where to visit in WA and OR this summer?

[dlb]

i'm planning our trip down to burning man and figured i should ask here about worthwhile camping spots and sights to see en route. as of right now, all we have planned is to leave home on vancouver island on saturday, august 20th, take the noon ferry from victoria to anacortes, drop off some wheels with petros, head out to the coast and spend a day or two in long beach, WA, and to arrive at BM in nevada on monday august 29th. that leaves about a week to make our way south, checking out rad stuff along the way. what i'm looking for are beautiful places like lake of the woods, OR, long beach, WA, the sand dunes of OR, that sort of thing. last time we went down that way we planned to camp at crater lake in OR but it turned out to be a sterile camping metropolis, which is the sort of thing we'd like to avoid, along with cities and the I-5. a family we met recommended another lake for camping but i can't remember the name. i think it was waldo lake. can anyone vouch for that particular place?

if any of you cats can just throw out some places and ideas that would be great. thanks in advance!

[takza]

If you have a week...get out your maps and/or GPS and plan a route using secondary/Forest Service roads...you avoid the tourists that way....can camp where you like. I was pretty impressed by the mountains...Mt Hood/Shasta...etc.

[ohcanada_00]

in this area, I'm partial to the Newport area in Oregon. Cheese factories, (Tillamook and Rouge) Breweries and tons of fishing and great spots to eat are mixed in with some ver quiet and remote camping and cabins plus theres that whole epic awesome beach thing. other areas that rock are Mt St Helens, WA Hwy 12, Naches, or in norther CA there are some areas on the Pit River Arm that are far from the freeway/ civilization but close enough to not be way out of the way to cut over towards NV.

if you go the other way, I would try here: http://www.fs.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsint ... name=Idaho Panhandle National Forests - Emerald Creek Garnet Area EXCELLENT camping areas and you can dig for garnets! pretty cool way to spend some quality time if you ask me!

[Neu]

The worst mistake you could possibly make is if you're in the Willamette Valley and you don't drive the alsea access highway and do some hiking.


http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source= ... 8&t=h&z=12

The drive is basically goto monroe, take a left at alpine cutoff road, stay on that. It will take you all the way to the town of Alsea, where you can go right and goto Corvallis, or go left and you'll be on another amazing road to Waldport.

It's worth stopping off at Alsea Falls. If you go to Mcbee Park there's Mcbee falls, which are super rad. There's great hiking, and BLM land to camp on. They also just did a lot of construction up there to improve stuff.

[dlb]

these are all excellent, thanks guys. keep them coming!

[arbskynxnex]

If you're down by Long Beach, head towards Astoria and there are some old costal defense forts that are now state parks. Its been years since I've been to them, but they are pretty cool. Fort Columbia is one if I remember right.

Once you hit Wa if you come down hwy 101 on the Hood Canal side of the Olympic Peninsula there is a lot to do. You can rent the Hamma Hamma or Interorrem Guard stations for a night and stay at one of those, there are nice hiking near both; Murhut falls, living legacy trail, Ranger Hole trail (part of that trail is an old skid road and you can still see the skid logs in place!) and more. Camping in National Forest land free if you don't camp at an official campground, you just find a dead end road and camp at the end of it. It doesn't get much better than that.

If you decide to come down the I-5 corridor (snore) and are up for a bit of a detour you can head out to the Gifford Pinchot Nat. Forest south of Randle, Wa. Chain of Lakes CG was really nice and quite when I was there last. You can check out Layser Cave (indian rockshelter), rock creek falls, Ape Caves, Mt St Helens, Mt Adams and more in that area. You can make it a big loop too, drive in at Randle and take the Forest roads to Ape caves and then come back to I-5 at Woodland, Wa. Huckleberries might be ripe at that time too.

[Petros]

You might check out Deception pass state park not far from the Anacortes WA while you are there. Bowman bay the "pass" it self is worth a visit, very spectacular vistas. 2nd most visited park in the state (behind Mt. Rainer, which is also worth a visit).

