A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 75 miles from Buxton, Oregon to Welches, Oregon.
Thousand Trails
Travel from Buxton to Welches, Oregon
We drove our coach 77 miles, about two hours of driving, from Buxton, Oregon to Welches, Oregon.
This is the start of our eastern migration, as we head from the west coast toward the east coast, ending the year in Florida.
Here’s the map route, heading east:
Interactive map (no stops):
We drove our coach and truck separately to the welcome center, as a convenient place to toad up:
Leaving the state park:
Roadworks, replacing a bridge:
Heavy traffic near the Vista Ridge tunnel, as usual:
A bike and pedestrian bridge over the Willamette River:
Jenn driving, with a glimpse of downtown Portland beyond:
Portland downtown:
Overpasses:
Freeway with the convention center towers in the background:
Bridge:
MAX light rail station:
A water tower and a glimpse of Mt Hood:
A plane coming in for a landing, and Mt Hood:
We took NE 238th Drive, which used to be unsuitable for RVs and trucks, but was widened a few years ago:
Some somewhat close trees:
Our RV GPS kept warning of 40 foot length limits, which no longer applied since the road was improved. It’s a nice feature when up-to-date, though:
Totally fine, though:
Turning on to Burnside Road (with some roadworks; good thing we didn’t want to go straight):
US-26 highway:
Downtown Sandy:
Our homestead was somewhat near Sandy (25 minutes away, but it was where we went shopping). But we never made it to the rather distinctive Joes Donut Shop:
Mt Hood Pet Resort was where we took our dog for playtime and boarding, often grabbing a coffee at Mountain Moka Cafe next door:
Interesting structure:
A glimpse of Mt Hood:
Motorcycles:
Our destination, Mt Hood Village:
Driving to our site:
Our site before parking:
When we get into a site, we are always careful when opening cupboards and the fridge for the first time, as things can shift. On this occasion, our fridge was rather full, and an expensive bottle of bubbly, some juice, and some food fell down; if we had just pulled the fridge door open without being careful, they would have smashed on the floor, and we would have been very sad:
Thousand Trails Oceana RV & Camping Resort
We stayed at Thousand Trails Oceana RV & Camping Resort in Ocean City, Washington. (Campground Reviews listing.)
Another Thousand Trails park, with a path to the beach. Quite nice, other than only being 30 amp and no sewer.
Dates:
- Check in: 2023-06-04
- Check out: 2023-06-11
- 7 nights
Weather:
- Partly cloudy
- High temps ranging between 58-66°F, lows around 47-53°F
- 37 gusts on first day, less on subsequent days
Noise:
- No road noise
- No train noise
- Negligible neighbor noise
Site:
- #C31, back in, gravel
- Needed to disconnect toad; parked next to coach
- A little unlevel, but not too bad
- Medium site: about 50 feet long by about 40 feet wide
- Picnic table on gravel
- Tall trees
- (This site is planned for a cabin, but they haven’t installed it yet)
Utilities:
- Only 30 amp power, somewhat conveniently located
- 40 PSI water, very inconveniently located
- No sewer
Internet (in usage priority order):
- T-Mobile: 5-7 Mbps down, 1-5 Mbps up, 50 ms ping
- AT&T: 9 Mbps down, 2 Mbps up, 30-130 ms ping
- Verizon: 6 Mbps down, 1 Mbps up, 40 ms ping
- Starlink: not used
- Campground Wi-Fi: not used
Amenities:
- Dumpsters
- No pool
- Path to beach
Our review on Campground Reviews:
30A, no sewer, still loved it
Thousand Trails parks are a study in compromise. We could have had a 30A FHU site at the front of the park by the main road but opted for a larger site without sewer, away from the noise. There are minimal 50A sites, and they were all taken; they also have no sewer. So we watched our power consumption and our tank levels while still thoroughly enjoying our location. The staff were all very friendly and helpful, but the pathway to the beach absolutely made this park a favorite. The mosquitoes do get a bit ravenous, so make sure to pack your repellent. We camped at Thousand Trails Oceana RV Campground in a Motorhome.
