Travel: Camping 2025 – Volcanoes and Beaches

Every year for the last… I don’t know, 15+ years, I’ve gone on a vacation down the west coast of the United States. Covid screwed that up for me for a couple of years, but normally I spend a week or two around July 4th trying to get away from fireworks, by relaxing on a beach. I am drawn to the sea. This year, we took three weeks off, and the theme was “volcanoes and beaches”. We took the I5 corridor down, stopping at Mt. Hood and Mt. Shasta, then cut across to the Bay Area for a week, then worked our way back up along the coast.

This has never been a travel blog, and won’t become one. However, with politics being overwhelming lately, and the last few articles being technical, I decided to make this article light and happy.

After doing these drives for many years, I’ve learned some things. For instance, if it’s just the dog and I, it’s boring. Most importantly, I learned that I hate driving for long periods of time. When I started doing these trips, I’d often drive for 8 or 9 hours between campsites. The last few years, I’ve broken them up into 4 or 5 hour drives. After dog and food breaks, that comes out to around 6 hours. It’s much more manageable. I downloaded updated maps on my car stereo, and my phone. I made sure I had plenty of music. We loaded up the car, and we were ready to go.

Seattle

We left at 9 am which, because my girlfriend likes to sleep, was 10 am. I knew that there was a highway to Mt. Rainier, and the plan was to go to a Carl’s Jr. in Olympia for lunch, then turn on the GPS, and head to Mt. Rainier. We’d circle around that, then stop by Mt. St. Helens, before proceeding to our first camping destination, Mt. Hood. I had looked at the map repeatedly, and had a pretty solid plan. Except that I got Tacoma and Olympia mixed up. It turns out that the turn was in Tacoma, which we’d passed an hour ago. Welp, scratch Mt. Rainier and Mt. St. Helens off the list.

The rest of the trip was pretty boring. Lots of driving. Meraxes took a nap in Kellan’s lap. I’m pretty sure Kellan took a nap too. Luckily, the GPS had us skip the Portland traffic, which is the worst.

Mt. Hood

Mt. Hood is pretty close to the Washington/Oregon border.

Normally, I book campsites 6 months in advance, which is the max booking window. However, this was the July 4th weekend, so lots of sites were already booked, and others had stay minimums. It was getting frustrating trying to find something near Mt. Rainier for one night, and Mt. St. Helens for a night, and Mt. Hood for one night. I found a campground called Still Creek Campground and they had a spot for three days, but no pictures on the website. So I rolled the dice and booked it. The campground was a few miles away from Government Camp at the south end of Mt. Hood. The road through the campground is terrible. It looks like this campground is owned by a private company. I highly recommend they repave the road. Otherwise, it was a nice spot.

We visited Frog Lake which was nearby. It’s called this because of the THOUSANDS of tiny frogs all over the place. I didn’t realize you could drive all the way to the lake, so we stopped at a distant parking lot and then walked the rest of the way. I think it was maybe 2 miles. Not bad. A little overcast, but still nice.

We also stopped by Trilium Lake which had a lovely view, but was quite crowded. It’s kind of small, but super popular. It was also wonderful weather that day.

We continued south and stopped in Bend to visit a cousin I haven’t seen in like 20 years. Unfortunately, we had a long drive ahead, so we weren’t able to stay long. Also is was hot as hell that day.

Mt. Shasta

When I was like 10 years old, I came up to Seattle with my grandparents. On the way, we stopped by Mt. Shasta, but we were only there for a day, and it was very foggy. So this was the first time I’d been back in 30 years. It’s amazing how large it is. We could see it from the Oregon / California border. And it just got bigger and bigger as we approached.

The campsite chosen was Castle Crags State Park. Crags are steep jagged rocks. The campground is nice, but the site we picked had absolutely no shade. Even Kellan (who lives for the heat) was struggling. It was like 90 degrees outside. We decided to take a nap, but it was even hotter in the tent. Meraxes hung out in the shade of the car for a while, before digging a hole under the picnic table.

Also, the mosquitos here are unbelievable. We were 4 days into the vacation, and I had something like 18 bites. We also saw this creepy bug called a “snakefly”. It has a long neck that it moves in different directions, which is exactly how they appear in my nightmares. They are harmless to humans, at least.

