MagiCal LaND oF fUnGi….

We stayed at South Beach State park a few nights and decided to move a bit further south, closer to a few more of our favorite mushroom hunting areas.

This is was our great spot at south beach..

Before leaving we took a spin around the campground. Just a few hundred feet from our site was this Gorgeous King Bolete!

Love Love Love Love…

my only find..

I Want more of these!

Porcini…delicious!

We pack up Homey and drive to our next campground..

We head from south Newport to Florence..

Our next campsite with be at an Elks RV park..

Not to far from the area in the distance..

When we arrive at the campground we are treated with a welcome committee of Wrentits…

and a forest of Amanita..

I never took a photo of our actual campsite.

It was very private and wooded.

The following morning we took a walk on our favorite trail near

 Sutton Campground.

A hardy Fuchsia shrub grows on the side of the trail..

Purdy blossoms…

I found a Boletus but it was bugged out..

Bummer…

We continue through the wooded trail..

Through a forest of moss and lichen..

Looking for our patch of Matsutake mushroom..

We found it!

It was producing a few mushrooms, but not as many as we picked four years ago at this same spot.

These mushrooms are highly prized, especially by  the Japanese and Chinese for its spicy-aromatic odor.

They smell like pine trees..

We continue our walk ..

onto open dunes..

Past assorted mushrooms..

Purple Fairy Club Mushroom, Clavaria purpurea

In beds of lichen and moss..

We leave the dunes and enter the land of Magic..

Where mushrooms bleed…

Hydnellum peckii

and lichen look like soap bubbles on the loose…

I spy a Matsutake smiling at me on the side of the path…

I say hello and pick it to be dried later..

This is the land of giant mushrooms..and magic..

I love it here!

We walk on looking for Porcini or Matsutake..

These look like Birch Boletes to me..

Check out this link to some of the best edible mushrooms in Oregon.

Follow the brown capped shrooms..

We leave the magical forest ..

  via the dunes..

Past turkeytail mushrooms..

Following the steps to the campground we pass this little critter..

A face only a mother could love..

As we cross the bridge to the campground we spook a Barred owl..

It flies a short distance and watches us..

What a great way to end our magical mushroom foray.

Back to Homey and time to cook our finds..

Matsutake from the days foray..

I cook some, freeze and dry what is left.

I sauté remaining Chanterelles from the previous days find and freeze them to enjoy when we are far away from this mushroom filled area....

Ahhh…time to rest.. And repeat!