5/5/2018
 |
| Our Camp Site at Walker Lake |
Wow! I've really neglected this blog. To date it's been nearly a month since my last posting. Admittedly, we have been killing some time to allow the northern regions to warm up a little before we head into Canada.
 |
| North side jetty at Florence |
We are now staying in a Thousand Trails park,
Pacific City, on the central Oregon coast. Today it is sunny and comfortable in the low 60's. The beaches with their cold pacific water are only a few hundred yards from the campsite. This keeps the air here fairly cold.
 |
| View from Cape Mear |
To summarize our travels since the last posting I can only include a few of the many pictures we took on the road from Las Vegas to Oregon. Please click on the links to my
Flickr page to see more pictures.
After our six day stay at Bullhead City, we checked in to the
Las Vegas Thousand Trails park for a two week stay. We did not visit many of the traditional tourist haunts since we have visited Las Vegas several times previously. We had several things to do including receiving our mail forwarded from the Escapee's mail service in Texas. Also it was long past time to put new tires on the jeep. The off-road mud treads which were original equipment tires had become so badly cupped that at low speed it was like riding on a tractor. The tires just weren't designed for pavement. I ordered oversized Duratrak all terrain tires from Goodyear (about $1000 at a discount for Escapees members). I also ordered
1.25inch wheel extensions to prevent the larger 33inch tires from rubbing on the front sway bar during full turns.
I was annoyed when the tire dealer refused to install the extensions. I was forced some days later to do the installation of the extensions myself while camped at Walker Lake, Nevada. The tires were quite an improvement - a silky smooth ride by comparison.
It definitely warmed up during our Las Vegas stay with temps reaching 100 during the afternoons. On April 24th we broke camp an traveled several hours north to
Walker Lake and a no hook-up BLM campground ($3 per day with senior pass). Walker Lake is a gorgeous lake just north of Hawthorne Nevada. Because of California's diversion of it's primary water source, the lake has been shrinking since the 1930's and has become increasingly salty. I wonder if it will become another environmental disaster like the
Salton Sea.
 |
| Sunrise at Walker Lake |
Anyhow, the campground was quiet with only a few other campers. We made several visits to nearby Hawthorne where they have a couple of very interesting museums.
 |
| Personal Property Tax 1952 |
The local history museum has very good collection of items relating to
the town's early mining history. Entry into the museum is free and
there are lot of exhibits you can touch and examine.
 |
| I wonder if it had a spin cycle? |
I was surprised when we first drove thru the town to see hundreds of
acres of munition storage bunkers. Hawthorne has been a weapons depot
for all branches of the military for many years. Who knew?
 |
| These tasted better than some MREs. |
Like the local history museum there is also a free weapons museum. Unfortunately, Ina was bored while I could have spent days examining their collection. As a former intel type I learned a lot about enemy weapons, but never had much exposure to our own munitions.
The museum's exhibits ranged from World War I items through weapons still carried by today's bombers and fighters.
 |
| SRAM is currently carried on B-52s and B-1s. Delivers a nuclear weapon at supersonic speeds. |
We spent three days at Walker Lake enjoying the comfortable 70's temperatures. On April 27th our next stop was northward past Reno, NV into northern California. We found another picturesque spot on Eagle Lake just north of Susanville, CA. There was a nice looking BLM campground on the northern shore of the lake. However, we discovered that it was still closed for the winter. Thanks to
Campendium.com, we found a free BLM site a few miles south on the east shore of the lake. It was a nice overnight stop.
 |
| Snowing in the pass near Mt. Shasta |
 |
| Our Eagle Lake BLM camp. |
 |
| Sunset at Eagle Lake |
The next day we did a fairly long drive aimed at getting out of California. We had to put a few gallons of expensive California gas in the tank (at $3.68/gal) to reach Oregon. We found an Oregon
State park on the Rogue River near Medford. The park was well maintained and quiet with full hook-ups (at $33/day). We stayed for two days and did some grocery shopping and thrift store browsing before moving on.
On April 30th a fairly long day of driving put us 170 miles north to the Oregon coast at the
South Jetty Thousand Trails park, near Florence OR.
 |
| Jetty on the Siuslaw river |
Florence is at the mouth of the Siuslaw river. There is a nice old town section next to a 1930's concrete arch bridge. We walked along the jetty on the south side of the river where we saw a harbor seal busy diving for fish
 |
| Siuslaw bridge at Florence, OR |
Unfortunately if was cloudy and rainy for most of our three day stay.
Moving on up the coast on May 3rd, we stopped for a three day stay at the
Pacific City Thousand Trails. The next day we took a day trip along the coast past Cape Lookout, and the Cape Meare light house looping back thru the town of Tillamook and its famous cheese factory.
 |
| Tillamook cheese factory gift shop. |
 |
| Cape Meares Lighthouse |
During our stay it did not rain but remained cloudy and in the 50's. Finally the weather has improved somewhat with today's full sun. Tomorrow we move on to
Seaside near Astoria for our last stay on the Oregon coast.
Awesome Ron! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing Ron!
ReplyDelete