Harris Beach State Park, Brookings, Oregon

With the Oregon Coast Gathering of Fiberglass Trailers receding in our side-view mirrors, we moved toward our southernmost destination for this trip. We had chosen Harris Beach State Park, in part, because it was midway between our home and that of longtime friends from California. They made the drive in two days, then joined us for three decidedly enjoyable nights in this popular park just north of Brookings, Oregon and the California border.

We arrived just before our friends did, set up camp, and watched them roll in in their new motorhome (a really nice one). They parked their rig, set out a few things, and joined us for the short walk to the beach.

The beach itself is lovely: soft sand, briny air, jumbo-size rocks, glistening tidepools.

We were, all of us (including the terriers) content to shuffle through the sand and stare at the “stars on the water.” Perfect weather. I will admit to being a little warm after pushing the terriers back up the hill in their stroller, but I suppose the exercise didn’t hurt me.

View from our campsite at Harris Beach. That strip of pavement back there is a lightly traveled park road, and that ocean is the eastern Pacific.

The campsites are varied, but all typical for Oregon State Parks — top-notch.

We couldn’t get two ocean-view campsites, but this one, inhabited by our friends from California, was really large and private.

The only “less desirable” campsites we saw were those near an extensive (and heavily used) playground, where many happy children practiced recreational screaming. Of course families with young children would probably prefer these sites — there’s something for everyone — we were glad to be down the road a bit.

The park sports a few trails leading to beach-combing and tide-pooling locations. One foggy morning, the four of us headed down to stare at the tide pools.

At the top, but on the way down to the tide-pools. Fog already thinning!

See that half-moon cove with the vertical fissure above it? There’s a sea star there. Or at least there was on this day. Did Sooz know? Maybe.

We thought briefly about taking the dogs and stroller down this path. Nope — too steep, and too rutted. So the boys napped inside Toto during our excursion.

Sooz stares at orange stuff on the rocks — we’re nearly down at beach level now.

That big rock, or small island, kind-of dominates the western horizon around here. We saw an awful lot of gulls, and possibly some pelicans, careening around out there.

The tide pools were pretty much like you’d expect. Water, anemones, baby crabs, and some flora. Mostly it just felt good to stand there and take it all in.

We opted not to take the same path back up, moving northward along the shoreline instead, and returning to camp via the same (sidewalk) route we had used before. I straggled behind — barely beating the advancing tide past a big outcropping — to get pictures of this fellow.

Orange-tinted sea star, waiting for the tide to rise, and possibly contemplating a run for higher office. Remember that fissure I mentioned? This is right at the bottom.

And, when we returned, the reward for leaving the (perpetually sandy) terriers behind:

Yeah, that’s my pillow. Thanks, Tyler.

Harris Beach is more than just sand and sea stars. It is also Monkey Bread.

Sooz put together this heap of nuggets made of some kind of dough, cinnamon, sugar, and melted butter. Here, the heap awaits charcoal prep.

I forgot to bring our little charcoal chimney, and so piled the briquettes up against the side of the fire pit to get things going. It worked okay.

The Monkey Bread didn’t look all that different after baking, but I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t have liked the raw version. These were quite good.

Also, sunset-watching was a worthwhile endeavor; we made a point of it all three evenings we stayed at Harris Beach.

Still working on those photography lessons. Not there yet.

Our friends moved inland to the fabulous Seven Feathers Casino and RV Resort (we were there last year), and we finally reversed course and headed north toward the greater metropolitan Coos Bay area, where we found abundant fog. Just wait ’til you see the pix.