So the 10 days are up and...... Prospect OHV was A LOT of fun and an amazing places with free camping in great locations. Just LOTS of massive mosquitos that love to hang out in the shade. I would highly recommend it to ANYONE. You guys were right about this place. I was more worried about accidentally going on the wrong trails and etc etc but they truly were well marked. The trail map online are garbage but the giant printed ones at the ranger station were on point. Speaking of ranger stations, Oregon does their shit right and are extremely well organized and very reasonably priced in terms of developed camp grounds, access to information (in person at all hours of day and night). It is worth the extra couple hours to head to oregon versus hanging out around california I think. Plus with diesel at $2.79 instead of the ~$4 I'm paying in california, and non-ethanol regularly available, well worth it. Trails are basically posted as MC only Easy/More Difficult/Most difficult, or MC/ATV only Easy/More Difficult/Most Difficult and lastly MC/ATV/SXS with the 3 difficulty levels.
As for my beginner daughter.... she LOVED the more difficult single MC only track. For some reason, she kept wiping over and over and over and over on the double track MC/ATV trails on the most smooth sections. Just BAM, down, not a stone to be seen, sometimes on the straightest flat sections. We camped for free a few feet from the Rogue River (More like a stream this far up) and stayed up at the very northern portion of the area and didn't even get south to play at Woodruff or Union Creek. No issues with critters or bears, just those damn mosquitos. I even caught a couple varieties of trout in the small shallow pools using a tiny castmaster lure. There are actually fish in these streams lol. Very few riders/vehicles went by, I'd say 3-5 total per day surprisingly. But wow, those riding big loops are no joke, it took a good hour and half to loop back to camp.
https://goo.gl/maps/e5UzwPXcRRmWj2WX6
Unfortunately, I didn't even bother going to crater lake. I just wanted to cover distance after we packed up, cleaned up and got on the road. Next destination was Sunset Bay state park south of Coos bay. It was risky because we were leaving for a highly popular destination on a saturday but heck why not? Well the view there was as spectacular as I had remembered and.....campgrounds were completely booked. I had the option to book online but I cheaped out and didn't want to spend the extra $8 "online booking fee". Turned out it was one of the greatest decisions I made.
So we drive up the 101 and being that it was about 7pm every moto shop would be closed and I still needed dune flags. Luckily walmart sells bright orange 6 foot tall bicycle flags by Bell for $7 that are just large enough to meet state requirements, minimum 8" x 12" orange or red flag at least 9' from the ground and includes a metal axle (for bicycle) mounted bracket. After grabbing the flags, I jumped on google map and decided to head north to the first nearest campground at the oregon dunes to try out our luck on getting a camp spot. We pull in to a well developed state ohv campground, BTW it seems that every state owned campground that charges a fee has an onsite camp host, and the sign reads FULL. I pull in anyways just to ask and a little 6 year old boy hops out of the host RV spot and goes on to inform me of EVERY possible campground and scenario in the region in order to find a camp spot, this little guy was an absolute beast of an expert! Well, after a couple minutes getting schooled by the little guy, his father then informs me that this location, Horsfall Campgrounds, is a reservation only campground and there was a "dune fest" event going on this weekend that packed the dunes for miles.....however..... one camp site just JUST gotten a cancellation and we were in luck.....just by the skin of our teeth, I'll take it! This campground is completely paved parking area and designed heavily around having an RV/trailer but there is still a patch of dirt/grass at the end of each spot large enough to pitch a tent. For $25, this was a steal AND had running water/plumbed toilets/hot showers. At the every end of the road was the beach camping area but also paved but heavily sanded from the blowing winds. Halfway between us, you could camp out on the sand dunes for free. For me, nope my truck was NOT gonna be seeing much sand or salt, I'm too paranoid about that stuff.
https://goo.gl/maps/5SvYUHQ3SCLsrm7X6
We weren't sand ready at all but running her TTR125L at 6 PSI and my KTM 450SXF at 8 PSI gaves us plenty of traction for all of the riding we'd do there. Just no slow technical stuff, and momentum was key for not having paddles. My 450 rode wheelies in the dunes on just throttle alone, so I had plenty of traction. As for flag mounting, I spent hours figuring out how to mount the flag on the TTR and ended up mounting the bracket on a rear fender bolt at the back and melting a hole to stick the flag through. 6 zip ties later, it was well mounted and survived numerous drops. For my 450, I refused to mod, drill or touch my plastics, so I ziptied the bracket to the back of my camel back, voila I had my flag between 11-13 feet in the air. My daughter especially liked riding the soft and packed sand along the beach, she had fun in the open dunes too. Me being a nutjob, really like technical challenges but I had to make sure she didn't try to follow my blind lines lol.
Anyhow, we only stayed here one night and spent the remainder of the week touring Oregon/Washington. I wanted to loop back and see crater lake and ride the bottom half of prospect but a forest fire changed all that.
Just a few boring pictures, I didn't take too many and I'm sure you're tired of readings lol. And sadly, my profession prevents me from posting photos of myself/family/friends. But it really is an AMAZING place, Oregon just landed on my list of possible relocation possibilities.
Oregon dunes, Horsfall OHV campground
Oregon dunes, a little something I some how noticed 200 yards away buried in the sand while blasting down the beach. Don't ask me how I knew to stop and dig in the sand for a sand colored object poking out of the sand the size of fist. It just did..... then again it goes with the career, the fine details.
Cross the looooong interesting bridge in Astoria, OR on the way. There is an awesome RV park at the end of this bridge for cheap, extremely friendly owners with sons who used to race quads.
Long Beach, WA where I had many great memories as a teen on 4th of July. The longest beach in the world they say, you can drive on it in your automobile and any "street legal(ized)" vehicle, but no OHV.
The fire between Roseburg, OR and Medford, OR that would end the trip sooner than I had hoped. It was smokey, real smokey for a good 60+ miles. Pretty crazy for a small 175 acre fire.
