Day 12: Northern Oregon Coast
I woke up around 6:00 as it was and took a short walk to the ocean as it was foggy this morning. I went back to the car adn drove to the Peter Iredale ship which are the re ains of a ship wreck back in 1906. During a bad storm in the fall this boat was beached and everybody survived the wreck. Most of the ship has now been covered with sand or salvaged. I tried to take a picture but it was to foggy this morning. I left here and drove by the Ft Stevens Camp sight which was to small, to many people and no vacancies. It is a family campsight if you planned on staying in the vicinity for a weekeknd. I wanted tgo Ft St Johns but they did not open until 10:00 so I decided to start driving south down highway 1. i drove thru a small community of Warrington and wuld come to Del Rey Beach. There were people camping on the beach and many vehicles had drove on the beach to find places to camp.. It looked like a good place to stay for a night if not interested in a hotel, although there would not be much privacy. It was still foggy out as it was now about 8:00.
I drove south and the next town isSeaside.
This is a good size town with lots of activites for families. Seaside was packed
this moring because they were having a 'Hood to Race marathon' as there were
groups of people running to Seaside with it being the final detsination. I saw
some of these people running when I was in Portland yesterday. The beach was
covered with tents for the event today. At 8:00 this morning, Pig n Pancakes
restaurent had people waiting out the door as all of the runners are her this
morning. There is a boardwalk along the beach that is a a quiet walk during
sunrise. There is also an aquarium. amusement parks,mmuseum and other activities
here to do. Ecola State Park is south of Seaside as it has a view of Haystack
Rock and Cannon Beach. The park has two roads that split off. 
One overlooks the Cannon Beach with many picnic tables available. The other
road goea about six miles in forested area befoe coming out at Indina Beach.
This will stop at overlook and there are trails that will take you to the beach.
This morning around 8:30 there were already wind surfers down on the beach and
a elderly couple setting up a picnic table for a brunch. There is a $3 fee for
the day as it the case with most Oregan parks along th coast.
I left and drove into Cannon Beach around 9:30. This is more of a touist town to visit as it has a nice long beech and one main street with many little shops,stores and accomodations. Cannon Beach and Seaside are a smaller replica to Carmel and Monterey. Cannon Beach is more for couples and Seaside is more for famlies. There are many galleries and nice restaurents to eat at in Cannon Beach. Morris's Fireside in a log restaurent is good for breakfast or dinner in Cannon Beach as I have eaten there before. I walked out to the beach and took some more pictures of the rocks and beach. It's 9:00 in the morning and people are window shopping and drinking latte's preparing for the day. I wanted to stay in town longer but knew I had to get going if I was going to cover all of the coast. We usually try to get doen here a couple times a year for a weekend and then drive the coast during the day. I drove a couple miles south and turned intoTolovana Park where there is beach access, picnicking and still good views for pictures of haystack rock.
I left around 10:00 and went south a couple miles to Hug Point
State Park. Here was anothe nice place to walk the beach and also walk into
some small caves from the rocks near the beach. There is also a small trail
around the point where the rock was blasted to form a trail around the point
durint low tide. 
This
was done in the 1800's when wagons were still using the beach as a means of
transportaion. Now people use it to walk along Hug Poing to get to the other
beachand able to walk as far as Cannon Beach. There were a couple families that
were camping down here near. The beach is pretty isolated and a nice place to
get away from the busy tourism of Cannaon Beach/Seaside but only be a couple
miles away. I left and drove towards Oswald State park but did not stay because
it was to busy. There is great hiking trails and walk-in campsights here as
this is a very popular place along the coast. ther is also a 1710 ft hike that
will take you to nehkahnie Mt. and will overlook the whole west coast. It is
a nice park to visit but busy and expect to stay for a while to appreciate it.
I contiinue south and able to get a clear picture of Nehalem
Bay from top of the hill before entering the town of Manzanita. The beach is
acuallly a little inlet from the ocean even though the sandy beaches reminds
me of hawaii as it is a long strip of white sand with small towns in the vicinity.
Manzanita
is a one of the small towns right down the sandy beachs as you continue south
on 101. The next townm is Nehalm, which is pretty much a tourist trap with many
little antique shops and places to eat. i continued south and drove into Wheeler
which is also along the beach. ther are also antique shops, restaurents and
store for tourists. I can remember one time stopping at the store last year
when someolder man played the banjo for our 5 yr old daughter whild we wer buying
here some ice cream. a nice place to stop and rest. As you drive south you continue
to see state parks and beach access . I drove for a couple more miles before
stoppping at Rockaway Beach.
