Camping in Oregon. {West Coast Road Trip 2.0}

After our time in Northern California we made our way up and east into the Oregon forest home to Umpqua River.  We camped at Island Campground in the Umpqua National Forest.  We picked a spot right on the water, which was both amazing and huge mistake, georgous rushing water and beautiful view + too many mosquitos to count and not enough bug spray.  The girls had a great time splashing around in the water and we put our beers in the river to get them ice cold in the heat of summer.

Husband was the first to rush in, the water was almost freezing but it felt nice in contract to the humid heat of the forest.

I love watching their childhood in the summer, finding natural treasures, playing make believe with sticks and leaves, running barefoot on the shore. It's all pretty magical.

We laid down on the rocks and got some vitamin D.

Relaxing and joking around before calling it an early night.

We woke up with the sun the next morning and drove to the Umpqua Hot Springs.  When we here two years ago it was still a bit more unknown, now every road trip blog in the world has been to the easily accessible and quite instragram-able mountain cliffs.

A short hike and you're greeted with hippie artwork and trendy hot springs. 

I found some free time the day before to finally put some henna on my skin.

Everyone loves the warm water, even though in the sun it was pretty warm to begin with.  Even our dog Brutus jumped right in (don't worry we got him out right away-it was definitely too hot for him for more than a minute).

We didn't stay long since it was so warm and turns out both our kids needed to pee, so we walked back down to the car soaking wet to keep cool.

Back at our campsite we went back down to the water (after loading up on the deet - which by the way still barely kept the mosquitoes off of us).

I love this photo that my 4 year old captured of me and her sister in the water.

more of my favorite Oregon Porter.

tiny finds.

Kept the girls busy with journaling while Husband drove up the highway to get me some ice.  I love camping but the one luxury I miss is ice cold water.

//home.

If you're looking for places to stay in Oregon I'd definitely suggest here, but just know that you need lots of bug spray and the toilets don't flush.  Anyway, if you want to read my Husband's version of this stretch of our journey find his post here.