Tip for Other Campers: There are several units of Olympic National Park nearby that make for excellent day trips. Be prepared for a gnarly wait if you go to Hoh Rainforest.
Interactive map (zoom out a bit to see how close it is to the beach):
Campground map; the three circled sites were apparently the only 50 amp ones:
Our site:
The water tap wasn’t very close; technically in a tent site that isn’t on the map:
Only 30 amp power available:
So I used a “dogbone” plug adapter to connect our 50 amp surge protector and cord:
The power, water softener, and water filter:
Entrance:
Dump station:
Other sites:
Long-term sites:
Tent sites:
Bridge:
Games:
Playground:
Path to the beach:
Travel from Seaside, Oregon to Ocean City, Washington
We drove our coach 119 miles, about three hours of driving, from Seaside, Oregon to Ocean City, Washington.
Here’s the map route, heading north:
Interactive map, with potential stops marked; we didn’t stop at any:
We drove to an open area to hook up our truck to our coach:
Another RV toading up; they started before us, and finished after us; with our weekly practice, it doesn’t take us long to do:
Leaving the campground:
Crossing the Astoria-Megler Bridge from Oregon to Washington; a little nerve-wracking, with a curved approach and high bridge, but it was fine:
Low tide exposing the sandbar:
Entering Washington state:
We could have gone left or right, but I had decided on left to avoid some roadworks (planning the route pays off):
Lighthouse:
Tunnel:
Another bridge:
Aaaargh! COFFEE!
Artwork in Raymond:
An advantage of a motorhome is I can get up and use the bathroom while Jenn is driving — a very rare occurrence, since there is some risk in moving about while in motion, and we prefer to take rest stops so we can both take a pee break, but on this occasion Jenn didn’t need to stop:
Pilings:
Rusty building and structures in Aberdeen (a rather ugly city):
A mural helps a little:
Rusty bridge:
We paused in a slow vehicle turnout to let other vehicles pass:
Bridge:
Our destination, Thousand Trails Oceana:
Checking in:
Our coach in front of our site, preparing to back in:
Thousand Trails Seaside
We stayed at Thousand Trails Seaside in Seaside, Oregon. (Campground Reviews listing.)
A nice Thousand Trails park.
Dates:
- Check in: 2023-05-28
- Check out: 2023-06-04
- 7 nights
Weather:
- Partly cloudy
- High temps ranging between 58-65°F, lows around 46-51°F
- A little wind
Noise:
- No road noise
- No train noise
- A little neighbor noise
Site:
- #158, back in, gravel
- Needed to disconnect toad; parked in front of coach
- Rather unlevel; took us a few tries, and needed blocks under the front jacks
- Medium site: about 50 feet long by about 40 feet wide
- Picnic table and fire pit on grass
Utilities:
- 50 amp power, inconveniently located
- 65 PSI water, inconveniently located
- Good sewer connection, conveniently located (1 10-foot pipe needed)
Internet (in usage priority order):
- T-Mobile: 25-29 Mbps down, 4-10 Mbps up, 40 ms ping
- AT&T: 4 Mbps down, 2 Mbps up, 70 ms ping
- Verizon: 4 Mbps down, 6 Mbps up, 30 ms ping
- Starlink: not used
- Campground Wi-Fi: not used
Amenities:
- Dumpsters only by entrance
- Indoor pool
Our review on Campground Reviews:
Large, busy park
First, a very important tip, especially when staying at a Thousand Trails or other first-come park: Do not arrive on the Sunday of a three-day weekend. We forgot about Memorial Day when we planned our route, and trying to find an open 50A site was diabolical on Sunday afternoon. Another rig that pulled in behind us was faster unhooking their toad and zipped ahead of us to take the last available site. Rude. So we drove around the north section (where the 50A sites are) for quite a while with no joy. Fortunately, a seasonal resident was just about to move from their temporary site to their permanent one and flagged us down. We waited while they packed up and moved, then we were able to pull into a nice end site near the bathroom block. Normally, I don’t like being so close to the bathrooms, but we needed to sanitize our water system, so it was very convenient. The site itself was incredibly unlevel and it took us quite a while to get as close to level as possible but never got completely there. Once we got situated, it wasn’t a bad place to stay, however. We camped at Thousand Trails Seaside in a Motorhome.