[solarlord]

DAVID- have spent many months around the borders of MO WA -OR -ID but not down the seaward side - mainly looking for good fishing and camping away from the grockles and loads o,money merchants- down from Glacier to Bonners ferry and on to Clearwater forest after spokane - not many people, good camping and lots of big fish= tried ever lure in the world , tried a live grasshopper - emptied the river of fish - my son made a small fortune out of catching hoppers for every fisherman who asked how did we catch all those fish - -very beutiful in those hills-DEREK

[Starbug]

I recommend:

*Ape caves, they are cool (can't remember what town)
*Snoqualmie Falls, in Snoqualmie WA
*All of the hiking trails in North Bend, WA. No matter where you go, there's a trail near by. Mt Si is a knarely climb, but there's also Rattlesnake Ridge (awesome view at the top), Twin Falls, John Wayne/Iron Horse Trail (gentle and beautiful hike with many main-trail off-shoots and hidden treasures like the Fire Sculpture - a tree that was blasted by bolts of lightning 100 years ago), and many more.
*Mt. St. Helens (WA)
*Seattle waterfront is pretty cool with lots of neat shops. Check out the Ye Old Curiosity Shop. Pike Place Market is neat too.


If you stop by the Shell gas station off Exit 31 on I-90E, be sure to come in and say hi if you see my blue Tercel or black Acura RSX-S parked there. There are no clones of either of my cars in North Bend, so if you see one, it's me.

[arbskynxnex]

Starbug: Ape Caves is by Mt St Helens and the closest town is Cougar.

How is the Iron Horse trail in the way of a surface? I've wanted to ride it for the longest, but my recumbent bike doesn't handle off road all that great.

[Starbug]

Ah, thank you Arbskynxnex. It's been years since I last saw Ape Caves, so could nolonger remember it's by Cougar and St. Helens.

Iron Horse Trail is a great bike trail and your bike will be just fine. It's a smooth worn gravel surface that stays mud free despite all the joggers, dog walkers, and bicyclists (it's never crowded). There are no ruts, logs, branches, or pot holes in the ground. I've never walked it while it's raining; I'm sure it gets a bit muddy with some puddles of water, but nothing horrible since drainage is very good. This trail is fully shaded, so after a rainy day the ground will still be a little wet for a couple days afterwards. If you have the time and energy, this trail goes all the way through Snoqualmie Pass and comes out in Easton. I usually hike the trail for about an hour or two, then turn around and come back. It's very peaceful and beautiful. Take a camera. The main trail's smaller off-shoots are not suited for bikes, so if you happen to be on foot that day, check them out. There are some awesome places hidden away.

[arbskynxnex]

I actually conned some friends into going to the Caves this weekend.

I'm going to have to track down some non-road tires for my bike and hit that trail one of these days. I've wanted to ride it through for a long time, but time/work/vehicle/injury have conspired against me for several years.

[Starbug]

You're friends are lucky. I remember thinking that the Caves were cool. If you ever visit New Mexico, go to the Carlsbad Caverns. It's full of epic win.

Rainy days keep conspiring against me this year.... I still haven't had a chance to hike Iron Horse yet this summer/spring. And the couple of nice days we did manage to get, I had other more pressing things to attend to. Argh!

[arbskynxnex]

If you wait for the sun, you'll never get to go hiking here in Wa.

Yeah, Carlsbad is pretty awesome. We went to Slaughter Canyon cave (still called New Cave when we were there) which is about 30 miles away from the Caverns. It didn't have the same formations but I think it was neater; it was an old guano mine and you could see the mining equipment everywhere. We we walked through paths cut into the guano that I swear were 7 ft high; I was a lot shorter then, so I could be wrong.

We did Black Hills the lava tubes in South Dakota too. Those were cool, there was ice in some of the caves in the dead of summer.

Did you know there are like 5 or 6 other caves nearby Ape Cave? The government has kept the locations secret except there is a NASA repot on the basaltic flows in the area and it gives their locations.

[Starbug]

Yes, what you say is very true. I should just get an umbrella, get off my dead butt, and go out in the rain anyway. LOL After all, the first part of our state's name is WASH. Should have been a warning to prospective settlers...LOL.

I never did get a chance to see Slaughter Canyon when I visited New Mexico. I would like to see it next time I go. Seven feet of bat poo is a lot of poo.......

Never been to South Dakota, but I'll definitely look up Black Hills if I do! I wonder if that's where Black Hills gold comes from?

I had no idea there were more caves near Ape! That's so cool. I wonder how hard they would be to find and get into...... I love caves.