One of our most memorable hikes was hiking to Secret Beach in Harbor Oregon. Although the beach has amazing rock formations that you can explore; what made it so memorable is the hike itself. We took so many wrong turns and questioned ourselves so many times before we actually arrived at the beach. Our plan was to explore the Thunder Cove Trail and other coves in this area in addition to Secret Beach. However, the hikes to the coves were not clearly defined and we did not find Thunder Cove.
There is a small parking lot just a little ways north on Interstate 101 from Natural Bridges, Oregon. However, you could just hike it from the Natural Bridges parking lot also. The trails for Thunder Cove and Secret Beach were not well marked and Jessica, as she usually does, just started hiking down several trails without knowing exactly where she was headed. We saw a sign that simply said “Beach” but it looked to go more inland, so we disregarded it at first.
The sign marked “Beach”, however, was the correct trail to Secret Beach. There are many smaller trails off the main hiking trail that people have created that adds to the confusion. This is where we made several wrong turns. We eventually made it to the beautiful secret beach and spent several hours just playing. Some of the most fun is just flying by the seat of your pants and simply trying. Usually, it works out better than you imagined! If you see a sign to your right that says “Beach”, follow that trail. You have to go inland and hike around to eventually access the beach. Click the link to go to our Secret Beach YouTube video and check out this gorgeous beach.
While traveling through Oregon in at the end of September 2022, we were still researching cool things to do. An article on the internet stated that September was a great month to see gray whales in Depoe Bay, Oregon. So, by the seat of our pants, we called Whale’s Tail Charters, LLC to see if they were seeing gray whales and if we could book a couple of seats on a charter.
We could not believe our luck! Yes, they were seeing gray whales, and yes, they had a couple of openings in a few days. Wow! The GoPro does not do justice to how close the whales were. On our way to Depoe Bay, we stopped at the Devil’s Punchbowl. We knew it was going to be a great whale day when we saw so many of them spouting at this location.
The charter at Whale’s Tail was well worth the cost. Whale’s Tail Charters has smaller boats with only 6 passengers and a captain. It was amazing to see the whales rise to the surface and blow. And, of course, seeing the tail at the end just blew us away. The captain was very knowledgeable and could even identify individual whales. We saw one whale come to the surface with his mouth open! If you are in Oregon in September, book a small charter and be astounded at these beautiful amazing creatures! You will never want the day to end.
Wow! This is Jessica’s favorite hike to date. If you ever wanted to hike a river in a canyon with gorgeous scenery and canyon walls, this is a must do hike! You can hike the Narrows in a day hike from the bottom up, like we did, or rent a private shuttle and hike from the top down, about 16 miles. For our bottom up day hike, we left a little after 6 a.m. from the visitors center and rode the shuttle to the last stop at the Temple of Sinawava. We then hiked the Riverside Walk for a mile before entering the Narrows. The shuttle system in Zion is amazing. There is a shuttle every 5 minutes and the first shuttle in the park is 6 a.m. – early enough to get to any trailhead and have some great hikes!
The water temperature was a chilling 40 degrees Farenheit. We started before 7 a.m. and hiked past Floating Rock until we reached a point where it was over Windell’s chest. We would have to swim to go any further. Before reaching Floating Rock, we took a right at the fork and hiked a ways down the Orderville Canyon by ourselves. This was a beautiful side hike with a lot less current and we really enjoyed it.
We hiked over ten miles and it took us about six hours to complete. It was amazing and we would recommend this hike to anyone. The current, rapids and crisscrossing the river, in addition to the canyon colors and features made this hike just amazing. If this is a must do hike for you also, do it!
Virgin River Water Flow
We hiked the Narrows when the flow rate of the river was about 84 cubic feet per second. The faster the flow rate, the more physical the hike. When we first arrived at Zion in the second week of May, the flow rate was 124 cubic feet per second. As we always do, we first hit the Visitor’s Center and talked to a Ranger. She said hiking the Narrows in the 60-70 cubic feet per second was optimal. She suggested that we should wait till the end of our stay to hike it. So, we waited until the end of May to plan our hike and rent our equipment from Zion Guru.
We are so glad we waited! The Virgin River dropped down to approximately 84 cubic feet per second. Even at this flow rate, the current was pretty strong in some areas. Jessica fell in three times hiking back with the current. One time she fell and couldn’t get back up. If Windell hadn’t grabbed her backpack, she had already decided to just ride the current down until the river was more shallow. But, Windell grabbed her and after several trials of running in the air, she finally was able to stand back up again.
For the Narrows hike, we rented bibs, boots, walking sticks and one dry backpack from Zion Guru . They are a great resource for renting the equipment and for any questions or concerns. They also guide many adventures, including canyoneering. We were the most dressed of the Narrows hikers. Although we rented the bibs, most of the hikers did not wear them. They wore rented shoes and many had sticks, but we also hiked with people wearing only sandals or boots and carrying hiking poles. Although we might have looked a little overdressed, we were glad we rented the bibs! The river and air temperature was chilly when we started hiking early in the morning. If we had started the hike later in the day, when the temperature was in the high 80s and low 90s, the bibs might have been too hot.
