Crater Lake Visit - Part 1

We arrived here on Wednesday and decided that Thursday morning we would go to the visitor's center at Crater Lake and get the scoop on how best to visit the park, what is there to see, tours or talks by rangers, visit the gift shops, and see what hikes are duable.  And we did.  We also thought that maybe we would take the 3 hour boat ride on the lake but when we found out you had to hike 1 mile down to the water's edge and they say that the hike back up feels like 10 miles long because you are climbing up over 5000 feet to get back to terra firma, we said - no, no thanks.  This blog is about what we did on our first two times visiting the lake and the next blog will be more about the geology - some fascinating things to show you.

We went to the park's headquarters where they show the orientation video - good movie.  A couple of facts stick in my mind:  43 feet!!! of snow falls here every winter making it the most snowfal  place where people live year round in the United States; they have measured the depths of the lake to 1,943 feet deep and because it is so clear they have been able to see 143 feet down by the eye; oral history passed down through the native American's parallel known geological facts which means they witnessed this event; and from postcards and pictures you do not get the feel as to how big this lake is - 4 .5 miles to 6 miles wide.  Big!  Beautiful sapphire blue.

Wow 

That's alot of snow!

We talked to the Crater Lake Trolley tour company that for a fee will take you around the rim road and with a park ranger, provide a talk at each of the stops explaining what you are looking at, how the crater was formed, the history and discovery, etc.   We decided to do that tour yesterday and got on the 10am tour.  The tickets were worth our money.  We did not drive around the park on Thursday, only the west side which is where the visitor's center is located and the camp store, a place we try to go to at each of the national park's visits.  The camp stores are pretty cool - has gear for obviously camping, food, but has trinkets and small items for hiking that you do not typically find in the visitor's centers' gift shops.

Talk about blue!  Without going into much detail, the history of the crater started over 420,000 years ago with Mount Mazama's growing period of eruptions, lava flow, quiet, then more eruptions, to the height of 12,000 feet. Then 7,700 years ago the big eruption happened which took about 1 week to complete,  this time venting out all around the sides of the mountain as well as on top. With the blast that forced ash and pumice into the air 100 miles high and fallout as far north as Canada and east as far as Nebraska, the lava and gas below inside the mountain emptied out and the weight of the mountain fell down on itself within hours.  Can you imagine the sound and the quaking of that?  Then centuries of snow, ice, rain, filled up the crater that was left.  The water is pure - you could drink it because no streams or rivers flow in or out of the crater.  No impurities, very little plant life in the water, two fish species live which were introduced at the turn of the century, but no other fish.  Amazing that the water has been kept clean.  The blueness is from the sun's rays filtering through the water and absorbed (red, yellow, green) but the blue and violet colors are scattered and that's what we see.

Very Pretty

While on the tour we marked areas we want to come back to visit on our own which we will do another day.  This being the holiday weekend, the crowds have intensified 100 fold between Thursday and yesterday.  And our campground has filled. Will wait a day or two before visiting again.

Move to Diamond Lake

We packed up and I have to say - glad we are gone - from the campground in Florence, Oregon, and made the 185 mile trip to here, Diamond Lake.  This is a very large lake, 47 feet deep at the deepest, and as I look out the window I can see it from the campground.  And what a campground we are in!  But first, our drive here.

Umpqua River

Traveled back down to Reedsport where a few days ago we went and watched them riding the sand dunes on the ATVs.  The first 60 miles was along the Umpqua Scenic River Highway, not a highway, but a beautiful road that road along the Umpqua River for most of the time.  Very pretty.  Passed a huge  herd of Roosevelt Elk grazing not far from the road, and saw a number of deer grazing by the road or just passing in front of us.  That's what happened within 1/2 mile of leaving our campground this morning - oh my goodness!

Got to Interstate 5 and traveled about 15 minutes and got off and traveled along the Rogue Umpqua Scenic Highway, even more breath taking.  I wasn't too impressed with Oregon up to this point, pretty, but not that WOW.  Until this drive.  As we neared the campground which is situated right by Diamond Lake and nestled between Mt. Thielsen and Mt. Bailey, I remarked that this is probably what Alaska looks like.  In a forest of pine trees, no town around, in 5000 feet elevation (we were at 50 at the last sight), and the sounds of birds.  And the scents.  Our sight is huge, won't have any problem with neighbors, they are quite a distance from us.  And we look out into the forest from the back.  I guess this is our reward for putting up with a bunch of people who have no regard for their neighbors.

