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I just fined tuned two pages that I put on our website about Harris Beach State Park, and Nehalem Bay State Park - two of my favorites.
We ended up getting so many calls at our home office from people wanting to reserve at Nehalem Bay State Park, that I had to change the URL in the menu CONTACT button to Reserve America's page instead of our own contact page.
A search for the Nehalem Bay State Park displays our page on the first page of results on Google.
Harris Beach has more animal life for viewing, and some direct ocean views from the W or SW side of "A" loop.
Nehalem Bay has more dunes and and sand. It's in a shore pine forested area, and is more secluded. There's some stuff on our page that's not available on other websites - even Oregon State Parks page. For example, with an 8 person limit, if a group wanted to put 3 tents and a conopy on one site, they would not be able to tell which site had the room, from most web pages. Our page specifies the sites that have that much space.
We have had our family reunions at Nahalem Bay State Park for the past 20+ years...we love it there! there is something for everyone...boating, fishing, crabbing, site seeing, kite flying, beautiful sand, wonderful campground! Wish we could get a YURT!!!!!
Do you call to reserve the yurts? I recall that those can't be reserved online.
But if you call about 7 to 8 months in advance, you should be able to get them. That's if you know the date in advance.
I reserved one for August, 3 months ago, and was able to get one for two days in a row. Not two days of choice, but I took the only one that was available for two days; whatever the two days were.
It's nice to have the heaters and lights in the Yurts. It can really streamline things.
Last fall, I sold our camping trailer and bought a small 5 x 8 cargo trailer. I put a small fridge in it, with two oak cabinets and shelves, tent and dining canopy. Altogether, it only weighs 900 lbs. fully loaded. We can zip to the coast at regular highway speeds, with almost no loss of fuel economy.
We've got campsite setup mastered to 1/2 hour now to set the tent, sleeping bags, dining canopy, plug in the fridge and even hook up the cable for cable TV if we want. (Harris Beach State Park has cable TV. And I put a small 13" TV in the trailer).
Do you have any pics of the the cargo trailer??? That is what DH wants to do! We just talked about something very similar on the way home.
We call every year on the Yurts. Since our reunion is always the 1st weekend in Aug. that is what we are shooting for. We have only been able to get them one year. You see, we have family from Hawaii and other states with babies. Traveling from Hawaii with camping gear is not practical so she has to gather everything when she gets here. I guess she just needs to put together her own little cargo trailer too:)
We have had all of us calling the 1st day it is possible for us to reserve them. Someone from Or, WA and HI...they are nice.
Send pics if you have any of the trailer...thanks! Karen
I'm going outside to photograph my cargo trailer set-up. It works well.
Now, if you have an extra 5K laying around, there are tiny pop-up trailers available. That's what I'm planning to do in about 3 years. Those are light too. Of course, they take some setup.
Okay, I'm back inside.
Here's the outside - it's 5' x 8'. One benefit of the cargo trailers, is that the depreciation is bare bones minimum. This one was $1900 last year.
Now here's the left inside. I put a 6 ft. shelf, screwed to the frame with "L" brakets. I use bungee cords to keep the containers from shifting, as well as the contents of the fridge from coming out.
I plug the fridge in the day before. I forgot the bungee the last time. Good thing I pulled over. I keep 2 blue ice blocks in the fridge for the two hour transport until I reach electricity - although, I'd be fine without the blue ice if I got there as soon as my reservation started.
This little office style fridge was like $150 from Lowe's - and it has a nice freezer compartment. It can hold like 6 half gallons of ice cream, or whatever. But we love milk - by the gallon - and this fridge allows that, without draining melted ice water.
I have to kneel to reach the stuff, but if someone got a 6' x 10', they could stand up. Although, those are so much higher cost, that a small popup wouldn't be much more.
A 4' x 6' trailer is less money yet, but would mainly be for just stuffing containers in. It would be fine, but it would need to be emptied completely to the tent, dining canopy and picnic table.
Here's what we used to have. I loved the trailer, but at 3000 lbs. loaded, it wasn't so much the gas, but the slight slow-down of traveling to the destination that mattered.
