After Stub Stewart State Park we made our way south and west to the coast where we stayed a couple nights at Jessie M. Honeyman Memorial State Park. This is a huge park with lots of spaces – lush forest keeps most sites shaded and they attempt to create privacy with trees and bushes planted between sites. Still, the sites are plentiful and close together so you’re not going to get a lot of privacy here. It is just a short walk to the sand dunes and some months you can drive your ATV right from your site (in a specific area) to the dunes.
We were not there during that time period and we don’t own an ATV so we rented one for a couple hours.
Is bringing your dogs along for a sand dune ride in an ATV a good idea? Uh….. no, not really. Not sure why I thought they would like it. Ranger, the more adventurous of the two, seemed to be okay with the whole thing but Grizzly was terrified the entire time and I spent the whole ride hugging him and trying to calm him down. There were four humans and two dogs in this big vehicle and I can say none of us had much fun.
Partly it was because the people we rented from really drove it into us how easy it was to crash and damage the vehicle and how expensive it would be for us if we did. The entire time we just tried to drive as slowly and safely as possible which I have a feeling really isn’t the point of doing this sort of thing. We ended up coming back early and chalking it up to a “thing we did” and move on to the next.
We explored the small town of Florence, Oregon nearby – walked past little shops, walked along the beach, and had a beer and appetizer at a restaurant with loads of outdoor seating. Can’t remember the restaurant name but it was right on the water with a large deck with picnic tables. We ordered beers (good) and crab cakes (so disgusting we feared for our health and did not eat past one bite).
Then we checked out Singing Pines Dog Park to let the boys stretch their legs. It’s a really nice dog park with only a couple other dogs there and ample room for them to run around and dig.
Florence, Oregon was a really dog-friendly little town and quite pretty – I recommend checking it out if you’re in the area.
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