Greg & Luba Long Haul Western Loop

Great tide pooling at low tide.

Crater lake, pictures just don't do it justice.

Redwood groves have always made me smile.

Landscape Arch: the longest natural arch in the world.

Arches NP has some amazing geology.

The General Sherman sequoia, the largest tree by volume on the planet.

We've all seen the pictures, it's not the same as being there.

Oregon lighthouse, supposedly the most photographed lighthouse in America.

Great trails in Sequoia NP.

Yosemite's famous granite walls.

Yosemite's Vernal falls, the trail to the top was brutal.

Greg & Luba & Nikolai & Zebediah Bruna
2010 - 560 Ultra, Camp-Inn #408
Tow Vehicle: 2010 VW Jetta Sportswagen TDI
5,250 mi overall
18 Nights in camper over five and a half weeks (the rest of the nights were spent at family and friends homes)
Aug - Sep 2011

Major Stops:
Beachside State Park OR
Florence OR (visiting friends)
Crater Lake OR
Jedediah State Park CA (Redwoods)
Yosemite NP CA
Sequoia NP CA
Tuscon AZ (visiting family)
Grand Canyon NP south rim AZ
Grand Canyon NP north rim AZ
Arches NP UT

We started off with a 500 mile drive to Beachside state park in Oregon. Very nice campground with great beach access. A very good starting point to explore the Oregon coast. We also visited some friends who live on the coast before heading to ....

Crater Lake is another must see in Oregon, stunningly blue lake in steep sided volcanic crater. I recommend the walk down to the lake and taking the boat tour. We only spent a night here before traveling on to...

The redwoods have always been a favorite of mine and Jedediah SP has a nice trail system and easy access to some wonderful groves of redwoods. Now on to ....

Yosemite NP, is a very busy place but well worth it. Just make reservations well in advance and get started early in the day before all the day visitors take up all the parking at the trailheads. Next up ...

Sequoia NP, Great trail system, not as busy as Yosemite but still busy. Magnificent trees, one of these trees was cut down and cut in sections to send to a worlds fair on the east coast. It was quickly declared the great California hoax, ha, silly right coasters just don't have anything to compare. This park is very serious about bears and bear control, kind of made me laugh since they only have black bears. I actually had to scare one off one morning in the campground, awww they are sooo cute. From here we drove to Tucson to visit my wife's sister before going to ...

Grand Canyon AZ south rim followed by north rim. I think I preferred the north rim because there is more shade from the larger trees and is generally cooler. Either way it's a awe inspiring sight created over the last six million years. The south rim has the benefit of more/better services and really nice shuttle system which lets you take hikes along the rim with out retracing your route. Last but not least on to ...

Arches NP Utah, I've wanted to visit this park for a while now and it did not disappoint. We spent three nights camping at Arches and we managed to visit most of the sights in the park, but we were exhausted by the time we were done. Even at the end of September it was very hot and we always carried lots of water. Our proudest moment was when our almost four years old Son made it the full 7.2 miles through the Devils Garden hike.

Then we just had a really long drive with a one stop camping south of Missoula on the way home, ahh home, it's good to be home.

 

Nice trip, fun... thanks for sharing..

 

Looks and sounds like a wonderful trip. Pictures really don't do nature justice but they triger great memories and desires to do more camping. Thanks for the post

 

Nice pictures and story.Steve

 

That lighthouse is called Haceta Head lighthouse. They have an inn there, where you can stay. It is haunted though, and during some construction, tools were constantly disappearing. As I understand it, there is at least 1 ghost, a little girl, who likes to play tricks. Although, it seems she didn't like the construction, and that is why she was taking the tools. This is my favorite section of the coast (between Florence and Newport). I used to go to the beach with my grandparents just below the lighthouse. It was one of their favorite places too. Sea Lion Cave is right near there too. Pretty interesting place!

Looks like you had a great trip. You have me hankering for a long trip now! Congrats!

 

Your exactly right Mick/nSarah,

I couldn't remember the name while I was writing this up but I remembered the factoid about the most photographed. The sea lion cave is really neat too, we really enjoyed it. This is a great section of coast, with lots of interesting spots, the devils churn was a really neat hike.