What a nice weekend. Quiet family time at home... Nah!!!! JK!! We drove all over Western Oregon in search of fun stuff to do and beautiful things to see. The weather has held out for almost all of our winter adventures so far, to be honest a number that has been lacking.
Fawn was concerned about cold and rain this week. Plus she had some work to do so we didn't really put forth the idea of camping on Friday but we did want to get outside and get some exercise and air. The Scenic Columbia Gorge area is literally less than 40 minutes from our home. We went out to the gorge and tried to see one hike, but it was too cold and looked too difficult a hike for a nap overdue baby.
As we sought out a more family friendly stroll ...... he fell asleep....... leaving us waiting in a parking lot for an hour while he naps. We did find a nice walk and a waterfall. The name of the area: Bridal veil Falls, we had a 2/3 mile roundtrip walk down and back up trip to and from the waterfall and then a 1/2 mile loop around an overlook and through a picnic area. It was chilly but beautiful. Atreyu managed the whole walk, and only had some problems with leaving the river, like always.
On Saturday we pilled into the van. A quick jaunt into the Tillamook forest. We had planned to camp at Elk Creek campground, but it was closed, and its at least more than a quarter mile down the trail and we had everything all thrown in the van all willy nilly. It's about this time that Atreyu decides to nap again so we've got a little time to look around. We followed a sign that led to another campsite, Jones Creek. Just a little ways past we found an amazing dispersed camping area. Nice sites, mostly clean. No facilities or tables, just a few cleared spaces and fire pits. Like always when finding a treasure, like free camping spots: Leave it cleaner than when you found it!! Rule number 1!!
We threw out the tent to claim our spot and went to the cheese factory for the afternoon. We had some samples, took some pictures and bought the baby a cone. Head back out to camp before dark. There was a big pile of wet wood and a trail that strolls right down to a beautiful little spot on a creek. Trey woke up at 4am asking to go down to the creek. It was raining in the morning, so we packed it up and headed out rather than make coffee. A small roadside diner was nice, food wasn't awesome. A local guy invited us to use his river access and we found one of the most gorgeous stretches of the Wilson River, where Fawn looked for interesting minerals, Atreyu threw rocks in the river and I was just happy to be outside.