We spent two days here, and visited Mt. Shasta City. There’s not much here. We did laundry and drove around. I’m not sure if we stumbled into a hippie commune, or if Mt. Shasta IS a hippie commune, but there are a lot of hippies here. Lots of van lifers, and purposefully homeless. I’m sure it’s purely coincidental that Weed, CA is a few miles away. This ended up being Kellan’s favorite stop, because she liked the small town feel. Then again, maybe it’s because we did laundry here and she feels better in clean clothes.

Then we got ready to cross over to the the coast.

San Francisco

The campsite for the next week would be Portola Redwoods State Park, in the Santa Cruz mountains. I picked this location because it was right in the middle of where we wanted to be. Monterey, Santa Cruz, and San Francisco were each an hour or two away.

The drive across Northern California was uneventful. I started remembering things from my childhood, like the Oleanders along the highway dividers, and high gas prices. Though, to be fair, the gas prices were the same as Seattle. One thing I’ll say to defend us Cali drivers is that we are better. Sure, we drive fast, but we also give more space between cars, and are far more polite about letting people who use their turn signals ahead of us. We are simply better.

We made it across the Bay Bridge, which is high tech now, and charges you based on your license plate so you don’t even have to stop. Though, I don’t remember it being a toll bridge last time I was here. It’s a little confusing though because the toll section is like 25 lanes, and then they all merge into 5 or 6. I couldn’t hide my smile as we entered San Francisco.

And then slowed to a crawl.

Also, and this has nothing to do with anything, but literally every billboard in San Francisco is related to AI. AI for your business. How to spot AI. AI for customer service. AI for your colonoscopy.

We continued towards our campsite, and stopped in South San Francisco to stretch our legs. Meraxes loved the grass. Getting to the campsite was slow, because the highway was super duper twisty. I’m driving a heavily loaded almost SUV, so I was taking the curves at a cautiously reasonable speed, and people were passing me like I was stopped. Luckily, there were plenty of turnouts. Oh, and here’s a thing I had never seen before. Let’s say you want to thank someone for using the turnout. After you pass them, turn on your hazard lights for a few seconds. It was pretty neat. I’m going to start doing that.

After the never ending zigzag highway, we got to the campsite and setup the tent, surrounded by redwoods. The next day, Kellan had something to do, but the day after that, we went back to San Francisco to actually be tourists. We spent pretty much the entire day at Fisherman’s Wharf. Parking was reasonably priced, and perfectly located. There was a break dancing competition. Meraxes smelled so many things. The weather was perfect. It was a great day.

Oh, and we saw the largest eucalyptus I’ve ever seen.

Monterey

The last time I was down here was just before Covid, and I went to the Aquarium with my sister and her family, but that was an all day thing and we didn’t really have a chance to explore Monterey itself. So this time, we had an entire day. I would have loved to show Kellan the Aquarium, which is my favorite in the world, but they don’t allow dogs, and I didn’t want to hang out by the door for 4 hours. Instead, we stopped by their fisherman’s wharf which is basically just food. Really good food, by the way. There were a few knickknack shops. I saw a dude trying to sell Trump merch to no one. I thought we could walk from there to Cannery Row, but was very mistaken. I mean, we could have made it, but the dog would have been exhausted, and I didn’t want to carry him. But it sucked because I had already paid for parking.

Off to Cannery Row. We had a lot more shopping to do. Meraxes was a hit with everyone. He was such a good boy. If Kellan went into a store, he’d do a good sit, and wait. He only barked a few times.

It was getting late, and I still wanted to see the Carmel Mission, which was my favorite design of the California Missions. By the time we got there, it was closed, but I was able to get a cool photo of it.

Then we drove two hours back along the curvy roads to the campsite.

Santa Cruz

This is one of the locations to which I was looking forward the most. I can’t remember the last time I went to Santa Cruz. My sister was born here, and my first memory was of our apartment here, but it’s not a place we actually visited a lot growing up. It’s a nice beach town with small town vibes. Our first stop was the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk… which soon kicked us out because Meraxes. Oops.

