Cabin Camping at Silver Falls State Park

This Saturday we are going "Cabin Camping" at Silver Falls State Park. The rustic cabins are very similar to the yurts, same interior and amenities, just a different shell. We haven't actually stayed in one of the State Park cabins yet, but we have stayed at one of the KOA Kamping Cabins, I'm under the impression that the KOA Kabins are smaller than the State Park Cabins, but we'll see this weekend!

This February has turned out to be one of the coldest February's Oregon has seen in decades, so today I was starting to feel a little sick, sore throat and tired, with that and the combination of the cold, we decided to cancel our reservation. Unfortunately when I went online to Resevere America I found out you have to cancel reservations 3 days in advance. With that being said, we are going, I will not waste $40, but I will make note for the future that I need to back out 3 days early if I'm going to.

The weather is calling for 14 degrees Saturday night! What the what! And snow, so we may wake up to a winter wonderland. Maybe the falls there will freeze like Multnomah Falls does, creating a fantastic photo op, that would make my weekend!

Frozen Multnomah Falls (Click the image to take you to the photo owner's page)


Here are some images from our hike at Silver Falls in 2009.







And, WOW! I just found this photo on flickr! I think we may just be in for a special treat!
(Click the image to take you to the photo owner's page)



So I'll be taking my Zicam and hoping my cold does not progress with hopes of enjoying this weekend at Silver Falls State Park. Actually after seeing the above photos, I kinda can't wait!

Nehalem Bay State Park Yurting was Fantabulous!

Nehalem Bay State Park is officially one of my new favorites! And I've got to say, thank you Oregon State Parks for having Yurts and Cabins so we can get a little camping in during the winter.

I do not reccomend going out on a Friday night after work in the winter if you can avoid it or leave early so you get to camp before complete darkness sets in. Hwy 101 in January after the sun has set with thick layers of fog around every corner was one of the most intense 17 miles of my life! On the way home seeing the cliff edges I was driving on the night before in day light made me squeemish. It was worth it though. The yurts are perfect little reteats.

For check in during the winter evenings you have to knock on the camp host door and they check you in. It took a while for us to figure that out because there weren't very clear directions. We had to drive through a flooded road in the campground to get to our cozy little yurt, the people in front of us chose to back up and not drive through, it wasn't as bad as they thought.











There was a heater, and plenty of room to get cozy. There was also a nice sized deck cover so if it rained we had room to cook and sit underneath. But it did't rain while we were there is was acutally pretty warm in the evening, warm enough to walk to the beach and make an attempt at clamning. It was pitch black and Brandon thought a sneaker wave was going to get us during the low tide at 9 o'clock at night, so we headed back to camp for a fire and some food.


The yurts have a fire pit and some space for chairs to sit around the campfire, it's not as much as a typical campground. There were some yurts that had huge decks and some that had very small decks, we marked them on the campground map.

One thing I really liked about this campground is that you are esentially right on the beach with a sand dune between you and the beach protecting you from the ocean winds. Cape Lookout has many sites that do not have this luxury. There are also a ton of sites, which is nice for busy summer weekends, and it's also right on the bay which has crabbing and claming. We saw raccoons when we arrived and again later at night by the campfire, we saw a lot of elk poop in the campsites and deer prints at the bay, so there is plenty of wild life.