Nehalem Bay State Park Horse Camp, and Mt. Hebo, Oregon

Well this was an interesting trip to say the least.

It started on the wrong foot right off the bat. While driving over Government Camp pass,
my brakes went out on my truck, ( later I learned it was the trailer brakes that were the actual problem, causing my truck to have to handle the trailer weight all on it's own, ) and I had to spend over six hours, with my horse, in the parking lot of Les Schwab. Rina takes most things in stride, and was a good girl, but it was still a long day for both of us.

When I finally arrived at Nehalem Bay State Park, it was almost completely dark. It took awhile to get set up, without any daylight, and I learned that some of the corrals had a lot of standing water in them, so I pulled in to one site first, but then ended up having to move to a different one.
This was also my first trip with my "new to me" LQ trailer so I was trying everything out,
enjoying my new found luxury, but also realizing it had a lot of glitches I needed to figure out.

Nehalem Bay beach at low tide.

Nehalem Bay.

Beach discovery.

The horse camp is in Loop F and you have to drive through the other campgrounds to get to it.
There are 17 sites with two log horse corrals, a manure bin area with wheelbarrows, and water spigots that are close by each site that you can attach a hose to. There is no bathroom at all in the horse camp, but since the other campgrounds are so close, you can just use those bathrooms, which have showers. Site #s 4, 8, 9, 11, and 13 are pull throughs. It's very busy in the summer, so it's best to get a reservation, but I've been there twice now in the off season, and have not had a problem getting a spot.
Update: As of my most recent visit, in 2021, prices have gone up, from $17.00 to  $21.00 a night. Seven of the spots have new pipe corrals, as well as gravel has been added to some areas, which helps with the mud and standing water problem.

Nehalem Bay Horse Camp, Site #12.

New pipe corrals have been added, in recent years.

Besides the wide beach, which I happened to hit at low tide, and which is great for galloping, there are also some inland trails.

Inland trails at Nehalem Bay.

An arena in the day use area.

Major logging going on.

The sign at the beach to find your way back.

A glorious sunset.

On the third day I drove over to the Mt. Hebo Trailhead, which is up a fairly steep, narrow, two lane paved road. There is a large parking area, and I was hoping to be able to overnight there, but camping is not allowed.
The Pioneer Indian Trail leaves from there and is 8 miles one way. You can ride it the whole way,
or as long as you want, and there is an option to do a partial loop by taking a different route on the way back, along a dirt road. Once atop the mountain, the views are great, then it switchbacks downhill quite steeply to two lakes. The trail is nice, not very slippery, and there are areas where you feel like you are in the middle of nowhere, at least for awhile.

The Mt. Hebo trailhead.

Pioneer Indian Trail.

The view from the top of Mt. Hebo.

The top of Mt. Hebo.

After a few more problems, mishaps, and issues, such as my horse not liking the coastal water and not drinking enough, I started driving in the direction of home. I wanted to stop at another camp on my way back, but it was not open yet for the season, and I didn't find that out until I was already at the locked gate, so I had to back my rig down a narrow dirt road in the dark for several miles.

At this point I got the hint that it was maybe time to just cut the trip short. My horse ended up being fine, but she did get pretty dehydrated, and after talking to a friend who mentioned her horse didn't like the water there either, I put two and two together. So if you have a picky type of horse, keep that in mind. I had a similar problem last fall at a different coastal camp, so I bring my own water now, just in case.


GPS COORDINATES TO NEHALEM BAY STATE PARK

GPS COORDINATES TO MT. HEBO TH

Bullards Beach Horse Camp, and Devil's Kitchen, Oregon

I started 2014 with a trip to the beach and so it was only fitting that I end my camping season the same way. My non horsie friend Andrea agreed to meet me there with her RV. I pulled into camp and noticed a couple other rigs parked there, but otherwise it was empty. Got tacked up and away we went to gallop along the length of the beach.

Northern end of the beach, there is a golf course, Bandon Dunes, above.

Cool rocks.

Riding back into the sunset.

I passed a couple of ladies on horseback at one point, waved at them and kept going. Once I got back to camp the same ladies were there, turned out to be the owners of the other rigs, and we chatted for awhile. It turns out they are "homeless" choosing to live in their LQ trailers traveling from state to state with their horses.
Karen has been on the road for over eight years and Donna joined her a year and a half ago.
They invited me to ride with them the following day.


Bullards Beach Horse Camp which is just a few miles outside of Bandon OR has eight sites, some with four horse corrals and some with two. It is open year round and well maintained. There is potable water out of spigots, a manure bin with a wheelbarrow, garbage cans, and a bathroom. At this time of year it was $15.00 a night, which is lower than the summer rate. I did not get a reservation but as most people around here know, you cannot get away with that in the peak season. Booking way ahead is the only way to get a site in the summer.

