The Giant Spruce at Cape Perpetua Campground stands nearly 200 feet tall. Over its lifetime, it has survived numerous storms, fires, earthquakes and tsunamis. (Photo by Matthew Ginn © 2010)

Today’s post focuses on the Cape Perpetua Campground, where Perrie and I stayed for two nights last weekend.

The campground has 38 sites (plus a group site), running water and flush toilets (but no showers). We weren’t able to reserve the same site for both nights, so we had to move on Saturday morning. That worked out well, though, because we got to experience both types of sites in the campground.

Our first site (no. 8 ) was fairly open, which meant that it was relatively bug-free but wet in the morning with the marine fog/dew/drizzle. (This is a rain forest, after all.) The ground was very uneven thanks to the work of some kind of burrowing rodent, but it backed onto a babbling brook (Cape Creek) that gave a nice ambiance to the place.

Thankfully, Friday’s occupants of site 39 left early Saturday morning so we were able to move right after breakfast and didn’t have to interrupt our activities later on. We had to walk up about 9 steps to access the site, which was tucked very privately into the forest above the road. In contrast to our first site, it was quite dry in spite of the morning fog, but also quite infested with mosquitoes. We quickly learned to shower in bug dope before entering the site.

On Sunday morning we made the short walk—half a mile or so—from our campsite through the old-growth forest to the Giant Spruce. In an area known for tall trees, this 500-year-old Sitka Spruce is big. And, they say, it lost its top 35 feet in a windstorm in 1962. Even so, it stands nearly 200 feet tall. You could probably lean about 20 bicycles around its base without double-parking. It’s big.