Kim & Lynda's Wild Ride: Florence, Oregon

From Klamath we continued our excursion up Highway 101 to Florence, Oregon where we stayed at the Thousand Trails – South Jetty Park. Unfortunately during our stay the A & B sections of the park were closed, greatly limiting the number of full-service sites that were available. We found a site up on Grant Street that looked like it might be deep enough to accommodate our forty-foot rig. Unfortunately, with the tree stumps and partially washed out road at our corner site, parking was a challenge. We were tempted to stop about half way through to sell tickets to the entertainment. It took about twenty minutes to get parked, but we finally squeezed into the spot … only electric and water … and no chance of Satellite (we have a King Dome and it didn’t have a prayer under the trees). The staff at the park was really nice … particularly the maintenance worker who helped us park and offered to trim some trees to help us get in, but the facility leaves a lot to be desired. It is called South Jetty Resort but would be better named South Jetty Primitive Campground. We were there over July 4^th, but the park had no activities to talk about … too bad, as Oregon is still a part of America. We give this campground a “4” on the Moore 10 point system, and will try to avoid it in the future (we left the park before our planned departure date).

Florence, Oregon is just a mile from the park and is a nice little coastal town with good restaurants and quaint shopping. We ate at Mo’s for clam chowder (delicious!), and at the Seafood Station (an old converted gas station) for fish and chips (also excellent!). There are three big attractions in Florence: The sand dunes, the sea lions, and the lighthouse. We took a trip to the sand dunes and they were really interesting. If you are an OHV fan, this will be a wonderful place for you to stop and enjoy. We don’t have an ATV, so it’s appeal was not as great. We did visit the sea lion caves. This is worth the trip and the price ($11.00 for seniors over 60). The cave is wonderful and full of sea lions, as is the pullout place (see pictures below). The lighthouse is being renovated and is shrouded for the job, so was not open when we visited. We are looking forward to seeing it on our next trip through.