We are 8 miles from the entrance to Crater Lake National Park which is at the top of our agenda while here.  And of course, no cell service but have internet.  Some campgrounds give you a pass to get on their Wi-Fi which they did here, and our Verizon Wi-Fi works great too.  Just no cell (we use AT&T).

Even Grace is more comfortable - she is staring out of the windows immediately where she hardly looked out before.  We haven't heard birds for weeks.  I do miss hearing the fog horn but I will survive.

View out the back of RV

RV at Diamond Lake

Getting Ready to Move On

We have made reservations for a campground near Crater Lake National Park and will be leaving here tomorrow morning, hopefully not in rain.  The weather forecasters here are not even close in their predictions, we have had rain off and on day and night since we got here a week ago.  We don't like traveling in rain, but if it will be tomorrow, we have no choice.

We will have about a 4 hour drive and thankfully only about 40 minutes will be on an interstate (I-5).  We really like traveling the back roads, more scenic than highways.  And of course, going near a national park means little if no cell service.  Great.

Today we clean, laundry, pack up, grocery shop, check bank statements and bills, get ready for tomorrow morning.  Our stay here has been okay, our sinuses are bugging us because it is so damp.  And, our neighbors have been bugging us - they don't seem to know that there are other folks around them.  Even though we have a pull through site and no one is on our left, these two RVs are in a back-in - back to back site, 9 adults, 2 dogs, and very loud at night.  Slamming doors, they walk like elephants in the RV - clump, clump, clump.  Decide at 9:30 at night to build a fire and chop wood.  Ooooooh. Can't figure out the relationships between all of them.  One RV is Mom and Dad, the second RV is, I think, their daughter with husband and a dog, and then maybe the husband's brother with his wife, plus three friends of one of them with a dog.  Not sure how the 3 friends fit in with relationship to the 4. Mom, Dad and the 2 couples are Asian descent, the 3 friends are not.  Strange interactions among the 7 young adults.  They drove quite a distance to be here - their license plates are British Columbia.  Why here?  Very confusing.  I will be glad to leave them.

One of our plans on our return trip home was to go to Yosemite National Park but that has changed due to the huge wildfire there.  And with the tremendous amount of burnt area, will be years before we think about going there - would be too devastating to see.  But like RV life, we just stir up our plans and go somewhere else.

Heceta Head Light House and Orcas

The forecast was for rain so we stayed around until noonish and when it didn't rain and the sun was trying to peak out, we opted to drive to Eugene to do some shopping.  Florence has most stores we need but not all.  Drove along a scenic road over the Cascade Range and through lush forest and out on the other side to very dry conditions, looks like little or no rain for some time.  Found the stores we needed and drove back.  The drive to Eugene only took 50 minutes one way, not bad.

Heceta Head Light House

It was about 3:30pm when we got back to Florence and since the sun was shining, we decided to drive to Heceta Head Light House, going north on Rte 101 about 8 miles.  The Sea Lion Caves were also right there and maybe we would try to get a good look.

Road hugs cliff - look closely - see an RV?

Absolutely beautiful, breathtaking to see!  I remember when we drove down the coast a couple of days ago, the road sometimes hugged the ocean, driving on steep cliffs, one move and you would be a goner.  The road did not change since then, still very scary if you do not like heights, but that is the only way to get from A to Z if you were traveling in this area.

We first pulled into the designated area for viewing the light house but found we would have to hike considerable distance UP to see it and why would we want to do that?  Instead, drove back through that tunnel that gave us fits when we traveled here with the RV and out on the other side, stopped, and took some breathtaking views of the place.

A bonus was orcas feeding below us.  I think there were 5 and when we first saw them there were two feeding but saw from out in the ocean the blow/spray of a couple more coming in.  Stayed at that pullout for some time watching the orcas circle around and around, the feeding patterns of the orca, as they moved in closer to shore.

Looking south - beginning of Oregon Dunes

Drove back south a ways, passing where the Sea Lion Caves are and decided not to stop because it was slammed with people, very little parking, and no view of the light house anyhow.  The people at the campground said the sea lions are not there and chances are we would not see them - why spend the money?  Drove just a tidge further south and stopped and took a picture of the beginning of the Oregon Dunes as they begin just north of the light house.  Saw the jetty of the Suislaw River where it meets the ocean in Florence and we are camped just north of the jetty. Continual fog horn sounding from the buoy at the jetty, neat sound.

Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area

Dunes encroaching road

I was stumped as to why there sand dunes here for 40 miles down the coast of Oregon.  Why here?  There is a visitor's center back down in Reedsport so we decided to drive back down yesterday and see what this is all about.  Was a bit nervous about the Kool Coastal Nites classic car show going on, wasn't sure if we could get near the city.  Not a problem.  There are two mountain ranges here, Cascade and Coastal, and for the last 55 million years these mountain ranges plus the ocean's water and surf, plus the weather patterns erodes the mountains down to the ocean where the ocean pushes the sand back up onto land.  A dance that goes on every day.  In the winter ice and snow make the most dramatic images out of the dunes.  Doesn't stop the dune riders, they are out in force in every season.

Umpqua Light House from ocean

Light house up close

Oyster pots

Waiting to register for car show

I did not know there were so many kinds of sand dunes.  We were told if we go to this one area we could climb up to dunes about 500 feet high.  Ah, no thanks - too high.  But, beware of dune buggies.  We were steered to go back to Winchester Bay where we had bought the fish the previous day, drive around the marina and go to the Umpqua Light House and we could get vista views of the dunes and ocean.  Go see the oyster pots where they grow them, see the crab pot point where the fisher people bring in their catch, walk the dunes.  So much to do, so little time!

We walked down to the ocean over a small foredune, a small dune that separates the ocean and the beginning of the major dunes.  Very pretty.  Hiked over the breakwall where the oyster pots are, then as we were standing there on the ocean's edge, could hear the dune buggies roaring to get up Banshee Hill, a very very tall sand dune.  They looked like ants from where we were so decided to drive closer.  Boy, did we get an eyeful!  Saw some car show people waiting their time before registering for Kool Coastal Nite show.

Banshee Hill - small dots are buggies

Family affair

At the staging area we struck up a conversation with two couples who were sitting there with their buggies, they call them sand rails out here.  What a hoot!  You could go to one of the dune buggy tours and ride "mild to wild" trip which means, you can ask for very mild ride where they go slow, no scares.  Or go for the wild - run the dunes.  No thank you. You can ride a dirt bike, your ATV, sand rail, dune buggy (usually one seater), off-road car or vehicle out here.  And we were told that sometimes people bring their RV's into the area but get stuck.  Why would you do that?  They even knew the tow company that comes to get these yah-oo's out of trouble by first name - we had passed them coming into the staging area.  This is big business for the duners.  And families.  Saw three generations of families all playing out on the dunes.

Sand Rail

Young kids riding around

Watch out for traffic!

They said one time their were 4 ambulance calls in one hour - there were so many people out that when someone came over a dune, someone else was coming at them from the other direction.  Wow.

What a fun day, very unplanned.  Learned that the sand dunes that are over the roadway we saw just started this week.  People stop and shovel the sand into their trucks to take home.

The Hunt for Smoked Fish

When we checked into the campground on Wednesday, we asked where can we go to get smoked fish?  She told us to ride about 20 miles south on Rte 101 (along the coast) and go to a town called Reedsport and there we will find smoked shops along the water front.  We needed to do grocery shopping so our plan was to look around this town of Florence, then go find the fish.

Sorta of.  We are right at the northern most boundary of the Oregon Sand Dunes, a National Recreation Area, so took a little drive into that area and decided that we will come back and spend a day there.  We  want to see the ATVs running around, and of course, walk over the dunes to see the ocean.

From there we drove south to Reedsport looking for the smoked fish shops.  As we were driving along we saw where the sand dunes have creeped down to the road - looks like they have to really monitor this.  In Reedsport we drove around and found Umpqua Discovery Center, an educational and very informative place where you can learn the history and culture of the area.  Very, very well done.  Amazing that this little town has something like this.  There were murals on every wall and you swear that you were looking at photographs.  A local artist hand painted all the walls with scenes of river life, ocean with big ships coming into port, views of the town that showed store fronts, another mural of sand dunes and the animals and fauna that are there, another mural of the forest with those animals and trees and flowers, and on and on.   The center was constructed in a loop and as you went from one are of information it would flow into the next, 16 different points of interest. We came into a room that was decorated as if we were sitting at the water's edge and it was the theater with different movies you could watch.  We chose to see the one about the seashore and it was 40 minutes long - well done, produced by PBS, narrated by actor Martin Sheen.  It was so good we chose to listen to the weather movie.  Asked the woman at the front desk about the center - she said that schools have trips here - sometimes there are 80 kids at one time.  They have many things to keep the kids busy - like scavenger hunts, exams where they have to find something in the exhibits, plays.  Were not allowed to take pictures.   Here's the link to the center   www.umpquadiscoverycenter.com

The same lady suggested we go 4 miles down the road to Winchester Bay and look for the Coast Guard Station and near there are fresh fish places you could buy.  During the drive I said this is what I think Oregon should look like - lots of trees, misty, very lush.  We were driving along the ocean all this time. As we came into Winchester Bay we noticed that there were at least a 500 RVs (exaggerated)  dry camping at the marina - we could see their generators out, many sitting by them just visiting.  And the main road roped off - found the fish place, and while there asked what was going on.  Told us starting today through Sunday was the Kool Coastal Nights Car show - over 1000 classic cars on display - and you would not be able to drive anywhere in this town.  Now we understand why campgrounds were full around here!  And great timing on our part to avoid that crowd.  Just hope the weather is good for them.

Heceta Beach RV Park in Florence, Oregon

Got hooked up and had to back out of our spot in Long Beach yesterday morning - there was no way we could pull forward, the trucks and cars were lined along the roadway.  We joked after we got on the road - we hope our next spot is not a canopy-to-canopy site.  Backed the RV straight backwards into the grass, made the swing and off we went.  Driving through Long Beach one more time I could see many, many kites already flying and it was 9:30am.  And the competition had not started yet.  Still, many people walking the sidewalks in front of the stores and we had to be careful that people didn't step out in front of you.  Should be absolutely crazy the next couple of days there, glad we are out of there.

Sand Bar on Columbia River

We drove along Rte 101, onto the Astoria Megler bridge and over the Columbia River, had to wait about 10 minutes due to construction on the bridge and was able to get a great shot of the sandbars that move constantly in the river.  We marveled that river pilots understand how the sands shift and how to guide the boats in under the bridge.  The sandbars you see here are right near the channel that the freighters use.

Sand bars near bridge

Started the twisty, turny drive down 101, in and out of small towns, usually had the ocean in our view to the right most of the time.  Come around a corner and wow - the view.  Sometimes I got nervous because we were right on the edge and one small wrong move - poof, into the ocean we would tumble.  Our GPS kept telling us to turn around, making our 200 mile trip into 8 hours of driving time due to detouring inland, taking Interstate 5 south, then coming back to the coast.  No way.  If we saw 18 wheelers and Class A's (motor homes) coming at us and they are just as high or higher and weigh as much or more - then we could do it too.  Our entire trip said, turn around, go back.  Why?

Our reflection in another RV's back window

We found out.  After 185 miles of the GPS telling us to detour there was a tunnel - said 11'6" clearance - and we are 12' 6".  Okay.... how did the 18 wheelers and motor homes come through that tunnel?  We stopped, looked again at signage, and one sign posted behind the 11'6" said at the side was 11'6" but in center was 14'.  Phew!  We waited until all traffic had moved through from oncoming, then moved into the middle and straddled the center line.  Another 5th wheeler was following us closely and when he saw what we did, he stopped and did the same thing too.  Once we passed through the tunnel, the GPS then said - 10 more minutes to go, not 5 more hours!!  Dah.  For the most part I follow what the GPS says, and then again - I monitor it and the traffic coming at us and if okay, we are going this way regardless of what the GPS says.

There was one time I ignored the warning and just had Dave keep driving.  This happened in Pierre, South Dakota.  Whoa, stop!  Caught a sign just at the last minute that said low clearance on bridge - we would have cut off the top of the RV.  When we are traveling with the RV, I program the GPS as an 18 wheeler truck, let it calculate, but then watch the oncoming traffic if it gives us warnings to turn around. That is the only time I did not monitor - I learned my lesson then and use my system whenever that happens.  So far, so good.

We are in the central coastal area of Oregon in a small town called Florence. This campground is neat - we are each in a little island, have coastal pine trees and shrubs between each of us. And 2/10 mile walk to the ocean. All last night we heard the fog horn of Heceta Lighthouse - about 6 miles from here.  I love that sound.   Will be here a week, looking at what sights there are to see, then move inland and south.  Sitting out a thunderstorm this morning before venturing out, been a long time since we have been in a storm, neat sounds of rain on the roof.

Pictures of Beach and Pacific Ocean

We trekked down to the beach Tuesday afternoon after we got our chores done and got semi-ready for the move Wednesday down the Oregon coast,  we spent a couple of hours walking barefoot along the breaking waves of the ocean.  With the full moon, the tides are higher and the waves are the highest we have seen since being here.  A couple of days before when we walked along the water was pretty calm and we found two big sand dollar shells.  How cool was that! But because the water was so rough, the only thing we found was many sea gulls fighting over crabs that had washed ashore.

The pictures here show a beautiful beach, tide out, lots of sun - but was deceiving - we were freezing.  The water temp was about 54 and with the high wind, wading along the edge of the water made our feet freeze.  We had on wind breakers and still we froze.  We saw two girls boogey boarding in the waves and could not figure out how they could stand to be in that water and the wind.  Brrrrrrr.

We walked about an hour, strolled over to where a group of kiters were flying their kites, took some lasting photos and came back to the RV.  Not sure if this is the longest beach in the world, but it sure was pretty.  With the haze and the sand spray from the high winds we could not see down the beach to the international kite festival, our goal originally, but that's okay.  We felt we had had enough of the ocean to hold us until we move south along the Oregon Coast.

Locals doing their own kite festival

What's left of a huge crab

Seagulls fighting over crab

Kite Festival somewhere in haze

Water draining back to ocean

Love the beach!

Beautiful water

Girls boogey boarding

Long Beach Kite Festival

We were told that thousands of people come to this yearly international kite festival, a 7 day feast for colorful kites.  Started yesterday so we decided to go see what it was all about.  Monday was a set up day for vendors (over 100) and a day of arches, kite trains, and multi-line stack kites.  No competition but a day to see how the winds and your kite react.  This is big business!  And the day's forecast was a joke - was supposed to be sunny by 11am.  Well, we got rain, more like misted, and decided by 1pm to get out of there, we were really getting wet.  Typical misty/foggy ocean weather.  But that did not stop the kiters.

Boardwalk to festival

Flying even while raining!

Parked on the south side of town near the Kite Museum and walked the boardwalk to where the activities were.  Any kind of food was available to purchase, tshirt vendors, of course kite vendors, jewelry vendors,  trinkets to purchase for just about anything a tourist would want.

Tuesday through Saturday is the real competition - kite fights in the air, stunt flying, many activities for the kids, activities for the seniors, kites that are choreographed to music, demonstrations, family stuff - definitely geared to the family which is great.  They even have an area at the local elementary school where they teach you to fly a kite indoors.  There are so many competitors that they rope off over a mile long beach here, sectioned off, where you can watch anything and everything about kites you would ever want to see.  Yesterday we saw one tent where kids where making their own kites and later saw them out flying them.  Fun to see.  Hope the weather is good for them.  And the town - slammed with people walking/crossing the streets.  We will have to be very careful tomorrow when we drive through the town on our way out.

Arches and Trains - just setting up - fly all day long

We were so exhausted with the 4 hours outside that when we got back to the RV we collapsed and took power naps.  Can't imagine what the next 6 days will be like for those folks - supposed to be record high temps (mid 70's) the rest of the week and blaring sunny days.  But we will walk from our beach down to get a bit closer later today - just way too many people for us.  To learn more about this festival -     www.kitefestival.com

We are in clean-up mode today, laundry, vacuum, put away stuff, we will close down in the morning and drive down the Oregon coast about 160 miles to Heceta, a small town located on the coast.  A couple miles from the Sea Lion Caves - a noted place to come watch them up close.  We will say goodbye to the State of Washington, has been a great 2 months traveling from Clarkston to Packwood to Sequim and finally to Long Beach.  Met some great couples (Ron and Carol, Russell and Suzee).  Absolutely loved our time in this state - will miss the green lush fauna especially!  Definitely the "Evergreen State" as their license says.

Astoria, Columbia River Maritime Museum

What a surprise we had yesterday.  Weather was supposed to be rainy so we decided to do 'indoor' things - like drive to Astoria and go to the Columbia River Maritime Museum. Had to drive back over the Astoria Megler bridge, 4 miles of elevated roadway over the Columbia, where you can see vista views of the River and activities on it.  Like - bazillion fishing boats.  And I do mean bazillion.  Freighters anchored just east of the bridge, waiting to go up river to Portland to load - looked like they floated above the water.  And lots of vehicles going over the bridge.  If you get nervous about heights, this bridge is not for you.  Tide was in and with that, no sand bars.  On our way home later in the day the tide was rushing out and the sand bars were noticeable.

Freighters anchored out waiting to go to Portland

So many fishing boats!

We both had a huge WOW for this museum, built right on the water's edge, which explained the history of the river and people who lived(s) on it, the fishing industry, the Coast Guard's role in saving lives, how the Coast Guard trains their people to manage the treacherous waters of the ocean and the Columbia River combining.  How freighter traffic moves into the entrance of the river (must have a Pilot on board and the Pilot maneuvers the boat in), another Pilot for the sand bars, explanation of why this area is called "The Graveyard of the Pacific" due to thousands of shipwrecks and lives lost.  The whole shebang.  What an interesting place.  Movies showing how the storms batter the entrance, movies about the Pilot's job, movies about Coast Guard rescues, and on and on.  A gem of a museum.  A must see for anyone who wants to know about this river.

Map of some shipwrecks

Snapshot of movie - waves get 40 feet high!

After visiting the museum and taking some outdoor photos (Lightship Columbia was there docked and you could tour that), we decided to go to Astoria Column, a tower built that you can climb to the top and view 360 degrees of the area.  On a clear day you can see miles out into the Pacific.  We could make out the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse, the Netul River and rough area where Fort Clatsop is located, see way up the river towards Portland, just a gorgeous view.  On the column is etched pictures of the history of the area.  Pretty cool.

Astoria Column

Abandoned Cannery- bridge/freighter in background

After the Column we drove back down into town and stopped at the boat launch and walked around.  We saw one of the original canneries (there were 52 at one time) still standing out on stilts - abandoned.  Can't imagine the working conditions there.  We could hear sea lions barking and walked towards the commercial pier and saw/heard them.  Noisy things.  And the weight of them broke the docks. Took a picture of a couple who had just came back from a day out fishing - the woman's salmon is about 18 pounds and the man's is about 15.  Good eats!

Look close on docks - CA Sea Lions

Catch of the Day 

Tide going out - sand bar showing

Driving back over the bridge you could see the sand bar coming into view, most of the fishing boats had called it a day, the fog rolling back in.  Learned alot about the River and decided that we would never venture out past the ocean IF we ever boated here.  No way.

North Long Beach Peninsula

Monday and Tuesday of this week were gorgeous days and we utilized them to get out and about.  Wednesday - rain.  More like we had expected to have for Washington only there has been a dry spell and every place has a burn ban in effect.  Typically little rain during August but locals have said no rain since the beginning of July.  Very unusual. But we have been able to get out many times more than we had planned since it has been beautiful weather.

We stayed in Wednesday to get caught up on emails and such, watching the troops come in to park.  We are in a Coast-to-Coast park which is another type of membership campground but has opened its doors to the public.  I had trouble finding a campground to get to in this community, felt lucky we got a space here - but.  We have nicknamed this the Canopy-to-Canopy campground - we are so close to our neighbors on each side that if we put out our sun awning we would touch.  And very noisy.  You can hear them talking in each of their rigs, hear them walking (pound, pound, pound - heavy feet), and just rude - at 10:45pm last night I was ready to go to our neighbor and yell at him to shut up!

One thing though, we can hear the fog horn of freighters moving up and down the ocean's coast.  A low rumble, quite distinctive.

Leadbetter Sate Park - tide out 

Rain had ceased for awhile yesterday morning and we were just going to run into town to grocery shop but ended up driving north on the Peninsula to the end where Leadbetter State Park is located.  There are hiking trails there to Willapa Bay (bay between peninsula and main land) or cross over on trails to the ocean.  Since it was still sprinkling, we did not linger.  Drove back through a small town of Oysterville, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, cute.  Very old, and lots of history of oyster catching, canning, etc.  Today the old buildings are still there, the cannery is a sea food market.

Oyster Fishing Fleet - Oysterville

Oyster Shells being loaded on boat

Recycled Oyster Shells 

Did walk down to the docks where the fishing fleet resides.  Pretty impressive.  Watched an oyster boat being loaded with broken oyster shells and when they docked, asked what was going on.  The skipper said that they recycle the shells, bag them, then sink them into the bay where young oysters will cling to the mass and the juvenile oysters will use this mass for their remainder of their life until harvested.  I read that there is a shortage of oyster shells since many people use the shells for decorative or building purposes instead of recycling. As we drove back to the campground we saw where many homes would used crushed shells for pavement instead of dirt or gravel.  It did look pretty.