Day 38 – Up at 7:30 a.m., 45 degrees, fairly cloudy out. We need to dump the tanks; looks like we’ll be heading to a new campground today. After dumping, we left at 11:05 a.m., drove down the long & winding road to the Ocean, then headed south along the gorgeous coastline to Brookings, OR. We arrived at Harris Beach State Recreation Area Campground at 12:10 p.m. It was 54 degrees & very foggy. Since it was supposedly so difficult to get an ocean-view campsite at Harris Beach, our plan was to just drive thru, check status, and move on to the other good campground, Alfred A. Loeb State Park, 8 miles inland on the Chetco River.
43 miles
Quosatana National Forest Service Campground, 14 miles east of Gold Beach, OR, Agness Road 97406, (541) 247-3600, https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/rogue-siskiyou/null/recarea/?recid=69584&actid=33. We really liked this place. Maybe it was just the time of year, no one was there, the weather was perfect, etc., and maybe at another time it wouldn’t have been so great, but we’d absolutely come back again. Around 40 campsites total in two loops, some sites in complete sun & some completely shaded but all were nicely spaced from each other. The campground is located 14 miles east of Gold Beach, so not too far from the closest town and the Ocean, but totally away from the hustle & bustle of anything. Located on the wonderfully scenic Rogue River off a winding road, not that many cars go by here. All sites are black-top with picnic table and fire ring at each. No hook-ups, you can get water at spigots throughout the campground & there is a dump station. Prime fishing location; chinook & coho salmon are caught here. You are surrounded by forests and cliffs. The campground is immaculately clean. Sites are separated by trees and/or thick bushes which are full of very happy birds. There are resident wild turkeys & lots of deer. Great big rigs wouldn’t fit here; some sites can hold probably a 35-foot trailer with a truck. We fit just fine. Very quiet, surrounded by nature, just wonderful. We had site #40; there are several sites in the full shade along the River & a couple by the large open meadow which could hold the larger vehicles. Oh, and the price – $15 per night or $7.50 per night with the National Parks senior pass – first come first served, no reservations.
We drove into Harris Beach SRA Campground and were quite surprised to find that even with ½ the campground closed, there were many open sites, AND 2 prime ocean-view sites were still available. (There are only 9 ocean-view sites & 2 are always occupied by campground hosts.) We quickly grabbed one of those prime sites, #A23. Seems we’d gotten there just at the right time; people had just left. We talked to the campground host and he said that later the campground would fill up again. He was right, it did, with a steady stream of incoming campers looking for a site all afternoon. The host said once you are parked in a site, it’s yours up to 14 nights, but make sure if you go out for the day, you leave something behind to indicate the site is taken or someone else will grab it. (It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there, LOL.) With ½ the Park closed, only one small loop takes online reservations. The rest were first come first served, including all the ocean-view sites (and we were first come). YAAA!
We have a great view (except that it’s so foggy you can’t see anything right now), but we know from our previous visit that we will be looking out over the open Ocean, from a hill over the water, and that there’s a beautiful beach and many rocky sea stacks. Most sites in this Park are close together and too small for us – the larger sites are further apart. Some sites are no hook-ups, some electric only, and the rest are full hook-ups including sewer. $30 per night for full hook-ups; this includes the ocean-view sites.
We unpacked & settled in, had lunch, and for the first time in almost a week found we could get a phone & internet connection. Checked the weather forecast. Several days of rain & heavy winds are coming with as much as 2 inches per day expected. Surprise, surprise. We paid for 2 nights when we arrived here; looks like we’ll be staying longer, at least until after some sunny days return so we can take advantage of the Ocean site.
We’ve got lots of blogging to catch up on. Rob’s taken many pictures to upload & caption. That should keep us busy for awhile. Brookings, OR is a bigger city than we’re used to; we can explore that in the rain. Speaking of rain, it started before the sun set. The girls don’t like it here as much as the last place because there’s people around. With days of rain coming, they’ll get used to it.