Six days in the Newport, OR area was full of incredibly beautiful sights and just the right amount of tourist kitsch. And the whales and friendly people made it even better…until our first Tsunami Warning!

Reedsport to Newport (Beverly Beach State Park)

Travel to Newport was only two hours. Thank goodness for the pro tip we received from new host friends. They told us to heed the “Slow” and “Bump” signs just north of Newport. Thank you! Those bumps are pretty jarring and could be damaging if not taken seriously.

Of course, the views continued to be stunning on the driver’s side as we continued north. Expansive ocean views, cliffs, sea stacks…simply amazing. And the cute little tourist traps all along the road…run away!

Upon arriving at Beverly Beach State Park we were greeted by a very organized check-in process followed by one of the most slanted campsites we have yet encountered! It was actually comical, because our neighbor was sitting at his fire pit facing our site (away from his own site), and he was only about 12 feet away from us. (I think he was sitting that way to avoid the reality that was his RV full of three dogs that were each over 100 pounds. Nice couple, but SO…MUCH…DOG.)

Our neighbor got a front-row view of us trying to figure out the best way to deal with the five-inch difference between our driver and passenger sides on the pad. And it ended with me crawling under the trailer to open our fresh tank drain…right in front of him. Awkward.

It appeared that at some point a major repair was made to our site, and the result was a massive slope. We ended up positioning ourselves all the way to one side and stretching our sewer hose to reach the sewer hole (not sure what else to call it). We then only had to make up for one inch on the driver’s side rather than five inches. To get level we have rocker levelers that we place by the wheels on one side and drive up onto them until our LevelMate Pro tells us we are level. It is very rare for a campsite to be perfectly level on its own. *sigh

The reason we even have to get level is that our slide needs to be level in order not to damage it, plumbing works better when the trailer is level, and our aging equilibrium needs all the support it can get.

Ugh, Humans

I heard that you could find agate on some of the beaches near Newport. Imagine my frustration when I couldn’t see anything that looked geological after high tide because of all the brightly-colored plastic bits! Some were entire items like bottle caps, but most were tiny and not-so-tiny parts of much larger items. When I say a lot, I mean A LOT. No exaggeration. It’s awful. It honestly made me feel hopeless.

I never doubted what all the documentaries, scholars and news stories have been saying about the amount of plastic in the oceans. I have just never seen it with my own eyes until now. Sure, the east coast has medical waste wash up on the beaches from time-to-time. Blah, blah, blah. But out here on the left coast is where all the plastic coming from everywhere in the universe seems to wash up. And to think that the rest of those plastic items are still floating, sitting on the bottom or, even worse, inside ocean critters. It’s heartbreaking.

It’s awful. It honestly made me feel hopeless.

Seeing whales at the Depoe Bay Whale Watching Center with everyone there cheering and high fiving with each blowhole spout, harbor seal pups exploring in a cove at Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area, the literal LAST THREE sea otters in Oregon that are located at the Oregon Coast Aquarium and awesome birds like Tufted Puffins, Pigeon Guillemots, Murres, Wigeons, Cormorants…These ocean-dependent animals are feeding, swimming and reproducing while navigating the plastic pollution that humans have carelessly tossed aside. It hurts my heart, as corny as that might sound.

Fun Stuff

(Click or swipe the slideshow above to see a cross-section of our experiences in the Newport area!)

We met a wonderful lady while hosting at Umpqua Lighthouse State Park who coincidentally traveled to the same state park as we were headed at the same time. She is volunteering at the Depoe Bay Whale Watching Center. We went out to dinner with her a couple of times and got some great education and guidance while whale watching. How fun!

We love immersing ourselves in a town as much as we can while we are in an area. The Newport/Depoe Bay/Lincoln City area is majestically beautiful. We also met the nicest people everywhere we went. A few highlights:

• Beauty within Beverly Beach State Park: the ocean and the nature trail with all its lovely ferns, mushrooms and creek.
• Depoe Bay Whale Watching Center: an awesome building with windows all around and very informative rangers and volunteers, we saw gray whales! I imagine parking being impossible in the summer.
• Oregon Coast Aquarium: pumps the water from Yaquina Bay/Estuary to use in their exhibits, nice mix of interior and exterior exhibits, perfect size so that we were able to see everything and leave feeling like we got our money’s worth, most expensive gift shop I think I’ve ever seen (and I’ve been to the Smithsonian museums).
• Lincoln City: seems to have a lot of cultural experiences for the public, very cool food truck corral with a pretty event space in the center where you can eat and have a drink, delicious Poke Bowl!
• Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area: breathtaking lighthouse, seals and sea lions in the cove, a cobble beach that sounds like thunder at high tide due to the cobbles rolling in the surf (same beach is a popular tide pool during low tide), clever/funny signs posted.
• Newport Bay: commercial fishing boats come in at the end of each day, seafood markets list the fishing vessel name for each fish, cute shops and restaurants.

Catio Corner

The humans have graciously set up a small Christmas tree with shiny decorations and lights right on the table we use to access our catio. We can’t help it if it gets knocked over periodically or is “missing” some ornaments here and there. And the snowman hanging from our catio is juvenile. We’ll keep chewing on it until it meets the same fate as the Halloween decor.