Nehalem Bay State Park, Oregon March 8-10

Wednesday morning Ray woke up at 5:30 by a rooster lol.  Must have been this guy! 

With it being so cold outside at 30F, the whole inside was damp from the Big Buddy Heater with the temperature difference between outside and inside. After I got up at 5:45, I started the generator and turned on 2 electric heaters plus the big gas furnace to dry things out. Even the walls behind the bed were damp. Everything dried out by 8am. Gotta love a 10,000 watt generator. 

As it froze overnight, there's white frost everywhere. There's also ice on the big slide topper again. When it was time to get moving at 9:30 am, Ray first lowered the front end of the coach to drain the accumulated water. He then used the ladder and a broom to push the ice off so I could close the slide. This is the second time on our way home with ice on the topper. :(

On our way by 9:45 ... we'd not set up much for the night so it was a quick pack up. With only a 45 minute drive to our next camp at Nehalum Bay SP, we took our time stopping at a few places on the way. The first stop is Rockaway Beach looking at the Twin Rocks.

A Chiseled Lava MassIt is believed the rocks were created by a super lava flow more than 300 miles away – the very same one that fuels Yellowstone National Park.

In the other direction, look at that fresh snow.

Lots of people enjoying the sunshine after so much rain.

Being winter time we just drove into the park and found our site empty so pulled in at 11 am. Usual checkin is 4 pm!  They sent me an email a few days ago to pre-register so we were all set.

After parking the MH we jumped back in the car and headed towards Cannon Beach and any photo opportunites we came upon. Today is the only day with any sunshine in the forecast for the next 2 days. So.... off we went to explore.

Arcadia Beach

Silverpoint Lookout towards Cannon Beach.

Haystack Rock

We drove around trying to find a place for Ray to get the picture of Haystack Rock. Finally in a subdivision with "no parking" signs, but with access trail to the beach, I waited for him to run down for these next 2 pictures. The town basically closed all access to this end of the beach for a close view of the sea stacks with houses and hotels.

Time for lunch at the Pelican Brewing Company, Great ambience and great beer/food. With the sun streaming through the windows we both look kind of "pinched" squinting with the bright sun. Bad light to show all our wrinkles. :)

Smoked Tri Tip and they make their own rootbeer.

I ordered from the children's menu lol, a cup of their award winning clam chowder and 1 piece of fish and chips, delicious. The best clam chowder so far. I chose their award winning Kiwanda Cream Ale beer. Very tasty.

Back in the car with Ray driving lol, we headed back to camp. We managed to stop at a viewpoint to take a picture of the Manzinita Beach as the sun had moved over enough. Yes the rain is coming. :)

Manzinita Beach and in the distance Nehalum Bay SP 

We got back to Nehalum SP and headed to the day use area to see the beach while the sun is still out.

Love the colours with the sand dunes.

Looking in the other direction.

My King of the Hill! lol

We wandered a bit on the beach, but the wind is really cold so we headed back to the car and drove to the boat launch where I saw a bit of a rainbow. Much calmer water in the bay.

Back to camp to finally set up our motorhome for our stay. Below, the view out our front window.

Lots of twisty trees.

A good day touring with mostly sunshine.

Thursday morning we woke to showers and some wind. I think today will be a stay inside day, checking out my food supplies that need to be used up before crossing the border next Wednesday.

By 9:30 our morning chores were done and we decided to drive into the small town of Nehalem and drop in to Wanda's Bakery and Cafe. What a cute little place. Ray's happy to get cookies. lol

Great summer patio.

Around the corner from Wanda's is Nehalum's little grocery store. OMG the floors were falling apart. I stepped in long enough to buy a jug of milk and back out. lol Here is a picture of what their street looks like. This is a really old town.

Back home to the MH for the rest of the afternoon, watching the rain out the window.

Friday morning it's supposed to be sunny with cloudy periods so off we went at 9 am to do the trip south to Cape Meares and the little town of Oceanside.  It started out lovely for half our trip but, by the time we got to Cape Meares it's trying to rain on us. 

We drove to the furthest point of the trip today back through Tillamook and then headed towards the coast to Cape Lookout. What a great beach. Sunny in this direction but definitely dark and gloomy in the other.

