Random Rambler: Oregon Coast 2011

Monday, July 11, 2011

Oregon Coast 2011 – Day 6

Day One: Drive up the through Utah and Idaho, Shoshone Falls, Twin Falls and Baker City, OR.

Days 2 and 3: Multnomah Falls area and Bridal Veil Falls, Vineyard

Day 4: Silver Falls State Park

Day 5: Beach, Whale Cove, Cape Foul Weather.

Today we were again treated with amazing sunny weather. We had already planned on driving up north today.

First Stop: The Tillamook Cheese Factory! Yummy cheese, and ice cream. Not as good as my childhood memories of the now gone Starr Valley Cheese, but still good.

While here let me just say, do not eat at the dive across the street that has the Fresh Seafood sign (no idea what it is called). Overpriced, terrible food. Hey I will be honest, if I love a place (like Pier 101) or hate a place.

Continuing up north we passed this cool old smoke stack. (DBP album) It brought me back fond memories of the old smokestacks in Murray. They tore those down a few years before I got into photography and I have no visual memory of them anymore. So, kind of nostalgic for me.

Shortly after this we found the Myrtle Wood Factory Outlet. There are surprisingly a lot of things you can do with Myrtle wood! Landis found the souvenir he almost got at Cape Foul Weather for a lot cheaper here. Sweet!

Not much further up we got to my intended destination: Rockaway Beach. We skipped it last year, and it was something I wanted to do. I also, unfortunately and fortunately at the same time, confused 2 things I wanted to do. More on that later.

Mom decided to play on the swing set. Makes me smile, and gives me hope that no matter how old you get physically, you will always be a kid at heart.

Some Surfers.

The monoliths the beach is named after. I love the archway.

We drove a bit south and got a different perspective.

Mom and Dad.

Rockaway Beach was nice, but something wasn’t right. I glanced at the atlas and saw Cannon Beach not too much further north and some bells and whistles went off in my head, but after spending as much time in the car as I had, I ignored them. I found out later that this was the beach Jeff and Tammy did last year that they said was absolutely amazing! It was also the beach were a photo in our hotel room was taken that my mom wanted me to reproduce with my own flair. I am a little sad we missed it, however considering later events, it was really a good thing we didn’t push further north today.

This is a view of Cape Meares from the beach just north of it. It looked to me we were going to have the same foggy experience as last year.

Upon driving in to this beach, we passed a heard of female elk coming down the mountain. Upon leaving we found they had all settled in a field, however there was no where to pull out. My photo, is not even worth posting, but it was cool. (kicking myself for not finding a place to pull out and take a proper photo)

We then drove up the hill towards the Cape Meares Lighthouse.

Squirrel eating a cheeto.

I present to you my Foggy Trail image from last year, minus the fog.

Different view of the 3 rocks. I thought they had a name, but I cant seem to find it right now.

Different view of Cape Meares Lighthouse.

Caterpillar!

It is awesome getting in a short hike with my parents. I know it is nothing to me (1/10 a mile) but it is definitely work for them. So it does mean so much to actually do a hike with them.

lookout from above the trail.

In the same parking lot for the lighthouse, lies a short (1/10th mile) trail to Octopus Tree. We ran to the restroom, and apparently, my mom was feeling more adventurous this trip, and hiked up to it. After discovering so, I chased after and finally caught up with her.

The pretty surrounding forest.

We read in a pamphlet that somewhere around here was Oregon's tallest spruce, unfortunately, it didn’t really say where it was, and we found no indication of it anywhere here. We did remember seeing a pullout at the beginning of the drive down here so we tried there again.

Success!! we found the trail! And it looked like, judging by the crude map, that it was about as short as the trail for the Octopus Tree (first trail that did not provide mileage), so Mom again decided to join us. Look at how big the trees are here!

Giant root ball. I would hate to be anywhere near here when a tree falls.

First glimpse of this monster.

It also has a butt…

Stitched panoramic, this thing is really big!

Tree within a tree.

The beach below.

There was this random tunnel that looked half natural, and half man blasted. A little unnerving to go trough.

But the beach on the other side was nice as well.

Not as cool as Cobble Beach, but almost.

After exploring these 2 beaches, we had plans to continue the 3 capes loop, but made a wrong turn. We thought about returning, but ultimately decided we had seen it before, at precisely the same lighting, and there was no need. We then thought maybe we would see a waterfall, as well as proposal rock, unfortunately all the excitement, combined with the new meds did not sit well with my dad and we had to cancel the last 2 events. Luckily this happened pretty close to the hotel. I am really glad we did not push further north.

Upon returning to the hotel, we were greeted with another amazing sunset.