Enjoy this hike, be comfortable, and do only what you want. You will not regret it! Check out the Zion Guru webpage for more information.
We found the Dugway Campground BLM Dispersed Camping with our Campendium app while traveling Interstate 80 East back to Missouri. We use the Campendium and the iOverlander apps on our phones to find dispersed camping, BLM Dispersed Camping, water, showers, and dump stations while traveling.
The road to the Dugway Campground is quite a ways from the highway and a little rough. However, we pulled our travel trailer slowly on it with no issues. There is a small boat ramp with the North Platte River next to the campground and there were a few people who visited the boat ramp.
The campground itself is very serene and the night sky is brilliant. We really enjoyed the solitude of this campground in Wyoming. The campsites are designated and you can stay for 14 days. If you want some solitude and open sky, this is a great place to sit. The road and campgrounds accomodated our 23′ travel trailer with no issues and could handle bigger rigs also. We stayed two nights here just to rest from the road and we would definately stay here again if passing through the area.
The GPS coordinates for this campground are 41.86026, -107.0534. We did make a short video on the campground on our YouTube channel The Nonsense of W&J https://youtu.be/zwyvUXttnJA
We discovered the Big Hickory Island near Bonita Springs, FL by accident. We had spent a morning kayaking near Fort Myers, Florida at Manatee Park. There are lots of manatees at this Park. However, it is not a spring and the brown water makes it more difficult to see the manatees. We prefer to kayak Silver Springs and other areas near Ocala.
The day we went to Manatee Park, the water was actually down a little and the current was strong, so we finished our kayaking earlier than we expected. As we sometimes do, we looked up on our phone to check out new places to kayak. Big Hickory Island came up as a cool place to kayak and we decided to wing it and head that way.
When we arrived at the kayak launch, there was a kayak tour van from Paddle Naples in the parking lot. So, us being us, Windell walked over to talk to the owner of the kayaking tour company. He was super sweet and even let Windell take a picture of his map. Then he told us about kayaking to an island. Boy, are we glad we did! As soon as we arrived at the island, porpoises not even 50 feet from the bank were making their way to the bridge we had just kayaked under. We sat and watched them until they were out of our sight. Then we explored more of the island, gathering beautiful shells into a pile.
It was a fabulous day for flying by the seat of our pants. If you want to check out our video https://youtu.be/-tIhcD3jL2o A copy of the map is posted on our Facebook page
We saw porpoises while kayaing at Big Hickory Island, FloridaKayaking Big Hickory Island, Florida, Bonita Springs
Because we travel full-time and plan our adventures and campgrounds, we need a quick way to see locations. So, we created our personal Google Map.
Our map has been a travel changer for us. We insert adventures and places we want to do and see into our map. These include places all over the world that we learn about from different resources. Because we are members of Thousand Trails and RPI, we also include our campground memberships in our map. We have added some grocery stores too. Jessica also loves Aldi and Walmart, so if we are traveling extensively in an area, we add these to our map.
We are always adding to our map. Although we still create spreadsheets when traveling, our Google Map helps us organize our piles of notes into a great visualization. Also we can link our YouTube videos to our Google Map. When we travel through the area again, we can remember what we have already done or the campground that we stayed at and if we want to do or stay there again. If we stay in a Thousand Trails campground with our travel trailer, we can choose which one we want to book based on how close our activities are to the campground.
It is very easy to create a personal Google Map. If you travel or explore often, a map can make it much easier to plan your next exciting adventure. It is also very easy to duplicate the base map for a specific trip and determine a travel route. For example, we are currently planning a trip to Alaska. I simply copied our main map, removed the grocery section, and put in our travel route to Anchorage. It still includes all the activities we want to do, doesn’t affect the original map, and makes the planning of the trip to Alaska so much easier.
We would recommend creating a personal Google Map to anyone who loves exploring or traveling. It is exciting to see all the adventures in an area and to plan your travel.
New Dungeness Lighthouse and Spit Hike near Sequim, WA.
One of our most memoriable hikes in Washington is hiking to the New Dungenss Lighthouse. You must hike a spit to access the lighthouse. The hike was approximately 11 miles to and back on the spit. As we usually do, we parked early in the morning to begin the hike. We wanted to make sure we hiked the spit at low tide as per the tide chart . The low tide is ideal for hiking so the beach is exposed. During high tide, the hike can be more difficult as you walk across the logs and other debris at the top that has been swept up onto the beach.