Three Arch Islands

There is the a cave starting in the bank.

While Ray wandered the beach I wandered up on the bank and took these few. Notice the "wild life" playing in the creek lol

Wild life lol

These 4 Chinook Helicopters flew overhead.

After wandering around for half an hour we headed back the way we came and turned down the road to the communities of Netarts Bay and Oceanside.

Netarts Bay, see the road hugging the cliff.

In the other direction are multiple sandbars the Netarts Bay Oyster Company uses. The rain is a commin! lol

The spit in the Cape Lookout State Park

Continuing on, we stopped at the end of the road at Oceanside State Park Beach and walked down to the entrance of the Maxwell Tunnel.

Oceanside and the State Park beach.

Just out of the picture is a "For Sale" on a house directly above the crumbling bank. I wonder why??

Walk to the north end of Oceanside Beach to see the unique feature of this spot, a man-made tunnel carved through the base of Maxwell Point leading to a scenic coastline. This is an easy 0.8-mile round trip from the parking lot which would take you to a more rugged and secluded spot compared to the main beach.

The 90 feet long tunnel was built in 1926 by the Rosenberg family, who owned a resort at Oceanside, to let guests access more of the coast shore. The tunnel construction starts with a round concrete bunker-like corridor. As you move through the tunnel, the concrete floor and walls are replaced with rocky walls and a rugged floor with huge boulders and driftwoods that were brought by huge waves and king tides into the tunnel. Though some light is coming through and allowing you to see some part of the underground trail, a regular flashlight or a smartphone flashlight can be very helpful.

Once you see the ocean and come through the oval portal, you will find yourself on the romantic secluded beach, surrounded by huge cliffs and lined with numerous sea stacks. During super low tide, you can reach Tunnel Beach just by walking around Maxwell Point.

Ray took a walk through the tunnel, I decided not too as it's really dark and you can barely see in so not for this kid. lol

Further up the road is Short Beach Trailhead. I took one look at all the uneven stairs going down, down, down and said nope! Ray however, decided to give it a go. He's one pooped puppy when he got back to the car with one wet foot. lol

This is not scum but the different colours of the sand.

By this time it was starting to rain ... bummer. We still had to see the Cape Meares Lighthouse. I drove us back to the junction and then headed the 2 miles up to Cape Meares. Still spitting, not pouring but a real cold wind. Off we went down the trail to the lighthouse. From this angle we can see 2 of the 3 arches on the Three Arch Islands. We know there is an arch in the middle one as we took a few pictures of it from Cape Lookout.

Three Arches Islands as seen from the Cape Meares Trail.

How 'bout one of these on your Christmas Tree??

Look close, there's two waterfalls in the picture

See, there's the small waterfall coming down the cliff face.

I noticed an arch forming on the bottom right corner.

After doing the trail down and back up, Ray's knees were shot. We never did find the "Octopus Tree". I suspect it's off the trail to the restrooms, but with the weather being wet and cold we didn't bother looking any further. Here is a google picture. lol 

Ray did get a picture of another Sitka Spruce with tons of arms so it looks similar.

Yup, all from one tree

Time to head back into Tillamook for some lunch. We chose the Pelican Brewing Company again. this time at their location in Tillamook. They've 4 locations on this coast. This locations is more of a taproom with self serve compared to their location at Cannon Beach. Delicous burger for me and fish tacos for Ray. This is their commerical brewing location, I believe, looking at amount of equipment.

Pelican Brewing Company was born at the beach in Pacific City in 1996. Here, in front of a rundown old building at the water’s edge, stood three enthusiastic young folks whose thirst for great beer overshadowed their understanding of what it would take to build a brewery. They did it anyway. And now twenty years later, older, and wiser, Pelican Brewing Company is a craft beer industry leader with fans throughout the Northwest and around the world. Today we’ve taken our breweries and our values to other Oregon coastal towns where we wake up each day in a place that reminds us that amazing is possible. Cheers fellow fanatics. This is as good as it gets.

After a delicious lunch Ray drove us home. A great day. Tomorrow we move on a short way up the highway to Fort Stevens, near Astoria. OR