We found another beach a little south, and had lunch there. I even remembered to put that stuff on. I can’t remember what it’s called. The one that stops your skin from turning red. Anyway, that beach was a lot of fun.

Next we went to the Mystery Spot. I’ve been there, but Kellan hadn’t. They also didn’t allow dogs, but I thought it would be a great experience for Kellan, so while she went on the tour, Meraxes and I hung out in the parking lot. He was a very good boy, until some little children and their shit parents came over and started bothering him. He started barking, so I had to take him away from other people. He was so riled up, that if anyone came near him, he had to bark.

There wasn’t much else to do, so we went back to the campsite to prepare for the the return north.

San Francisco part 2

We stopped by Emperor Norton‘s grave, which, let’s be honest, was the entire point of coming to California. Traffic on the 101 wasn’t too bad, but naturally, the fog encompassed the Golden Gate Bridge. Out of pure spite, the little park and viewing area just north of the bridge was closed, so we weren’t able to get any good photos. That was super disappointing.

I wanted to take Kellan to In-N-Out. I always thought it was kind of underwhelming, but “when in Rome”, as they say. I also got to see this really cool ship.

We decided that this drive was going to be stupid long anyway, so why not take the Avenue of the Giants. It’s an offshoot of 101 that goes through redwood forests. We did a quick little walk in one of the groves, and made Meraxes take photos teasing his stature.

Humboldt

Our return trip had to be rushed, and our next stop was Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park. But this is where our trip really started pissing me off. Northern California is big. Really big. And it’s all forest. Back to back forests. Humboldt Forest merges seamlessly into Trinity National Forest, and Six Rivers National Forest, and on and on. It’s also like 9 hours from San Francisco. We drove and drove and drove. We got gas. Then we drove some more. It was getting dark, but we were close. It was haunting, driving in the forest at night. It was so dark, you couldn’t see where the forest ended and the night’s sky began. We drove some more. My car’s GPS told us that we had arrived, but it was just a turnout on the highway. Even looking at it’s own map, I saw that it was further up. We drove. No signs. Nothing. We were almost to Crescent City, and we still couldn’t find anything. Kellan’s phone’s GPS sent us on a wild goose chase on a reservation. I stopped at a casino to see if they knew where we were supposed to go, but that dude didn’t have enough brain cells to tie his shoes. My phone’s GPS told us that we had two more hours to go, which was also wrong.

At this point, it was 11 pm. I had been driving for almost 12 hours, and I was done. I had considered camping on the beach, where the GPS first led us, because I saw other people camping there, but Kellan vetoed that because it was getting cold. I started calling hotels to see if anyone had any rooms. Most hotels didn’t even answer. One had a room, but didn’t allow dogs. One told us we had to book online. That guy had a language barrier. I don’t think he realized we wanted a room that night. Finally, I decided to look at the confirmation letter, to see if it had an address or directions. Oooooohhh. It’s not Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park Campgrounds, it’s Mill Creek Campground. It is in Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park, is run by Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park staff, but they changed the name or something. Maybe the state park recently bought the campground. I don’t know. What matters, is I had seen that sign. So we go back, I almost missed the turn again, and then we drove for like two more miles. We got to the campsite, set up the tent, and went to sleep. After midnight.

When we woke up, I realized that not only was the car parked at a hilariously wrong angle, but also we put the tent on the first flat surface we could see, but there was an entirely different sleeping spot available. Oops. You try setting up a tent with a flashlight. Time to head back to Oregon.

I wanted to stop by Pizza Factory, because there aren’t any near my home. But as per usual with this trip, we drove past it, because our GPS was bad. Oh well. Let’s keep going.

Florence

I love the Oregon Coast. The beaches are amazing. The campgrounds often have free hot showers. There are tons of small towns with the weirdest vibes. Like, you’ll be surrounded by Trump supporters, but there are more marijuana dispensaries than Starbucks…es. The views from 101 are breathtaking. Or so I’m told. I’m usually driving, so I don’t get to see them. And Kellan is one of those silly “enjoy the experience”, not “taking photos” kinds of people.

