Touring Florence Parks–part 2

I ended yesterday’s blog at Subway, where we purchased sandwiches for our picnic lunch.  Just three miles south of Florence on Hwy. 101, is Honeyman State Park.  This is a campground and a day use area combined.   Last year we stayed in the campground and you can read about that here.

This day our goal was  a simple lunch, in a quietly beautiful place.  The picnic area is situated on Cleawox Lake.  There were no other picnickers that we could see and we had our choice of wonderful picnic sites overlooking the lake.




The weather was warmer than the above picture would indicate.  The sun felt warm on my back and we sat and ate our Subs and listened to the sounds of nature. 





The picnic sites here are almost like campsites.  It is NOT a big open area with bunches of picnic tables…it is individual sites with a table and a fire pit.  there are also areas for groups if you have the whole tribe along.

Poppy is not much for laying in the dirt so she spent about five minutes under the table then asked to sit in the car.  We left the door open and that made her very happy.  She’s such a princess!



Rusty was content to lay at my feet and enjoy being outside.  I was so glad he decided to join us as often times he will prefer to stay at home rather than ride in the car. 

After lunch we visited the very nice and clean “facilities” and then drove to the other side of the lake and the sand dune area.  The sun was shining in such as way as to make it impossible to get a good picture of the huge sand dune here.  In the summer this is a very popular place and kids run up and down the dune and ride sand boards (or pieces of cardboard) down the steep dune.  Over in the campground area there are miles of sand dunes for off road vehicles but here no vehicles are allowed.  The lake begins right at the bottom of the dune and sometimes kids run down the sand and right into the lake.



The lake has a nice fishing dock but I don’t think too many fish are caught when the area is busy.  Too much splashing about for the fish to bite.



There was no wind at all and the reflections on the water were absolutely glorious.

Heading back into Florence, we once again cross over the Siuslaw River on the city’s beautiful drawbridge.  When the red light comes on, you want to be sure and stop!!






There is also a wonderful casino in the area but that is a topic for another blog.

The sun began to set as we got closer to home and to our surprise, the moon appeared huge in the eastern sky.  I had to pull over and get a picture.



It’s a good thing we took advantage of this special day.  Today we are back to “normal” here in Eugene, OR.  Rain, temps in the 40s, and it looks like it is going to stay this way for awhile.

Russ alerted me to a new blog.  I had to start reading as they are headed to one of my favorite parts of the country – Bishop, California and then on to Lone Pine.  Here’s a link to Wanderlust, if you want to follow along.