Because we procrastinated on making summer plans we were not able to get any reservations on the coast for the July 4th weekend, so on July 1st we headed 18 miles inland to Blackberry Campground on the Alsea River, the only nearby campground where we could get reservations for July 1-5.
Blackberry Campground is a US Forest Service campground, so we kind of assumed we would be in the middle of forest with hiking trails, etc. Turns out, Blackberry is on a small parcel of Federal land surrounded by vacation homes and small farms. We like to go for long walks and explore, but the only place to walk was around the campground loop and along the adjacent highway, which left us feeling a little claustrophobic.
On the plus side, the weather was warmer than the coast and the river next to the campground was shallow enough for the kids to play in. Big Kid and Little Kid had tons of fun exploring pools, catching crawdads, and riding an inner tube down the mild rapids
After two days in camp we decided to break out and take the Toad for a drive along the nearby coast to scope out the first-come first-served campsites available there. We had burned out on researching campgrounds and making reservations after getting through the end of June, so we had no reservations for anything after the Fourth of July and needed to find where we would go after Blackberry. After striking out at the first campgrounds we scouted, we found first-come first-served spots available at Rock Creek Campground on the coast halfway between Yachats and Florence. The campground was nestled in a beautiful rainforest valley with towering Douglas Firs, and was a short walk from an incredibly scenic beach. We paid for a spot and then went back and packed up and moved, leaving Blackberry two days early.
While we were at Rock Creek Ma and the kids went to nearby Yachats for their Fourth of July parade while I stayed home resting an injured toe. According to Ma, it was not your typical Fourth of July parade: there were more tie dye and peace signs than American flags, and the parade included a wedding party, with the bride and groom on top of a wedding cake float.
While Rock Creek was a beautiful setting, the constant near gale force wind of the Oregon coast kept us off the beach in the afternoons, and even in our valley the wind was strong and cold enough to keep us inside most of the time, so once again we started researching where to go next. We quickly settled on bopping over the Cascades to the high desert region of Central Oregon, and after three nights at Rock Creek, we were on the move again.