The GPS Got Me
It finally happened. We were headed down the Pacific Coast Highway in Oregon. It was dark and raining. We'd been driving for 6 hours and just about to the Campground I had programmed into the GPS. The...
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CR CRUISER wrote:
It finally happened. We were headed down the Pacific Coast Highway in Oregon. It was dark and raining. We'd been driving for 6 hours and just about to the Campground I had programmed into the GPS. The map showed to turn right in 500 feet. It then said turn right here. So I turned right.
It didn't look quite like a road that a State campground would be on but I followed it anyways. It got narrower then turned to gravel and ended a mile later at a locked gate (into the back of the campground).
I wound up having to back up the whole way, about a mile, out to the highway. I then had to back out onto Highway 101. The correct entrance was another 1/4 mile down the road.
The GPS got turned off for the rest of the trip.
Years back I had something similar happen to me at Hillsborough River State Park in Florida. Now I use Google Earth to find and input the exact co-ordinates for the entrance of unfamiliar campgrounds into the GPS. Even though I may not be able see the campground entrance because it's very dark and foggy, if the GPS says the entrance is 500 feet ahead on my right, I can have some confidence that it's actually right there. My version of an instrument landing.
Campground signs, if they exist, can also be very hard to see at night and they may or may not be located such that they clearly denote the entrance.
