San Francisco California road trip and the Oregon Coast Hwy101 !!!




Road trip 2023 ! This year we planned to visit my cousin in Sacramento CA, that was the first target of the 18 day trip. We only have 3 nights booked in California, everything else was book on the flight :--)) because we didn’t have any major plans, we were able to hit the road in discover new places and activities along the way.

We left Calgary after work on Aug 3rd, first destination was Idaho where we slept in the parking lot at Walmart to be able to do groceries first thing in the morning of the following day. After a quick breakfast we did some grocery shopping and kept on going to our next stop Bend Oregon ! 

We arrived to Bend at around 9:00pm and found a rest stop near a beautiful bridge “Peter Skene Ogden Park”. Peter was born at Quebec in 1,794 and explored central Oregon where he found Crooked River which is under this bridge.. There were some guys doing bungee jumping to make our morning a pleasant visit.  

We kept on going and our next stop was Target.

Passing through Bend is beautiful, the volcanic national park and the views of Mount Hellen and Mount Hood were amazing ! we drove that day until to hit Sacramento where we manage to get a campground for 2 nights near my cousin’s apartment.

We visited Sacramento all day Sunday, it was hot !! 43c and the kids were melting buy the end of the day… beautiful city and lots to see !! we went to the pool at Angel’s (my cousin) and cool down till it was time for bed..

On Monday we left with Angel to Samuel P. Taylor Park (40min north of San Francisco) where we had a reservation for the following 3 nights. In the way to the park we stopped at the Jelly Belly factory museum, wow what a treat ! not only well done and organized but also entertained for the kids, after all what kids don’t like to be in a candy factory ????

We continued on to the park. Samuel P. Taylor in right in the Redwoods, beautiful trees and hiking trails around. Angel stayed with us and his kids experienced camping for the very first time, roasted marshmallows and bbq for dinner.

We had a great night under dark skies, next day we did a short hike around the area and visited Stinson Beach for the first view of the Pacific on this trip !

When Angel left at the end of the day, Nic suggested to drive down to San Francisco (after all the Golden Gate Bridge was our main target in that area. What a beautiful structure, magnificent piece of engineering. We had a great and clear view from many angles, we walked around the area for at least 3 hours, including walking down to the pier and bay area. At night, and before heading back to the campground we drove around the steep streets of San Francisco, amazing !

We didn’t have enough of San Francisco, so next day we came back for more views. We stopped in Sausalito, beautiful floating houses and little town. The Golden Gate Bridge was again spectacular ! we even took a boat ride under the breach and around Alcatraz.. Dinner with a view was PRICY ! after that and walking around the famous Pier39 we did a bit more driving around the city and took plenty of pictures….

 


We went back to our campground in Samuel P. Taylor, but made the promise to come back next year for more..

         

 We left Samuel P. Taylor on Thursday afternoon, and went to Anchor Bay campground, one of the best on the trip. You can park your trailer right on the beach, amazing spot !! We had nice weather to enjoy sometime on the beach (not summing though). Next day I went out for a quick 10k run along the hwy101, misty and quiet.. as we were leaving we saw a table full of fish (Rock fish) and asked the lady if she had a market ?? “no she reply, we are just camping for the week, fishing and eating..” wow can we have a fish? She gave us 4lbs of fresh file, that we later on fried and ate!!  

We carried on with our trip along the Oregon Coast, stopped everywhere we could, had lunches on the beach, checked out some local restaurants too and even visited Glass Beach !

The entire Oregon Coast was spectacular, we had a wonderful time, one place in particular we particularly like was the Sand Dunes Oregon Park and the light house along the way.

We crossed the Oregon/Washington border in Astoria, beautiful bridge and cute little town.

We went to see the last light house of the trip “Cape Disappointment” and after that headed to Olympia for our last night near Seattle before crossing the border into Canada…

Back in Canada our last destination was Kelowna, were we were meeting Nicholas’ friends we spend a few day. On the first beach day we saw firsthand the West Kelowna fire ! this fire moved quickly overnight and jumped the lake getting only 5kms from our campground. We had to evacuate Friday morningand decided to stay in Revelstoke at Canyon Springs for one more night.

Lucas really wanted to MTB in one of the parks, and we were talking all the time about Silver Starts, but with the Kelowna fire we couldn’t stay. So we went to Golden for one more night so that we can bike on Sunday in Kicking Horse, wow what a day in the park ! Beni, Lucas and me went out mountain bike from 10-4 while Maria and Nic enjoyed some hikes from the Gondola along with some nice views.

    
























































































































 

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