A recent camping trip taught me the reason why I need to stop checking my phone all the time.  We found a wonderful campground on the Oregon coast called Rock Creek.  The beauty there is amazing… it’s a small campground and limited facilities, but the scenery makes up for anything that is missing from our high-tech lifestyles. At first I was trying to check emails and news in the hopes my phone would connect… it never did.  I even rode my bicycle out to (and along) the highway fighting gale force winds along the way with the hopes that somewhere the phone would make a connection, but no such luck.  After a while I was resolved to accept the fact that for a few days, there were going to be no phone calls, no news updates, and no text messages.  It turned out this was a good thing.  I had time to practice photography, read some magazines we had brought with us, and just relax and enjoy the scenery.  

Rock Creek campground is adjacent to the ocean, about 1/4 mile inland up a small fern covered canyon.  The strong winds from the coast were coming up the canyon and made everything fresh, but rather cool to be out.  Still, it was so much better than the heat and smoke that’s affecting the Rogue Valley where we live.  On the last day, the strong winds died, and I was able to try some long exposures (such as the one below) to experiment with motion blurring the water in the creek.

After a few days of being off-line, we had to (reluctantly) leave the campground to head home.  When we finally got phone reception, we had found there had been a minor crisis at home with the watering, but it had been resolved correctly – and without our assistance.  And for catching up on emails / news / text messages… we found that yes, there things of importance there, but nothing that could have not waited for a few days.  What we got in return though was some time of peace and quiet, zero stress, and some wonderful memories of an extraordinary beautiful place that welcomes visitors, but at it’s own pace.

Rock Creek campground in Oregon. This was the view from our campsite.