Tip for Other Campers: Pizza delivery from Angelina’s right to your site. Drive up to Washington and check out the Cape Disappointment lighthouse. Dinner at Mo’s and a walk along the promenade are great ways to spend an evening.
Interactive map:
The map, with all available north-side sites when we checked in circled:
Our arrival experience wasn’t ideal, but mostly on us: we foolishly arrived on Sunday of Memorial weekend, when almost all sites were occupied. The only vacant sites were reserved for seasonal sites. But the people that had reserved one of those directed us to the site they were moving from, which was quite a nice location, albeit not very level:
Painted rocks left on the picnic table by the previous occupants:
Utilities:
A large grassy area next to our site; not having a neighbor on the driver side was nice:
Another nice thing is Angelina’s Pizza delivery on travel day:
Other sites:
Cabins:
Tent sites:
Oops, a trailer took a corner too sharply and hit a rock (with a loud crunch):
Tennis courts:
Indoor pool:
Clubhouse:
Playground:
Bathrooms across the grassy area from our site — we usually don’t use campground bathrooms, but this time having them nearby was helpful, as we sanitized our fresh water tanks, which means not using our own bathrooms for several hours:
Pet exercise area:
Travel from South Beach to Seaside, Oregon
We drove our coach 125 miles, about three hours of driving, from South Beach, Oregon to Seaside, Oregon.
Here’s the map route, heading north:
Interactive map, with potential stops marked:
Our bedroom with the slide-outs in; Paladin just sat in his bed while the slides were coming in. We store the steering wheel table, the bedroom air cleaner, and other stuff on the bed for travel:
Jenn bringing in the front passenger-side slide-out, via the switch on the side of the chair (Tiffin puts it there to help ensure the chair is moved forward before bringing in the slide, to avoid hitting it):
And the front driver-side slide-out:
Leaving the campground:
Entering tsunami hazard zone; there are signs like this all the way up the coast:
Newport:
Newport bridge:
We enjoy seeing an instance of our favorite coffee stand, Dutch Bros Coffee:
Parts of the coast highway can be prone to slips; here’s the remnants of a previous slip:
The coast:
Lincoln City:
Espresso in a fun building:
Tiger:
It’s marshmallow harvesting season!
Bridge near Tillamook:
Tillamook Creamery; we would have liked to visit the world-famous Tillamook Cheese Factory again (we haven’t been since they built their new visitor center), but it didn’t work out this time:
An old smokestack:
A nice house:
Pronto Pup giant hot dog:
Mural:
We stopped for lunch at Lakeside Hideaway in Rockaway Beach:
Menu:
I had a clam chowder:
And we both had huge club sandwiches (with one of each of ours saved for leftovers) and tots:
Back to our coach:
Paladin waiting for us:
Rock:
Tunnel:
Paladin keeping an eye on the Bluefire dash on my iPad:
Seaside:
Rope course:
Our destination, Thousand Trails Seaside:
Checking in:
North side drive:
As usual for Thousand Trails, we parked our coach and drove our truck around to look for a site:
Thousand Trails Whalers Rest
We stayed at Thousand Trails Whalers Rest in South Beach, Oregon. (Campground Reviews listing.)
Some Thousand Trails campgrounds turn out to be great places to stay. This was not one of them.
Though it actually wasn’t too bad, but not very big rig friendly, with tight roads and we struggled to find a suitable site.