That's great! DH and friends want to use a utility trailer with cupboards and doors that open up on the outside to reveal sink, stove, icebox or fridge. The center would be left open for the other camping gear and/or bikes. Yours is very nice!
Thanks for sharing, Karen
What if they got a 6 x 10, which they can stand up in. Those often have a side door too.
WIth a layout like that, they could make a kitchen cabinet thing, that using hinges on the front corner, and couple of caster wheels underneath, could be swung from against the wall over to the rear opening. Gear that always comes out, could be placed to it's side.
Then when the kitchen assembly was pivoted, there would be the side door to get in and out.
A kitchen / cabinet unit could also be put anywhere on casters inside and anchored until arrival. In fact, with a couple of ramps, a lightweight unit could be rolled outside and placed under the dining canopy...
We have a pop-up trailer called a Hi-Lo that my Dad purchased in Wash state and we love it. He purchased it about 4 years ago but had a stroke and couldn't bend over very well and being a pop up everything is stored on the bottom so we purchased it from him.
The trailer is small about 3200 lb and with the Tahoe we don't really notice any difference in gas usage. We think it is great, but you don't see them much in Calif and everywhere we go people want to see the inside and see how it works.
I often (many years ago) rented a house just off the beach at Nahalem and so enjoyed it. Your are quite creative with the Yurt on wheels. I am staying in one where there are a series of Yurts on a cross country ski where each yurt is 4 to 5 hours apart. It is out of a small town in Montana. It goes up in the Scape Goat Wilderness. All you need to bring is your personal stuff. All food and wood is provided. I can't wait.
S~
Now that sounds like fun!
Maybe not the cross country skiing...it would sound like fun if I could do it...But Montana, wilderness, cabin in the snow...would there be a fire? That would be heaven!
I think I could probably figure out the cross country skiing. It's the downhill I struggled with. I started to try as an adult while out kids were taking lessons at Baker. I stunk at it. I prefered the lodge, hot chocolate, and a good book. Perfectly happy to sit and wait for reports from DH and children.
Wishing you a wonderful trip! K~
Down hill is easy just fall, BEFORE you want to stop. In soft powder it is easy and the north fork of the Blackfoot R is usually that. It is the river written about in "River runs through it".
That's beautiful. I grew up on the Olympic Peninsula in Forks WA...PNW rainforest area. We have some beautiful scenery in the Pacific Northwest but I love Montana.
The falling when you want to stop...Now that's a hoot! Tried that, fell right under the chair lift at Mt Hood in OR with my middle school daughter telling me I had to learn to get up on my own or I would never learn. I'm yelling at her...as low as possible of course so no one above us can hear me..."SIS, GET OVER HERE" HELP ME UP" Little devil just stands there and looks at me and says, "No, you have to learn"...I swear she got all her dad's genes. Well, she did help me, still saying, "You will never learn." I guess she was right LOL She really is the sweetest thing...24 now and married. Skis down in NV/UT area. Lives in Vegas. Way too far away.
Since I already posted the picture of my WHITE cargo trailer used to move camping gear, I'm going to post an image of my new BLUE cargo trailer here, rather than start a topic.
The white one worked so well, I decided to upgrade. Was able to recover over 75% of my money from the small one.
The new blue trailer was only $3400 new, has two windows with screens that open, and has the skylight vent.
Anyway, all the stuff is in it that was in the whiter trailer, like the oak cabinets, but I also added an oak medicine chest, and a 6' tall living room style lamp with a lower lamp on a flex arm from reading. We still tent camp, but this trailer has room for two adults to sleep on pads on the floor.
I installed one of those electric heaters that holds oil, and looks a bit like old style radiator heaters. I put it on brackets to get it off the ground, to save two spots for foam pads to sleep on, in case its raining and I don't want to set up a tent.
One of the nice things with this one, is that its 6' and 3" tall in the center, so it allows for a dressing room too. The trailer was only 1300 pounds empty, and its a bit over 2000 lbs loaded.
It rained like the Dickens the night after I worked at the coast for the Brookiings Garden Club in Brookings, Oregon. It was nice to simple relax in dry comfort and watch cable TV with the set on the short refrigerator. I almost always reserve the campsites with cable TV.
