Cape Disappointment lives up to it's name.

Yesterday my man and I embarked on a weekend camping trip to Ilwaco, WA to stay at Cape Disappointment State Park on the southern most tip of Washington. For the record it was named by an English fur trader in 1788 because he was unable to find the Heceta river, which apparently was a big "disappointment". We reserved a Yurt (Year Round Tent) to stay in, hoping for some private time away. This is a Yurt:

 

In reading up on this area prior to leaving we found that the Bortle Dark-Sky Scale rated it at a #2, meaning it was next to being one of the darkest areas where you can see a majority of the stars in the night's sky. So we also brought our telescope to star gaze. After a long drive we finally arrived, found our site, and to our dismay found that the adjacent sites were much, MUCH closer to ours than the pictures made it seem. Our neighbors to the left looked as though they had been living there, and I can say that with some certainty because of the freezer chest they had set up outside of their camper. Seriously? Who brings a freezer chest camping? From the pictures above you can see that the Yurt is basically a round canvas dwelling with a bunk bed and it also had a futon couch, table and two chairs, heater, and indoor light. Kind of luxury camping compared to pitching a tent. 

So anyway, we get unpacked and I'm ready to build a fire in the pit (yes I'm in charge of building fires). I had a bunch of large pieces of hard wood, an ax, and a hatchet of which I fully intended on using to show off my womanly muscles. To my surprise, chopping wood wasn't as cool as I remembered. After my second whack of the wood against the concrete pad had resonated throughout the campground and I got a comment from my neighbor 10 feet away of "Ya know, you're not supposed to chop petrified wood" (hardy har har) I said to hell with it and started the fire anyway with the massive chunks of lumber. It was a great fire though, and even after extinguishing the flames the embers burned into the early morning hours. 

When we had first arrived we saw some clouds and fog rolling in, which being in Washington isn't too big of a shocker, but this was putting a damper on our star watching. It only got worse as the cold moved in and the foggy mist seemed to piss all over our campsite. So we hit the bunk pretty early and as we lay there we could literally hear the girl at the site next to us turning over on her air mattress. The idea of being intimate without the whole campground hearing (I'm a screamer) was out! At least we stayed warm in our sleeping bags as we shared the bottom bunk. Not the most comfortable of "beds" but it was a LOT better than an air mattress and no one could hear us turning over. 

My wake up call this morning? The neighbors diesel truck turning over for a fishing trip at 5 AM. Since sleep, comfort, star gazing and privacy were out the window we decided to bug out a day early and go home. So, in summary . . . Cape Disappointment definitely lived up to it's name!

-End Rant