RoFs in Oregon .....Sea Level to 7200 Feet

This trip was more of a sightseeing tour of the Oregon Coast and the Cascade Mountains than an overlanding tour through the backcountry. It was mostly on paved roads with about 150 miles of gravel/dirt roads. The trip came about when XJINTX decided to come to Oregon and see the sights which my delightful wife and I agreed to show him. Here is a brief summary of our trip. The full report and more photographs are on my blog site.

The group met at Fort Stevens State Park at the NW tip of Oregon. While at the park we toured the wreck of the Peter Iredale.
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From there we went to where the Columbia River and the Pacific Ocean meet where some of the group got their feet wet.
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We worked our way down the coast to our next camping spot, South Beach State Park. This is the view from the overlook on Neahkahnie Mountain.
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We continued south to Devils Punchbowl.
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Then on to Heceta Head and a hike up the hill to the lighthouse.
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There were four rigs, seven people and three dogs on the trip.
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The weather on the Oregon Coast can change quickly. We had cool evenings, a touch of rain, and sunny sky.
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That night we stayed at Humbug Mountain State Park. We were staying at state parks because there is no beach camping in Oregon. If you want to camp close to the beach you need to be in a designated campground.

While we were on the trip Oregon was experiencing one of the worst forest fire seasons it has had in a while. While at Humbug we checked the smoke, fire and wind reports as well as web cams, see below for links. The reports looked good so we crossed the coast mountains and headed for our next camping spot on the Rogue River. On the way through the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest we could occasionally see smoke from the Chetco Bar fire to the south of us. We stopped at an forest overlook for lunch and to watch the smoke plume billow and grow.
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At our campground on the Rogue River.
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Our goal for the next day was Crater Lake National Park. The web cam showed the lake socked in with smoke. The smoke report predicted that the winds would be changing and the there would be less smoke the following day. The report was spot on. There was little smoke and sunny a sky.
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Ms. XJINTX wanted to have some huckleberry pie. On a tip from a park worker we backed tracked to Becky's Restaurant in Union Creek. The pie was excellent.
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The original plan was to camp at Diamond Lake. Unfortunately smoke was starting to move back in so we headed east to a secluded campground in the Fremont National Forest. This was the quietest place we have been in a long time. There was no bird or insect noises. The only thing we heard was ourselves.
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We continued north the following day and camped at the Prineville Reservoir. On the way we stopped at South Ice Cave in the Deschutes National Forest.
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Because of the heavy smoke along the Columbia River and the closure of Interstate 84 we decided to cut the trip short by one day. Tom headed home and the rest of us headed back to Portland. On the way we stopped at Timberline Lodge in Government Camp.
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The forest fires forced us to alter our route and plans. Never the less the less we all had a great time.

Statistics for my vehicle; 2002 Ford E350 camper van
Total miles 1015
Total gallons 90.5
MPG average 11.2
Total dirt miles 150
Total pavement miles 865

References
Northwest Interagency Coordination Center for wild fire information.
Oregon Smoke Blog for smoke forecasts
Oregon Trip Check for road closures and traffic cameras. The traffic cameras allowed us to see the real time smoke conditions.
Oregon DEQ air quality page for real time air quality monitoring.
The "Alerts and Notices" page of the national forests that we traveled through showed what roads were closed due to the fires.
 

Ace Brown

Retired Ol’ Fart
Nice report, excellent photos. Too bad y'all had to keep detouring to avoid the smoke. I had to use the link to find this through to mess of Korean spam.
 

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