The morning we decided to hike the spit was gorgeous. We had a lot of fun walking the beach, looking for sea creatures. Although, we only saw a seal. The best part of this hike is meeting the lighthouse keepers. The lighthouse keepers pay to spend a week on the spit at the lighthouse. Because we were the first to arrive, we got to spend time and actually talk with them about the history and the different objects found, which made it even more special. If you ever wanted to hike a spit to a lighthouse and have an amazing experience, we definitely recommend hiking the Dungeness Spit to the New Dungenss Lighthouse.
We did Pictured Rocks in Michigan three ways – we hiked it, we took the boat tour (which was amazing) and we took a kayak tour with Pictured Rocks Kayaking Tour.
Wow! They take you on a boat close to Lover’s Leap. Then, you must get into a tandem sea kayak with another person to kayak through the caves and different rock features. At first we were both a little skeptical about being in a tandem sea kayak together. After all, when Windell wants to go right, Jessica always goes left. We don’t even follow each other in separate kayaks. Yet, once we got the hang of kayaking together, we realized how much eaiser it was than kayaking separately.
This is an amazing tour that takes you under Lovers Leap, into Rainbow Cave, and is an excellent way to get close to the incredible rock formations of Pictured Rocks. The sea kayaks make it very easy to maneuver. By the end of the tour, we were really enjoying kayakin together. The best part is if one of us gets tired, the other one can paddle easily by themself for a little while. Of course, we didn’t get the best GoPro filmage with both of us paddling. Another couple on this tour had a GoPro also, but they were smart. One paddled and the other one filmed. But both of us paddling was so much fun and we could go so fast!!
We love snorkeling at Phil Foster Memorial Park! Over winter 2023 we snorkeled thirteen times at Phil Foster and saw so much sea life. We only snorkeled on days where the high tide was from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and when the wind was not too strong. We found these were the best times for us for clarity and to fit our schedule. idiveflorida.com has a great Blue Heron Bridge Tide Schedule, where Phil Foster is located. It even highlights dark green for the best diving times. There are many divers and snorkelers at Phil Foster; the park can become very busy.
We usually enter the water an hour before high tide and snorkel for about two hours. We have discovered that we like to go in near the lifeguard station under the bridge. The best trail for us is to head out to the end of the swimming area and make a left towards the pillars. That is where we see the most sea turtles and eagle rays. Sometimes we go all the way to the pillars with our Diver Below floatie. This is simply for safety reasons as we don’t get ran over by a boat. It makes us more comfortable to travel to the pillars with the floatie. After checking out the pillars, we make our way up to the shark statues in the other direction, following the manmade reefs. This leads us past the lifeguard station and closer to the bridge where we started. This is the area we usually see moray eels. Phil Foster is an amazing place to visit. We see something different every time we snorkel there. You can see a current map of the Phil Foster Snorkel Trail to plan your visit.
When we went to work at a beautiful campground in Florida for the winter, we received some great suggestions for snorkeling. We had only snorkeled twice before this and our snorkel masks were the cheap kits from Amazon that included the flippers for $25. So, we decided to purchase different snorkel masks for our winter adventure. Unfortunately, we have this bad habit that usually costs us more money in the long run. When we first want to try a hobby, we tend to buy cheap versions of the tools we need just to see if we like the hobby. For example, when we decided to try our simple boogie boarding, we purchased cheap styrofoam boards. However, after playing for a day, we went and purchased new slick, better quality boards. Buying the cheap boards cost us $40 more than just buying good boards from the start.
We made the same mistake purchasing additional snorkel masks. Phil Foster in Riviera Beach was our absolute favorite place to snorkel, and we went twelve times during our stay! We decided to upgrade our snorkel masks (we thought) and purchased a couple more cheap masks that we thought would work. We could see out the side and they looked so clear. However, they did not fit very well, especially on Jessica. They leaked and fogged up. Jessica even missed a cool nurse shark messing with her mask!! After some researching and YouTubing, we learned that we needed snorkel masks that fit our face. One size does not fit all in snorkel masks!
Determining Whether A Snorkel Mask Fits
To determine whether a snorkel mask fits – you take a breath in and hold it. Then put the mask on your face without using the strap. If the mask sits on your face without the strap, then it fits your face. We tried several masks with this method that did not fit our face! Eventually, Jessica purchased a small adult Cressi mask from Amazon. What a difference it made! No leaking and it is so comfortable! Windell went to a scuba shop to get fitted for his new mask. Now we both enjoy snorkeling for several hours and seeing all the awesome marine life. Although we do use baby shampoo on our masks and then rinse them to help prevent fogging, they still fog every once in a while in a small spot. But purchasing our snorkeling masks and Cressi fins have made our adventures so much more amazing. So, again we spent approximately $100 more on cheap equipment than we should have. Hopefully, we are learning our lesson. Every hobby that we have wanted to try, we have enjoyed. It is much better for us to go ahead and spend the money for good equipment rather than waste money and not have as much fun!
