A beachy kind of day

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I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do today, other than I was going to drive north. I thought I would go all the way up to Astoria, but I never made it past Cannon Beach.

This morning it was quite cold and cloudy. I had some guests out in the water to watch while eating my breakfast, two sea lions! They were right up by the shore looking for fish I suppose. A nice start to the morning.

I headed north from Tillamook on the 101. Here the road winds along Tillamook Bay with some nice green hills on either side. Beautiful scenery, even with the clouds! There are plenty of pullouts for checking out the views and I would recommend stopping at several. Most have information signs about the area and most had few cars, if any, using them. I stopped on my way back to Tillamook as I wanted to have time to do whatever sightseeing I ended up doing. I was watching for the turn for Ecola State Park, which is just north of Cannon Beach. The road takes you through this small beach town and you do have to pay attention for the signs as they come up quickly.

The road into the park has some rather steep sections and lots of twists and turns. I really hate these types of roads, but I do them when I'm the only driver in the car! I finally made it up to the pay booth ($5 for a day pass) and to the observation area. From this vantage point, the view to the south is amazing! Haystack Rock is in the distance along with some smaller sea stacks and the craggy coastline makes for a beautiful photo. To the west, out in the ocean, is Tillamook Head Lighthouse, which is no longer used. I read a sign about it at one of the scenic turnouts and I can't imagine being a keeper here. It's on a rock, several miles offshore and is just battered by waves. Those men were probably crazy! Ecola park has several trails, but they are steep and not my speed so I took in the view and headed back down to town.

Cannon Beach is a really nice beach town. I was able to find parking near the information center. In the summer, you probably want to get into town early or you won't be parking anywhere close to the main drag. The main street has lots of shops and restaurants. It reminded me of Door County, but on the ocean instead of the lake. I walked out to the beach way north of Haystack Rock, the main attraction here. I love walking on the beach! The tide was headed out so there was lots of sand to walk on. I have noticed there haven't been any shells on the beaches I have been to. A few fragments, but nothing whole other than large crabs. A group of horses with their riders went past. That was a different beach scene! Eventually I arrived at Haystack Rock. This sea stack is probably the most famous in Oregon and it's pretty nice that you can walk right up to it during low tide. I had to wade through a few tidal pools to get right up to it and the water is still super cold. The bottom of the rock is covered with mussels and barnacles higher up than I am tall. It is also a marine and bird sanctuary so you cannot climb on it. That is one of the nice things about Oregon. All the beaches are public domain so you can walk as far as you want without having to stop and all offshore rocks and islands are considered marine sanctuaries. These Oregoners (Oreganos) have the right idea!

Once I had my fill of the rock, I headed backup the beach and to the main road in search of lunch. There are so many food places, but I stopped at Tom's for the cheap fish n chips. $7.95 for 2 pieces of fish and some fries seemed like a good deal. I took mine to go and ate on the beach. As a solo traveler, I really like that most places now have the to go option, especially in beach towns where you don't want to be inside. And the food always tastes better when eaten on a log in the sand on a beach!

I wandered along the main street for a bit, got a delicious tropical iced tea and then decided I should probably get in the car and start heading back. I stopped at Hug Point State Park, which is just south of Cannon Beach. Here, you can walk along the coast, sometimes "hugging" it, during low tide. There are some neat carved out caves in this area, which give the shore cliffs a more imposing look. I didn't want to walk too far as I knew the tide was on the way in and I already had to time it right between waves to jump up on some of the rocks. This was a really neat park and no fee to get in.

The rest of the drive back to Tillamook was spent enjoying the green trees and views. Once back in town, I stopped at Tillamook Cheese to check out the visitor center and sample the cheese. They are in the process of building a brand new visitor center so right now you walk through a temporary barn building. There is an exhibit on the life of a dairy cow and then the samples. Cheese curds, 90 day cheddar, 9 month cheddar, a Swiss, a smoked cheddar and a 2 year cheddar. MMM! I bought a few small individual sized pieces of cheese to take with me and got some Marionberry Cheesecake ice cream for a snack. The ice cream is pretty good and there are lots of flavors to choose from. I went with the junior sized scoop and it was plenty for a snack. It was $3 because the flavor I picked was a special limited edition.

I also stopped at the Blue Heron French Cheese Company. They are famous for their Brie, although it is no longer produced on site. There are several kinds to sample, along with samples of other items such as jams, mustards and dips. Kind of like Seaquist in Door County for those who are familiar with it.

My final stop of the day was the Tillamook Air Museum. This museum is housed in a WWII blimp hangar, which happens to be the largest wooden structure in the world! Two of these hangars were built during the war as part of the Tillamook Naval Air Station, one of which burned down in 1992. The museum is made up of military aircraft that fill about half of the hangar. There is some interesting history on the use of blimps and a short film about the history of the building. If you don't like military history, this probably isn't the museum for you unless you just want to see inside this giant structure. It really is quite impressive!

And that was my day. I didn't do as much as I thought I would, but I really enjoyed visiting Cannon Beach. Lots of dogs and kids enjoyed it too! Most of the shops and restaurants along the coast seem to be very dog friendly. They are allowed in the outside seating and there are water dishes. There are poop bag stands at the entrances to the beach and everyone seems to be a responsible owner. The dogs are probably so tired at the end of the day after running in and out of the waves. I know I am and I'm just walking on the beach!

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Photos

Looking back
View of Ecola State Park from Haystack Rock