This is another small town that is along the ocean and has a nice beach to walk
along. These towns are a good place to get away, especialy if you live in urban
areas. There seems to be aalternative life style here of enjoying life and living
at a slower pace. The next town is Garabaldi, which is located in Tillamook
Bay. This is a middle size town as it has a large dock and quite a few hotels.
There are also many places that will take you out salt water fishing from here.
The next town I come to is Tillamook and this is a rather large town for on the coast. The Tilamook Dairy Farm is the place that is always busy when I drive thru here. They have been making cheese for years and are one of the largest producers of cheese in the northwest. They have a souvenior shop, cafe with milkshakes and give a tour of thier production of dairy products. It is a good place to stop if you've never seen how dairy product are produced. I drove into the parking lot and back out because the place was so busy. I did go down the street and turn into Blue Heron French Cheese Company for lunch. They have a good selection of wines, cheeses and measts for a nice meal. We always stop here for lunch and usually buy some things to take home with us . I had to buy some pickled garlic, wine and they also had some Sin-Sins. Can't leave without buying those, never know when you'll see them again. I went out to their picnic benches and ate near the petting farm. I left there and one place I would recommend which I did not stop at woudl be the Airplane Museum. I have never been there but have talked to people who say it is worth going to someday. If in the vicinity and have extra time it is probably work seeing.
About 15 miles out of Tillamook is where I took a gravel road
to go to Munson Creek Falls. It felt good to get on gravel road for a little
while and back in the forest. I drove for about two miles in and then took a
15 minute walk to the creek where the falls were. There has been a slide in
the last year and the upper trail is not in use as this would give the best
view. Even the lower trail that I took still has the view obstructed so that
you really don't get a good view. It is a nice trail for just sitting and relaxing
along the creek. There is a large log the you can sit on as the water runs undrneath
you. Not many people were here as I only saw two couples during the thirty minutes
while I was there. 
.
Spring would be the best time to go when there is more water as the waterfalls
drops 266 feet in four separate falls finally reaching the creek down below.
I drove southwest towards the coast off of 101 and drove neaqr Sand Beach where
they had OHV (Off highway Vehicles) riding in the sand. This would consist of
three wheelers, dune buggies. It looks like alot of fun as youcan se many kids
out ther drive thes vehicles. Next stop would be Cape Kiwands and Pacific City.
It was still foggy out sto there was not much of a view of the ocean alhtouhg
ther wer people riding their ???? vehicles in the water near Cape Kiwanda. Pacific
is a little community that supports the oturis of the OHV campers with restaurents
and stores.
I finally reach Lincoln City this
afternoon as this ia also a larger town with many hotels, restaurents and shops
for tourists. It is nice out but still cold because of how windy it is here.
This is pretty much known as the kite capital of the world as they have yearly
competition here. This town has really startred to grow since they added a large
casino near the beach in the last couple years. They also have a nice sandy
beach to walk along and a lake a couple miles out of town. There are also many
camp sights near the area. There was also a sign in town which read that the
town is located on the 45 parrarel, which is halfway between the North Pole
and Equator. I left town and would pass Depoe Bay which is a small community,
Fogerty Creek and Boiler Bay State Parks that are right on the shore, and then
stop at Devil's Punchbowl. This is an area where the top of a cave has collapsed
which make it look like a punch bowl as yu can also see the what use to be the
cae entrances and are now openings for water to come into the punchbow.
I left here and would next come to the town of Newport. This isalso a large tourist centr but with a differant type or tourists. There is a large Marina here aloang with a Marine Science Center, Aquariun and they wer also have a jazz Festival this weekend on the water as Lee Ritenour & Diana Krall were in town. They also have large conventions here down by the Marins underneath the bridge. Ther is a South Beach Stat Park on the south side of town that has over 200 sights on the beach but real close to town also. I drove south as I was beginning to think about a place to stay tonight as it was about 6:00. I drove by the small town of Waldport and Yachatz and neither place had a vacancy on the Saturday night. I passed Washburn State Park and that was filled also . I stopped off first at the SeaLion Caves around 8:30 but they had been closed for a couple hours. I proceeded into Florence and found a laundry mat that also had a shower for $2. After doing that I felt alot better and asked a girl where woudl be a bar taht also serves good food. She recommended the Beachcomber whichwas in the old part of town. I'm glad she told me because that was the best part of town, the food was great as I had a toated ham & shrimp sandwich. I had a couple beers and then parked off the side of the road for the night in one of the pull-outs and went to sleep around 11:00. I drove 300 miles today 2900 miles in 7 days