Bullards Beach Horse Camp.

Site 6.

That evening I rushed to get my tent set up before dark then decided to meander over to the RV campground where Andrea was staying....a half an hour's walk in the dark later, I arrived. The horse camp is located really close to the beach, but the RV park is closer to the highway, so Andrea was a little bummed about the distance between our camps, and the fact that she had no other vehicle to get around in.

The next day, I met up with the horse ladies and we decided to ride on some of the inland trails.

The Cut Creek Trail.

There are several small loops that meet up with other small loops. The Cut Creek trail leaves from camp. The sand is very deep on these trails and gives your horse quite the workout. Eventually we got back onto the beach for awhile and then did the last inland loop on the way back.

Picnic area.

Karen and Donna.

Karen and Donna. Karen's horse is also half Peruvian like mine.

That evening Andrea invited me for dinner at the RV park, so this time I drove over stopping at the beach for a view of the setting sun. Could have been romantic, except it was just me and a seagull.

The sunset.

Sunset.

Since Andrea was camped there I could have the rare luxury of a shower, and then she spoiled me with a full course salmon dinner. It was definitely nice to be inside instead of sitting at the campsite in the dark.

Although it was supposed to be five days in a row of sun and warmth, the following day got cloudy and was forecast to rain in the afternoon briefly, so I rode in the morning doing a big loop, out to the lighthouse, along the beach again and then back inland.

The lighthouse. There is a hitching post here.

The loop trails are clearly marked.

I dismounted from my horse and seconds later it started to rain. I drove over and picked up Andrea and we spent the afternoon messing around in the little shops in Old Town Bandon, where she managed to get some Xmas shopping done. I sampled a few too many chocolates and got a sugar high. Later on as we perused our phones, we noticed a shift in weather back home in Bend, crazy low temps were coming so timing wise the trip couldn't have worked out better.

That night a drunk guy and his teenage son stumbled into camp, I got a little concerned so I watched to see what they were up to. It appeared they were lost, there was a lot of swearing and bickering about not having a phone. I followed them in the dark to see if they were leaving and I could hear them yelling "Sorry ma'am" over and over. Turns out they had stopped at Karen's rig and asked to use her phone, she told them to move along, that she had a gun and was not afraid to use it!

I had met a woman a couple years earlier that lives in Bandon and I had contacted her about finding some other areas to ride and she suggested I go south to another beach, so in the morning I packed up early and drove over and parked at Devil's Kitchen. Riding north on this beach is quite the treat, there are numerous rock formations. You definitely have to be there at low tide. You can also ride south, presumably forever, but I had to do the long drive home so called it quits after a few hours.

Rocks at the beach accessed from Devil's Kitchen.

The ears match!

We rode through this little cave.

Rocks, rocks and more rocks.

I couldn't figure out what this was from far away so I zoomed in just before the wave hit.

Rina, a sweaty mess the entire trip.

Plenty of seals.

A fun trip was had by all.
Home again to the blast of winter weather....sigh....


GPS COORDINATES TO BULLARDS

GPS COORDINATES TO DEVIL'S KITCHEN

Muddy Meadows, Walupt Horse Camp, and Killen Creek, Washington

WOW!...is all I can say about Goat Rocks, it is a stunning place, but you have to be prepared to ride long days and have a surefooted trusty steed, to see the real beauty.

Goat Rocks from afar.

Having camped close by this area before, I knew it would be a long drive over gravel forest service roads. I stopped at Keenes Horse Camp to do a ride I had done two years before, but wasn't able to get very far, due to snow. The Muddy Meadows Trail climbs up towards Mt. Adams and then meets the Highline Trail. I had no trouble this time with snow, but it started getting cloudy and a little chilly and I realized there was no point in riding any higher, so I met up with the PCT and looped back down. It was raining as I got back to the truck.

Mt. Adams from the Muddy Meadows trail.

I then drove onward to Walupt Lake Horse Camp. This is in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest and the closest town is Randle, WA. There are nine sites, several of which are doubles with plenty of room for parking. There are two bathrooms, garbage, manure bins, and a hand pump for water, but although the websites all said the water is potable, it is NOT. However there is some potable water 3/4 of a mile away, at the lake where the road ends. Like most WA camps, there is high lining, with no corrals, and it was $16.00 per night.
There is a mapboard of the trail system, as well as some paper maps you can take of the trails for both Keenes and Cody, which are camps nearby, but not for Walupt....oddly. I had several hiking books about the area so I used them to plan my routes.

A double site at Walupt Horse Camp.

Walupt Horse Camp.

