Beverly Beach State Park, Newport, Oregon 7/11

We had another pokey day at the campsite before heading out. We decided to go inland a bit and see the “out of the way” Silver and Golden Falls State Park. This was a very scenic drive along, thru a valley amongst groves of Myrtle trees. The only rather sad thing was that it was mainly populated by dilapidated trailer homes and “hillbilly” looking places. There were a lot of abandoned pick-up trucks and junk strewn all around. At one point we came upon a completely stripped down motor home – by strip-down I mean the aluminum siding had been totally removed and all the “guts” were showing! The feeling you had was that you were definitely in an alternative lifestyle (ahem). We finally made it to the State Park, the last 5 or 6 miles was gravel road and the majority of the way was a one lane road. We knew we were there because the road just stopped. There was a sign that pointed left to Silver Falls and right to Golden Falls. We were the only car there. (I must admit the movie Deliverance was playing in my mind). We packed a picnic lunch and headed for Silver Falls first. It was really only a short hike and we were not disappointed in the falls. The water poured over a bowed out rock cliff and some of it dissipated into mist part of the way down. There was another smaller falls towards the bottom. Inspired by this falls we decided to hike back to the Winniemobile, do a quick check on our stuff (believe me this area was creeping me out) and then we headed over to Golden Falls. The trail was overgrown and in some spots the vegetation was over my head. We joked that we needed a machete to get through it. (Ned was cracking me up doing his imitation of Juan Valdez hacking thru the coffee bushes). Not too far along, we soon came upon Golden Falls. Even though it was higher than the other falls, it was more a more typical waterfall in that the water dropped straight down. Quite lovely nonetheless! We decided this was as good a place as any for a picnic lunch and thoroughly enjoyed the warm afternoon near the falls. We eventually packed up and backtracked to the coast and begun our way north again. We had fun stopping at stupid places along the way, like the “Yum-Yum Wagon.” I got some local cherries – I was inspired by the blueberries we had picked up yesterday from a blueberry farm! Ned, went totally local on me and was deciding between the Elk or Buffalo jerky. Mr. Mountain man finally decided upon the buffalo jerky…We also stopped at the Sand Dunes National Park. Pretty interesting stuff, but I’m more of a forest and woods girl myself. We pulled into a State Park campground, found out it was full and headed up the road a bit. Finally, outside of Newport we were able to find another sweet campsite at Beverly Beach State Park. Yep, still impressed with the beauty of Oregon’s State Parks. I’ve decided that the state spends all their money on campsites, toilets and showers and foregoes the roads. Sounds like a fair trade-off to me!