delicious pancake and egg breakfast we went back to the beach for a really low tide
We found lots of crabs and the kids worked together to out smart them
These smooth rocks were neat
After having lunch back at the campsite Lyza watched the two younger boys while Kim, Nixon, and I went to explore some nearby sites
We started at the botanical gardens at Shore Acres State Park
Those are some massive leaves
We then walked down to Simpson Beach
These were interesting formations in the rock
Some deer when we returned to the parking lot
We then went to a lookout where we saw hundreds of sea lions in the distance
We then drove to Cape Aragon State Park. The beach access was limited because of a hard winter and damage that resulted
Nixon and I made it down anyway and watched the water crashing against the rocks
Nixon took a spill on this slimy stuff
Kim didn't come all the way down with us
Back at the campsite our boys had lots of fun playing with other kids
We bought some firewood
I used my man skills to make some kindling
And we started a fire
We roasted hot dogs for dinner
And then of course had some s'mores
The next day we packed everything up and headed to the next destination (a hotel in Brookings)
We stopped in Bandon and visited some cool stores, including a toy store where I purchased a disguise
We all tried some flavored honey
We checked out some cool art work on a pier
We then stopped at Cape Blanco beach
Mason found this really cool white agate right as we entered the beach
Nixon climbed things
We found lots of agates at this beach
Next we stopped at Arch Rock Point
Then we did a hike at the Natural Bridges Viewpoint
You can see the "natural bridge" to the left of the frame
We hiked down, which was quite difficult
Nixon and I made it to the natural bridge
This was our view toward the ocean
And in the direction we had come from
The video doesn't quite show how narrow the bridge was that we made it to
Lyza had gone far enough
There we are
We defied the sign!
Another view of the bridge
We then stopped at a beach outside Brookings
The older boys had lots of fun playing next to the waves
And climbing up on rocks
Mason found a sea star (that he shouldn't have grabbed)
Those rocks were just too enticing, until the waves got Nixon and Mason completely soaked!
After that we stopped at the hotel, dumped our stuff, and then drove to a nearby Mexican restaurant for dinner
The next morning we had cereal, fruit, and yogurt in the hotel room then packed up. We drove to Jedidiah Smith State Park in Northern California.
There was some pretty driving
We drove the scenic Howland Hill Road through the redwood forest. The road was very winding and extremely narrow at times
The redwoods were incredible. It is hard to capture their size with photos and even more difficult with video. It was simply amazing.
Five of us maybe reached half way around this tree, which isn't even the biggest we saw
We found trees with huge hollow parts in their trunks
These old forests were beautiful
We started off by hiking the Stout Memorial Grove trail
The boys did lots of climbing
The fallen trees were really cool
Nixon on the top and me on the bottom should provide some scale for just how huge this tree trunk is
Mason never has a problem finding a hiking stick
We had lunch after that hike
Then we started the Grove of Titans trail
The trail got pretty narrow between these two trees
Our boys like to climb up high then ask for their picture to be taken
This part felt like a jungle
This tree was MASSIVE
At the visitor's center when we reached the Jedidiah Smith State Park it mentioned the banana slugs that we might see. We really wanted to see some and Kim spotted one on the way out of this hike.
We ate some Canadian Eatmores
And then Kim found another banana slug!
Driving out of there we got this great picture of the scenic road
Next stop was the Trees of Mystery, which is a private park near the redwoods that has more of an amusement park vibe. It has these huge statues of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Great Blue Ox
Paul Bunyan interacts with the kids that step, climb, and stomp on his boots
There are lots of neat statues and things along the way within the attraction
And signage for unique natural features
The coolest parts were these bridges in between the trees way up high
Lyza (who hates heights) was terrified
This system of bridges was very impressive
It is cool how these trees have all grown next to each other. They perform weddings here.