It rained all night and in the morning it was still misting and cloudy, but I tacked up and rode the Coleman Weedpatch Trail which climbs up quite high and then meets the PCT. I did a loop returning on the Walupt Lake Trail. I am certain there were probably some good views along the way, but I wasn't seeing much that day with all the cloud cover and fog.

In the middle of the night the wind picked up, and so did the temps. By morning it was blue sky and sun which made me pretty ecstatic. I had a plan, and it involved doing a loop along Goat Ridge to Goat Lake, then a side trip to Snowgrass Flats and then down the Snowgrass Trail. You can ride there from the horse camp, but it's just a lot of extra needless miles and time, so I drove over to the Berry Patch Trailhead, getting there just in the nick of time to snag a parking spot. Even on a Thursday it was pretty busy, with three other horse trailers and lots of cars, half of those being bow hunters. Tis the season. Apparently on the weekends there can be as many as 100 people on this trail.
Most horse people just go straight to Snowgrass Flats and back, but the Goat Ridge Trail is much more beautiful, although not for the faint of heart especially when you reach the Lily Basin Trail, which has some sketchy sections.
There is also a side trail that takes you to an old lookout site, and then meets up with the main trail again, which is worth it for the view of Rainier.

Mt. Rainier.

The Goat Ridge Trail.

The Goat Ridge Trail.

The Goat Ridge Trail, with Mt. St. Helens in the background.

The Goat Ridge Trail.

My horse is surefooted, luckily, but she appears to have zero fear of heights, as I was leading her over certain "not so great" sections she thought it was a grand idea to walk on the very edge of a precipice with a sheer drop off inches away, or up the side of the cliff instead of down the middle of the trail, giving me some heart palpitations, and making me wonder about her sanity. There were plenty of hikers out and about, but I only saw one other person who was riding, and he was on a mule.

The Goat Ridge Trail.

Views of Mt. Adams where the Goat Ridge Trail meets the Lily Basin Trail.

Arriving at Goat Lake, I decided that would be a good lunch spot. And the place lived up to it's name, with actual mountain goats way up on the ridge above me.

Goat Lake.

Goats at Goat Lake!

Goat Lake from afar.

I would have liked to have stayed up there all day, but I dragged myself away, and got to the intersection where you can ride up to Snowgrass Flats and to the PCT. My original plan had been to summit the mountain just above, called Old Snowy, but I ran out of time. Looping back down, I rounded a corner and encountered a llama. A couple of hikers were standing still watching him/her. They looked relieved when they saw me, and asked if it was my llama, I said no, effectively dashing their hopes. There wasn't much we could do as far as catching him/her, since he/she was not wearing a halter and looked uninterested in human companionship. I assumed it was a pack llama that had escaped from someone camping in the area. I hope someone eventually got reunited with their animal.

Rina napping above Snowgrass Flats.

Heading back down to the trailhead I was thrilled to have seen such a beautiful place, thinking that was to be the best scenery of the trip. Luckily for me, it was going to get even better.

On Friday my pony got the day off, and so I hiked over to Walupt Lake. As I lay sunning myself on the beach several people wandered by wearing sweaters and pants. One couple told me I was a hardy person. I guess it wasn't all that hot out, the breeze was a bit stiff, but I hopped in the lake anyway (desperation from camping a long time with no shower) and then called it a day.

Walupt Lake.

Walupt Lake, hoof prints to lead the way.

The next day I rode the Nannie Ridge Trail, which also eventually meets the PCT (as all the uphill trails do there). I rode north on the PCT and to my surprise found some even more stunning scenery. A hiker and I arrived at Gilbert Peak at the exact same time, and we both just stood there gaping at it. Even jaded PCT thru hikers rave about this section.

I continued on to Cispus Pass, and the beauty continued. A couple of section hikers and I had a nice chat at the top, before I had to reluctantly turn around and go back.
There were such a lot of nice people hiking and camping, I was never really alone for long, maybe 20 minutes max. before running into someone else. Everyone was so delirious from the views, that we all just grinned stupidly at one another.

Gilbert Peak on the Yakama Indian Reservation.

Gilbert Peak on the Yakama Indian Reservation.

On the PCT, Cispus Pass.

On the PCT, Cispus Pass

On the PCT, Cispus Pass

On the PCT, Cispus Pass, the washed out area of the trail.

On the PCT, heading south back to camp.

On my last day I got ready early, drove back over past Keenes Horse Camp and did the Killen Creek Trail, another one I had tried to do on a previous trip, but couldn't get past the snowdrifts. This is a short trail with great views of Mt. Adams, and you can continue briefly up the High Camp Trail along the slopes of the mountain, until it eventually becomes impassable to horses.

On the High Camp trail. Time to turn around.

What a great trip, I am so blessed to be able to do what I love.


GPS COORDINATES TO KEENES HORSE CAMP


GPS COORDINATES TO WALUPT HORSE CAMP