Dates:
- Check in: 2023-05-22
- Check out: 2023-05-28
- 6 nights
Weather:
- Mostly cloudy
- High temps ranging between 56-61°F, lows around 49-52°F
- A little wind, but sheltered by trees
Noise:
- A little highway noise
- No train noise
- A little neighbor noise
- Can hear the ocean
Site:
- #79, pull through, concrete
- Needed to disconnect toad; parked in front of coach
- Fairly level (many sites here are not)
- Very small site: about 45 feet long by about 15 feet wide
- No picnic table etc
- Tall trees
Utilities:
- 50 amp power, inconveniently located
- 65 PSI water, inconveniently located
- Loose sewer connection, conveniently located (1 10-foot pipe needed)
Internet (in usage priority order):
- AT&T: 55 Mbps down, 6 Mbps up, 65 ms ping
- Starlink: 70-110 Mbps down, 7-20 Mbps up, 30 ms ping, unusably spotty service (too many trees)
- T-Mobile: no service
- Verizon: no service
- Campground Wi-Fi: none
Amenities:
- Garbage bins only by entrance
- Indoor pool
Our review on Campground Reviews:
Tight roads, tight sites
The thing about Thousand Trails is that your overall experience of the park is very much colored by what site you manage to snag. When we rolled into this park on a Sunday right around check-in time, there were very few sites available that would fit our 40′ motorhome. We were told not to even bother checking the north section of the park across the road but that there were “plenty” of sites available on the south side, which was not entirely true. There were several sites, but the only one available that would fit us was a pull-through in the middle of two others, which was so tight between our neighbors that our slides were nearly touching. There was no room for a picnic table or any outdoor living. It was, however, surprisingly level. We did try backing into a site that might have been long enough, but again, was so narrow there was no outdoor living space, and the trees were so low our roof would have dragged on the branches. If you have a small trailer or a Class B, this might be a great campground. For a larger motorhome or 5th wheel, I can’t recommend it. It is also close to the beach if you enjoy playing Frogger in real life. We camped at Thousand Trails Whalers Rest in a Motorhome.
Tip for Other Campers: When in Newport, eat Dungeness crab. Clearwater Restaurant on the historic bayfront was a nice option for fine dining. Take a day trip up to Yaquina Head lighthouse and Devil’s Punchbowl.
Interactive map:
Campground map:
A helpful page of site lengths and other info. Lots of the sites were too short for our 40 foot motorhome, not to mention our truck:
We disconnected our truck and drove around (a couple of times) to find a suitable site. A few candidates are marked; we initially chose site #48, though it was rather narrow, so we then chose #64. But when we drove our couch around, we couldn’t back into that site due to trees and vehicles. Fortunately, we had noticed one of the few pull-through sites available, #79, so we proceeded on to that one. Rather narrow, but we fit (barely):
More spacious after the motorhome on our passenger side left:
Later, both sides were vacant for a few days:
And still later, when a trailer arrived next to us; you can see how narrow these sites are:
Once several sites cleared out during the week, we considered moving to another site, e.g. we liked this #74, but decided it wasn’t worth the hassle for a few more nights:
Other sites:
A very tight corner:
Dump station:
Apparently they gathered all of the garbage bins by the entrance, due to bears in the park:
Activity center:
Game court:
Entrance sign:
This campground is split into north and south sides; we were on the south side. The north side seems to be mostly seasonal (long-term) sites. Here’s its entrance:
Cabins:
Clubhouse:
Mini golf:
Other sites:
On the south side is a path to the beach:
Have to cross Highway 101:
Lost Creek State Park:
The ocean:
Travel from Eugene to South Beach, Oregon
We drove our coach just 90 miles, about two hours of driving, from Eugene, Oregon to South Beach, Oregon.
As mentioned last week, we had an appointment at Oregon Motorcoach Center for some servicing, so we drove from our overnight county park stay to the motorcoach center, and killed a few hours in their waiting room and going out to lunch, then we were on our way to our next stop, back at the coast.
Here’s the map route, heading north then west:
An interactive map, with potential stops marked; we didn’t need to stop:
After our service appointment at Oregon Motorcoach Center, we headed north on 99W:
Barns:
Hazelnut trees:
A bridge over the Willamette River in Corvallis:
Corvallis county court house:
The Corvallis Meat Pie Shop, featuring Aussie-style meat pies; we enjoyed sampling their wares the last time we were in town. Alas, just passing through this time (and no parking for a 60-foot coach and toad!):
Bigfoot:
Historical society building:
Trees:
Newport bridge:
Newport bay:
Our destination, Thousand Trails Whaler’s Rest:
As is common with Thousand Trails, we parked our coach by the entrance, unhooked our truck, and drove around to find a suitable site (which was a major challenge here; see tomorrow’s post):
Security gate:
A very tight curve; this park isn’t particularly big rig friendly:
Travel from Florence to Eugene, Oregon
We drove our coach just 68 miles, about one hour of driving, from Florence, Oregon to Eugene, Oregon.