There are so many amazing state parks along the coast, and I can’t go into detail about them all, especially because we were in a rush and didn’t have a chance to stop at most of them. I’ll just say that from Brookings to Port Orford, you can easily spend an entire week just stopping at the lookout points. We did stop at Port Orford, which has one of the best views along the Oregon Coast. As you’re heading south, 101 will curve to the left. There’s a street that continues straight, and they painted a huge “BEACH” or something on the road. Follow that road a few blocks, and you’ll dead end at this lovely lookout. We, however, were heading north, so I just had to use my beach intuition, and find the lookout.

The rest of the drive to Florence was pretty relaxing. There’s a woodworking shop right next to a locally made honey/jam/tea/butter shop. I can’t remember if it was in Brookings or Gold Beach or one of the other small towns. The lady working there was super nice, and we got some really delicious stuff. I got marionberry syrup. If you mix that with some peanut butter and vanilla ice cream, it’s the best. We stopped by Reedsport to go to the Schooner Cafe, which has amazing crab grilled cheese sandwiches, but as usual with this trip, they were closed by the time we got there. We walked along the harbor in Coos Bay.

The campsite we chose was Alder Dune. This is actually a federal campsite instead of state, so they had no showers, and just a basic outhouse. It was quiet and private though. The next day, we got some hot beverages at River Roasters, which is under the Florence bridge, in the Old Town area. I really like their hot chocolate, so it’s become a sort of tradition to go there. I love the Old Town neighborhood, and wish we could have explored it more. Alas, we had to continue north.

 

Pacific City

Last year, when we did this trip, we included car camping for a few nights. One of the places we found was in the mountains by Cape Lookout. As I was planning this trip, I realized that Pacific City is very close to our car camping spot. Pacific City is very popular for riding ATVs on the dune.  It was a really soft sandy beach. Since this was the last night before we returned to Seattle, and since we arrived at a reasonable time, we tried to catch the sunset. Naturally, it was cloudy that evening. Also, the beach was deceptively far from the campsite. Like, I looked, and I could see the beach. So we walked… but oh wait. That’s just the parking lot, the beach is a little further. Just beyond those dunes. Oh. The dunes are super thiccc. I think we walked for an hour. Meraxes was done. My legs were killing me from walking in sand for so long. Kellan barely weighs an ounce, so she just teased us. Plus it ended up being cloudy anyway. I did get some amazing star shots that night, though.

The next day, we stopped at a place so Kellan could get coffee, and then we proceeded north.

Ocean Shores

Here’s the thing. I really wanted Pizza Factory pizza. I grew up going to the original location. Every birthday party, as a child, was held at the Pizza Factory. Every time I go on one of these trips, and see a Pizza Factory, I stop there. There was no way in hell I was going to drive back south to get one. Oh. Wait. There’s one in Ocean Shores. It’s only an hour out of the way. Let’s go!

We stopped by Cannon Beach. We couldn’t find parking at first. We had given up and were on our way back to the highway, when Kellan’s eagle like vision spotted one tucked away. I pounced. It was pretty far from the actual beach, but there was a little farmer’s market going on, so we went through that. Kellan drooled at all the vegetables and snacks. Meraxes met his doppelganger. She was only 2, so quite a bit smaller, and had a brown tummy instead of white, but she was a very good boy, and the two of them smelled each other and wagged their tails. Kellan got some really amazing gluten free pastries for me.

In Sunset Beach, we stopped by the outlet mall, because Kellan had only purchased 3 new pairs of shoes on this trip, and I guess she had a quota. Meraxes was beyond bored at this point.

Then it was time for the bridge. I am absolutely terrified of the Astoria bridge. I white knuckle it the entire time. The Oregon side of the bridge goes up very high so tankers and cargo ships can fit underneath. And it’s like 30 miles long. It’s not, but it feels like it. Luckily, there’s a nice little rest area on the Washington side, with a great view of the bridge. And my hot girlfriend in a dress. Where was I? Oh yeah. Pizza. We continued to Aberdeen, where I placed the order online. I’m on a time crunch, I’ve been driving forever. I just want to eat and go to bed. We got to Ocean Shores at like 4 pm and got the pizza, then headed back to Aberdeen, and on to Seattle.

Seattle

Look at that view. We drove right around 3000 miles, over the course of 13 days. It was a wonderful trip, and I can’t wait until next year’s adventure.