GRAYLAND BEACH STATE PARK (WA) ★

FRIDAY - Well shortly after 12:30PM today we crossed over the Columbia River Bridge between Oregon and Washington, making it our 105th such border crossing during our fulltime RV life.

Now there are only two crossings that we haven't accomplished yet, and one of those will occur when we head back south after the 4th of July this year. The last one (ID2NV) we have plans to do, but not until late in 2029, ouch!

TRAVEL DAY PHOTOS

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By noon today the fog had pretty much all burned off, leaving us a wonderful view.
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We looked up over our right hand shoulders and said goodbye to the Astoria Column.
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This bridge is the longest continual truss bridge in North America.
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It's so tall the huge oil tankers can float right under it.
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The state border is under this lower bridge just off the Washington coastline.
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Immediately after entering Washington you're asked to make a decision, left or right?
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Choose left and you'll soon find yourself traveling through another of those coastal tunnels.
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Soon we were all unhooked at our site in Grayland Beach State Park.
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On the other side of that berm behind our site is the Pacific Ocean.

SATURDAY - Today we're going to drive the short distance of 9-miles north to the town of Westport, located on the south side of the entrance to Grays Harbor and the mouth of the Chehalis River.

We'll be back here again tomorrow, a little later in the day this time, to have lunch in this small fishing town (pop. 2213).

SIGHTSEEING DAY 1

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Just south of the town of Westport is the jetty protecting the Grays Harbor entrance.
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The beach here is used for all kinds of fun, but today it was mostly surfers.
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Also from the top of the berm we could see the Westport Viewing Tower, our next stop.
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This tower was created in 2011, with the first floor being wheelchair accessible.
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From the top you can see all the rock jetties protecting the shoreline.
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Westport is quite the litte commercial fishing village.
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The top floor is printed with each of the four cardinal directions. ROVER is north.
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Another of Tricia's 360° walkaround views from the top of the viewing tower.

SUNDAY - This morning we have a few chores to take care of before we move campsites tomorrow.

We also have another sightseeing location picked out for today that should be a lot of fun.

SIGHTSEEING DAY 2

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Early this morning we had 3 young bucks come visit us at our campsite.
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After the laundry was done we headed over to the lighthouse here just outside of town.
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The 1898 Grays Harbor Lighthouse stands 107' tall above the harbor.
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The nice thing about this lighthouse is for $5 you get to climb all the way to the top.
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Two floors from the top you can look up and see where the lighthouse mechanism sits.
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The next floor up you can see the mechanism that spins the lighthouse's Fresnel lens.
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Then finally you arrive at the top where the light is shone out to sea.
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For many years these two 6" bulbs were lit from sunset to sunrise.
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All of this "new" land was deposited when they erected jetties at the harbor entrance.
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When we were leaving there were two local artists creating watercolor paintings.
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After the lighthouse and before we filled ROVER with gas we ate lunch in Westport.
This is what $100 gets you, two orders of Halibut Fish & Chips with Fried Clams,
a bowl of Clam Chowder with garlic toast and two sodas, plus tip, but it was all YUMMY.

Tomorrow we begin a 24-day stretch of being unplugged and relying completely on our solar batteries to power important things like the fridge/freezer, laptops and lights.

Wish us luck, and if you don't hear from us soon, you'll now know why!

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