Drive to Long Beach, WA

Today we took the car to Long Beach, WA via Hwy 6. Along the way we ran through areas where trees lined the roads....

and places where it was fairly open.

We saw many hills where the trees had been cut and new ones planted.

Of course we saw many logging trucks along the way.

There were several narrow bridges that I'm sure the truckers pray that they don't meet another truck on.

A clear cut area that hadn't been cleaned up and re-planted.

I don't know if this area had been cut and not harvested or if the trees had been felled by wind.

After we got on Hwy 101 going south we crossed this bridge over an arm of Willapa Bay. The bridge curves on the west end.

We ran along Willapa Bay for quite a few miles.

Finally we made it to Long Beach.

We found a parking place at a beach access.

This is one fishy bicycle rack. It looks like they need to clear away some sand so it can be used. There were several of these in the beach area.

We walked south on the boardwalk and read the interpretive signs as we went.

Love the tsunami hazard symbol. Run, Dude, Run!!!








Here's what the tsunami evacuation route signs looked like. We saw a lot of these along the road to Long Beach. Then we would see one with an arrow pointing up a narrow logging road. Hey any high spot would be good even if the road there to it is rough!

I don't know if these were hotel rooms or condos but they sure aren't on the beach. Guests would get the view and the blowing sand but have to walk a distance to get in the water.

The wind was blowing and sand was in the air. You can really see it in this photo.

Double click to enlarge so it is big enough to read.

This is looking at the bottom of the head.

Huge vertebrae for a "sub-adult" whale, huh?

Notice the color of the sand. The sail-type structure in the lower right corner is a shelter around a picnic table.

Double-click to read the explanation for the color.

Like most places around here - "Lewis and Clark were here".

Ike Kinswa State Park

Ike Kinswa State Park is only two miles from where we are staying this summer so it may be a place we go hiking. But it sounds like there is only this one trail.

I need to find out what this white stuff on the tree is called. It looks like someone dripped white wax on it. We had seen this on one tree in the redwoods at Stout Grove too.

The trail is nice and is slightly inclined.

There are a few offshoots that go down to the river. Notice the mossy tree.

Well this is still Mayfield Lake but it's the arm where the Tilton River feeds into it.

This snail crossing the trail faired better than its cousin --- crunch.

There were many muddy spots on the trail and we finally turned around because it was too muddy to continue. This isn't the muddiest spot.

This is the muddiest spot that we actually got around. First we walked on fallen logs beside the trail...

Then we did a little stepping off the trail into the bushes....

Oops! Just about got a mud bath there...

Yes we both made it through upright.

Down at the lake, people we setting up for a race. It was held the next day in the pouring rain. We went into town and crossed the lake where they were racing. Didn't look like fun to me but I suppose people said the same thing when we were riding motorcycles in the rain. Sometimes you do what you gotta do...

Harmony Lakeside RV Park

Our home for this summer is Harmony Lakeside RV Park by Mossyrock, WA.

Office and restrooms.

Our site under the trees.

It was raining the day we came in and we tracked lots of mud and debris into the trailer so I put out a board walk. I think we will get some more gravel on our site so we can take up the boards.

This stump is by the back side of our trailer and I think it needs a flowering plant on it. I tried this pot on for size.

This tree with ferns growing up its trunk is also along the side of our trailer.

The side of the trailer where the stump and fern tree are located.

Lots of the trees in the park have grown on fallen logs.

Just a good example of a mossy tree and ferns.

Some flowering bushes with one of the clubhouses and a corner of the other in the background.

Same flowering bushes looking the opposite direction so you see the large stump in the background.

Looks like one fallen log had a lot of trees grow on it.

This stump was high but it still had a tree grow on top of it.

There are lots of sculptures and a few totem poles in the park.

There is a koi pond by the office and it has two sculptures and a totem pole by it.

Still the koi pond by the office.

Yes there are plenty of koi in this pond and the pond at the back of the property. One of the projects is to clean up both of them and replace pumps.

We can see the lake from our bathroom window but we don't have one of the lakeside sites.

These are lakeside sites. Many of the sites have wooden divider fences between them.

There are two levels to the park. We are on the top level. There are seven sites, horseshoe pits and a volleyball court on the lower level. The land in between is terraced and is planted with flowers and flowering bushes.

Taken from the lower level looking towards the terraced gardens and the upper campground.

Then you can walk on down to the docks at the lake. There are several places to do this and two of them have stairs instead of a path.

5-21-09 - Updated photo of our site. It quit raining enough to get the bikes out but we still haven't ridden them. We now have more gravel on the site.

The trees are constantly shedding stuff and our vehicles get covered with it. This time a tree shed a bit of moss so the car has a top knot.