September 7-10: Bullards Beach State Park, Bandon, Oregon

A State Park? Isn’t your RV too large to fit in a State Park? Well, generally, the answer is “yes”, but if you do some research it’s sometimes possible.

For a change of pace and scenery, I decided to book us into a couple of the Oregon State Parks along the coast this year. We’ve passed Bullards Beach State Park before and I always though it might be an interesting place to stop. We weren’t disappointed, even though we were so deep in the woods that we couldn’t get a satellite signal for TV. It being summer rerun season, there wasn’t much to be missed.

It was an easy drive, since Bandon is only a short distance from Florence. Pull out onto US-101, drive south 66 miles, and pull in to Bullards Beach. Pretty simple...

In spite of our short, 4-night stay, we did a “full deployment” of our outdoor gear: grill, oven, EZ-Up, dog pens, lights, etc. We didn’t have very many bugs, and were able to enjoy the “great outdoors” most days into the evening. Of course, as we’re getting into fall, the days are getting shorter and the evenings cooler! A campfire helped, but we also found ourselves retiring early.

I-10 in Phoenix during Monsoon

All things are relative, of course, and we used our Internet access to monitor the effects of this year’s Monsoon Season back in the Phoenix area. Another round of “Glad we’re not there” comments were exchanged!

We did get out some, exploring the little town of Bandon and doing a little bit of hiking along the bluffs overlooking the Pacific on the south end of town. We made a note to return for sunset pictures, but that will have to wait for our next visit.

We made the obligatory stop at the Cranberry Sweets shop in the “touristy” section of town, picking up several items to stash away for future enjoyment (we like sweets but in small doses). It happened to be late afternoon, so I suggested that we grab an early dinner at the Italian place next door, but they were informing people that their credit card machine was out of order. “It should be fixed next week some time” didn’t seem to bode well for their approach to their business, so we decided to pass.

We were glad we did, because right around the corner was Alloro Wine Bar & Restaurant, which our friends Wayne and Eva had recommended. Since they are experts in all things on the Oregon Coast, we decided to give it a try. We ended up having a great dinner of Deep-Fried Zucchini Blossoms, Orecchiette with Sausage, Pistachio-Crusted Halibut, and Braised Rabbit. I don’t know when we’ll be back, but we’ll definitely be trying to recreate some of these dishes at home!

We’ll likely stop here again if we are in the area, as long as I remember to plan more in advance and select a site with fewer trees!