A Week in OCTOBER on the Oregon Coast
BY LYNN JACKART
T e lineup at the US/ Canada border on the morning of the 14th of
October was short and it didn’t take long to drive onto Highway I-5 south. Our fi rst exit was west onto Highway
20 at Burlington. T is highway took Al and I past La Conner to Fidalgo Bay Campground, which is a short distance east of Anacortes. We stayed for two nights and enjoyed the fall colours and trips into Mount Vernon and Anacortes. Early Sunday morning we took Highway
20 back to I-5 in the fog. Once on the freeway the fog cleared and the sun came out. T is time of day is the best time to travel through Seattle; we took Exit 405 bypass and traffi c was very light. Twenty minutes later we were back on the I-5 and passing through Olympia with its
government buildings and gorgeous fall colours. T e morning turned into aſt ernoon and at Longview we exited west onto Highway 4. Once through Longview the highway narrowed and it’s
a beautiful drive along the Columbia River. We pass small townships and resorts, trees form a tunnel around us and the sun peeks through once in a while. T is highway takes us to the 4.1-mile long Astoria Bridge, which spans the Columbia River. T e state of Oregon begins at the end of the bridge, where there is no sales tax and friendly people pump gas for you. T e blue Pacifi c sparkled in the sunlight as we drove over the Warrenton Bridge and were offi cially on the Oregon Coast. I could smell the ocean as we travelled through Seaside. And Haystack Rock stood majestically in the water marking this as Cannon Beach, a very popular tourist town. Our destination was Nehalem Bay State Park Campground
about a mile south of the small town of Manzanita where the main street ends at the beach. Nehalem Bay Campground consists of 265 electrical sites with water (no sewer), clean showers and washrooms, two dump stations, a horse camp, sand dunes and a wonderful long sandy beach. T e campground wasn’t full so we had our pick of many sites. T e grassy sites are spacious, private and separated by trees. Access to the beach is a slow climb up a sand dune along a well used trail. At the top the Pacifi c Ocean lies before us with a never ending beach made for walking. We could smell the fresh air and the only sound were the waves lapping the shoreline. Our week was spent visiting out of the way places along the coast, shopping, meeting
Wind Surfi ng.
new people and walking. T ere is always something happening on the beach: kite fl ying, parasailing, horseback riding, and sails on wheels being carried along on the wind. We sat on large logs along the beach and watched waves crashing out at sea, breathed in the fresh air and enjoyed the peace and quiet. It was the perfect way to spend a few hours. In
Our unit.
The beach edge of the Fidalgo Bay Campground - how beautiful is that eh? 16 RVT 149 • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2012 RVT 149
enlarged.indd 16 8/22/12 9:07:41 AM
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