We had an appointment at Oregon Motorcoach Center for some servicing, and had originally planned to drive from the coast to Eugene, but decided to make it easier on ourselves by doing that drive the day before, staying one night in a county park. Very fortunate that we were able to snag a reservation at the last minute.
Here’s the map route, heading east:
An interactive map:
Since were were parking under trees, I used my 360 camera to examine the slide toppers for debris:
Preparing to leave:
Pulling out of our site:
Driving through the campground:
Preparing to toad up; I had driven our truck to the toading area by the pool, then walked back to help guide our coach:
Approaching the exit:
Since we didn’t have a sewer connection, we used the dump station on the way out:
People waiting for the Memorial Day parade in Florence:
Siuslaw River:
A tunnel; always a little nerve-wracking in our coach:
Jenn driving:
She has back and side cameras (with our truck visible), a built-in RV-safe GPS, and a GPS on her phone:
Paladin on the steps:
Joining I-5 North:
A fuel stop:
The 150-gallon diesel tank was only quarter full; we usually don’t let it get below half, but there weren’t a lot of suitable fuel options on the coast:
100 gallons of fuel, so I guess it was actually a third full:
Bridge:
Our destination, Armitage County Park:
Checking in:
Our site:
Thousand Trails South Jetty RV & Camping Resort
We stayed at Thousand Trails South Jetty RV & Camping Resort in Florence, Oregon. (Campground Reviews listing.)
We were concerned about this RV park, but it turned out to be quite nice. No sewer, but that’s fine for four nights.
Dates:
- Check in: 2023-05-17
- Check out: 2023-05-21
- 4 nights
Weather:
- Mostly cloudy
- High temps ranging between 60-61°F, lows around 52-54°F
- A little wind, but sheltered by trees
Noise:
- No road noise
- No train noise
- Negligible neighbor noise weekdays, more noise on the weekend
- Frequent noise from a nearby go-kart racetrack
Site:
- #E124, back in, gravel
- Needed to disconnect toad; parked in front of coach
- Surprisingly level (many sites here are not)
- Medium site: about 50 feet long by about 30 feet wide
- Picnic table, fire pit on gravel
- Tall trees
Utilities:
- 50 amp power, conveniently located
- 60 PSI water, conveniently located
- No sewer
Internet (in usage priority order):
- T-Mobile: 10-36 Mbps down, 1-3 Mbps up, 50 ms ping
- AT&T: 26-38 Mbps down, 6 Mbps up, 64 ms ping
- Verizon: 1 Mbps down, 1 Mbps up,138-249 ms ping
- Starlink: not used
- Campground Wi-Fi: none
Amenities:
- Garbage dumpsters
- Pool
Our review on Campground Reviews:
In the thick of the trees
As is typical for Thousand Trails, this campground was first come, first served. They have limited FHU sites, so good luck getting a sewer connection, as they seem to mostly be taken by seasonal/annual users, but we were still able to get a 50 amp site that was long enough for us. We really enjoyed the ambience of being surrounded by trees, however, the Go Kart track up the road was quite noisy and went late into the evening. Despite that and the lack of sewer connection, we wish we’d been able to stay longer. We camped at Thousand Trails South Jetty in a Motorhome.
Tip for Other Campers: Check out the nearby Oregon Dunes Rec Area, Umpqua River lighthouse, and Heceta Head lighthouse. Chowder at Mo’s is always a “must do” at the Oregon Coast.
Interactive map:
Campground map:
Our site, tucked away in the trees:
Utilities; convenient power and water, no sewer:
Other empty sites, some rather short and unlevel:
More sites, with ours visible at the end of the road:
Dumpster:
One of several restrooms:
Grey water disposal:
A pleasant pathway through the woods to the pool:
Playground:
Pool; yes, people were actually swimming in it, despite the cold:
Activity center:
