Salem – Dave and Kay's Travel Adventures

Monday, June 21, 2021

Today we are driving to Elkton, Oregon. It’s about three hours, RV drive time, from Salem. As we got closer to the small town of Drain we noticed quite a few log trucks heading each direction. There are a lot of logging companies around.

On our drive to Elkton, we went through the Elk Creek Tunnel Forest State Park which is over Oregon route 38. It was built in 1932 and its length is a little over 1000 feet in length. We drove through the town of Elkton to get to our campground site. Elkton is a small town that overlooks the Umpqua river and has a little over 200 residents.

The Elkton RV Park is where we will be meeting our friends that we met on our New Zealand/Australia trip in 2020 just before the COVID- 19 lockdown! Our campsite was set up by noon. We fixed some lunch and waited for our friends to arrive!

A few hours later Peggy and Ernie arrived in their Class C RV and car. We helped them set up and then we enjoyed the sounds of the river and catching up with each other. Of course, due to the COVID-19 pandemic we each hadn’t done much!

Across from us we saw this Class A RV with this display which gave us a chuckle!

Our first sunset along the Umpqua River! This river flows into the Pacific Ocean.

One can’t help but relax and enjoy the beauty of nature when you are by a river.

Saturday, June 19, 2021

This morning we are traveling to Salem, Oregon. We crossed into state number 11, Oregon, on a bridge over the Columbia River!

On our way to Salem we drove through Portland and the traffic was heavy as we crossed the Willamette River but we had great views of the downtown area.

We were set up at our next campground by 11:00 and hopped in the car to visit Cannon Beach. As we left the campground we could see Mt. Jefferson, elevation 10,502 ft., that is part of the Cascade Range, in the distance.

When we arrived at Cannon Beach we had some lunch at a wonderful restaurant and masks were to be worn except when you were eating. Even though we are fully vaccinated we follow the businesses requests. The town was very busy because it was a nice day and all the restaurants and stores were busy!

Cannon Beach is a long sandy beach and is known for Haystack Rock which stands 235 ft. out of the water. As we walked up and down the beach, it was windy and the temperature on the beach was about 60˚! When we walked in the small town of Cannon Beach it was much warmer.

During low tide you can walk out to Haystack. We checked the tide schedule and we arrived a little after low tide. When it is low tide a lot of various marine life can be seen. This area is a protected marine garden so the Oregon department of Fish & Wildlife are there to block off the area and keep individuals from stepping on the marine life during low tide! It is known for many sea stars, urchins, sea anemones, and shellfish. From outside the restricted area we could see some sea anemones and urchins but we didn’t observe any sea stars or shellfish.