This tree is almost 300 feet tall! That is 3x the height of the huge ponderosa pine trees in our neighborhood
Someone failed to finish the job on this tree so I jumped in to help
We rode a gondola up to the top of a big hill
There was a decent view up there
More things to see on the way down
It was a fun place to visit
After that huge day we drove for what seemed like forever to our yurt at Lake Selmac. This was a small rundown park (compared to the others we had stayed at) but we just needed somewhere to get a good sleep and it was adequate for that need.
We woke up early and ate a quick breakfast so we could drive to the nearby caves to get a spot on the first tour (since we didn't reserve spots far enough in advance)
This is a model of the cave system at the Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve. This cave systems has 4,600 feet of known passages.
This was the entrance to the cave
The cave sometimes has a metal boardwalk, sometimes just the natural stone floor, other times it was natural stone steps, metal steps, and even metal stairs (even a spiral stair case). Inside the cave it was 44 degrees F (7*C).
We learned about the natural formations inside and how the caves were formed (acidic water slowly eroding the tunnels over centuries)
You can see roots coming from the ceiling in this picture
There was minimal lighting throughout
And in certain areas of interest they turned on more lighting so we could see those things
You can see the water dripping from the ceiling
We saw this buck when we exited the cave.
This was the exit
Here is a little video (as you can imagine, it was hard to document the dark cave)
Kim and Nixon took a short hike/detour back to the parking lot while I took the other kids on a more direct route
They got a cool view at the top of their hike
Lyza found a hover fly, which mimics a wasp
The next stop was Crater Lake, which was gorgeous!
There was still lots of snow up there
Lyza and that book...
Crater Lake is actually an inactive volcano that is now filled with water, fed by rain and snow, and it is the deepest lake in the USA. The water was amazingly blue.
It was surprising to see so much snow there but the elevation is 6'178 feet (28 feet taller than the highest peak we skied this winter)
Unfortunately we had so much driving to do that day that we did not have a lot of time to spend at Crater Lake and didn't have time to do any hiking (next time)
Our final stop was Tumalo State Park, just outside of Bend, OR.
It was much hotter there than anywhere else we stayed and we even had a lizard that greeted us
The next morning was Mason's birthday!
We had French toast with strawberries and whipped cream for breakfast
Then we went in to Bend for the day. We started off at a Lego store that was having its one year anniversary celebration so it was a very fun atmosphere
We figured out just how tall Mason is in the Lego measuring system
They also had a bin full of Lego bricks that you could purchase in bulk so everyone had fun sorting through that to find the best pieces
This is what Mason chose
After that it was Costco for lunch. Lyza got a little piece of pizza
Mason of course got a hot dog
We then went swimming at the Juniper swimming pool which had both an outdoor area and an indoor area
Henry took off his puddle splasher and worked on his front crawl
We had lots of fun swimming on a hot day
There was some cool playground equipment outside the swimming pool that we checked out
Back at the camp site we had some fried chicken and potato wedges we picked up on our way home.
We gave Mason an origami book that he had his eye on at the redwoods visitors' center
And then we had a birthday cake and celebrated our 8 year old
The cake was delicious
We played some games before bed
We were all exhausted and slept like babies
The next morning the kids were fascinated by an ant hill near our yurt
They rode bikes around the camp site while we packed everything up
Lyza also lead them in some campfire songs
We went to church 50 minutes away in Madras at a 10:00 sacrament meeting. We also ended up using our bread for the sacrament because their sacrament bread assignment fell through.
Along the way home we stopped at the same park in Kennewick we stopped at on our first day of the trip. It was so hot that Mason had to let the guns out.
After a long day of driving we finally made it home. Mason got to open a few more presents for his birthday.
Recap of our trip:
This was the longest trip we have ever taken together (excluding trips visiting family). The first few days/nights we weren't sure how we were going to make it two weeks. As time went on we got more and more comfortable with the idea and the process (packing the van, unpacking the van, making all the beds in the yurts, cooking on a camp stove, packing everything all back up, etc.). Eventually we got comfortable and really enjoyed it. I think we made some good and lasting memories and the trip was an overall success.
If things go well, in a future post you will see a recap video of the trip.
Take care.
