What's that white orb in the sky
It was quite dark in the forest of Mora Campground. That's just what it is in a rain forest it seems. But, it wasn't raining. There were even some shafts of sunlight poking through. We've had enough of rain forests and tight campsites.
We had violated one of our camping rules, traveling on a weekend. As a result we were lucky to get the last site in Mora campground last night. As one would expect the last available site is usually the least desirable and this was no exception. It was almost too small for Speedy and it literally backed into the opposite site in the next loop. That site was filled with twenty-somethings sitting around drinking and partying...and continually cutting through our site on their way to the restrooms. Drinking a lot of beer will do that.
It was not a restful night and we were off pretty early. We wanted to go somewhere where there was sunshine...or at least open space. Our first stop was was in the nearby town of La Push, the largest village within the Quileute Indian Reservation and on the coast. Sally raved about La Push. It was a nice enough place, but not worth $40 a night for a parking space in the only RV park. We decided that it wasn't a spot for a couple of days of rest.
Our next stop was about an hour away at Kalaloch, part of the Olympic National Park, also on the coast. Unfortunately, the main campground was a reservation campground and the only sites available (on a Sunday after Labor Day) were small, dark, wooded sites far from the ocean. We decided to give the more primitive South Beach campground, a couple of miles down the road, a try.
Bingo! This is an open campground without any amenities except flush toilets, mostly gravel, but it is right above the beach. It was fairly full at 11am, but we found a site with a good view of the Pacific Ocean...and there was lots of sunshine and a gentle breeze off the water. Lots of solar gain, but not lots of heat.
The waves were just rolling in on the incoming tide as gulls flew along the beach. It goes quite far out a low tide but covers the sand completely at high tide. We managed to walk the northern part of the beach up to the park boundary after lunch, before the tide came all the way in. After that we got out Ellen's new spotting scope to check out the flocks of sea birds hanging out on the edge of the surf line. They turned out to be thousands of Surf Scoters.
In addition to the scoters, there were whales. We could just sit back and watch aGray Whales feeding all day long. They were in the same area as the scoters, just beyond the surf and would come up among them. They were easily seen with the naked eye, but we had great looks with binoculars. The spotting scope was overkill. I assumed that they were feeding there. Both the whales and the scoters feed on small crustaceans, so there must be an abundance off South Beach.
The campground filled by dinner time with a large influx of campers just before 6pm. Somehow they all fit, although some of the sites are pretty far back. Our site is quite long, parallel to the road and we are parked toward one end. It is large enough that the campground host stopped by to ask that if it was necessary could he put someone in the other half of our site. It is well after dark now and that hasn't happened, so I guess we are fortunate.
The good weather is expected to continue, so we hope to stay here a other day or two and watch the birds and whales.
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