North Oregon Coast
And some
clever quip...
Driving North
The drive from Gardner to Seaside is a
little over 4 hours. On the way up we stopped in some Mid
Coast things (see previous page). We were on new road in the
afternoon and our first big stop was Tillamook cheese. I
visited maybe a decade ago and I was really impressed with the
visitor center. Dairy is a controversial thing and large
dairy providers are even more controversial. The gift shop
had a lot of premium items at premium prices, but there was big
line up at the ice cream counter for their generous cones.
The kids loved it.
We continued North and looked for dinner places. There
aren't a lot of Indian places on the coast and we did see a food
truck selling Indian food, but sadly it was closed when we drove
past. Helen found a seafood place in Brighton, near the
outlet of the Nehalem Bay. We stopped in and this was
exactly what we were looking for - a great view of the State park
and lots of seafood at good prices.
The seafood place wants to sell you fresh cooked seafood and you
bring basically everything else - butter, cocktail sauce and other
fixings are sold in the near by general store. You can also
get the seafood to go. Helen purchased a fresh cooked crab
and a bag of clams.
There is a dock with the same parking lot and they have setup Purple
Martin Nest Boxes. It was quite windy when we visited so you
could watch the Martins fly in almost in slow motion. Too bad
there was so much contrast.
Ecola State Park
Ecola State Park is between Seaside and
Cannon Beach. I looked it up and low tide was at about
6am. Nara agreed to get up early so we went out to see some
tide pools!
We arrived
shortly after sunrise while the sun was still streaming through the
low fog. I have a soft spot for for the high contrast of
morning fog - in only a few minutes the coast goes back to the low
contrast of what you see all day.
This beach has an interface between the wide sandy beach and the the
rocks of the headland. We followed the rocks looking at the
life growing near the water level. Sea Star wasting disease
has been a big thing on beaches on the Pacific so it was nice to see
a healthy population of Ochre stars here. Sadly, I didn't see
other stars you might see on a beach - leather stars or sun stars.
We poked around the pools looking for nudibranchs and other
interesting items. The tide was already coming in so we didn't
have a lot of time to look for for interesting animals.
After poking around the tide pools, we walked along the beach to see
what people are doing. We talked to a woman who had a meals
worth of razor clams. She had been here well before sunset
when the tide was falling and had a specialized aluminum tube for
pulling clams. Some people were still clamming on the beach
but I don't think there were doing as well as her. I was
surprised you can clam in a park (you can't in BC) but there were
lots of people here so I assume it's allowed.
We got to
the end of the beach and spotted a few Oyster Catchers finding food
in the rocks. Those red beaks and orange eyes these these
birds a photographers dream.
High Life Adventure Park Aerial Challenge Course
I think this is a relatively new attraction
in Seaside. Using technology from europe, people on the
course are always supported by their hardness connected to a
safety cable with an integrated smart belay system. Using
hand controlled ends, users can click one of their safety line
belay devices onto a new cable and then transfer the other end of
their safety line from the old cable to the new cable.
With this technology, they have built a three dimensional obstacle
course where the kids can select what segment to do next.
Nara is two years older a bit more adventurous. She wanted
to be sure she tried everything and quickly went from the second
floor obstacles to the third floor harder course.
The kids were pretty much pooped after 2 hours of walking around
so we went home for lunch. We spent the afternoon doing "low
activity" things like reading books and watching videos on the
iPads. As sunset was coming, I convinced Nara to go out for
a bike ride with me. We rode down to the beach and went for
a beach bike.
We learned a valuable lesson - go into the wind to start, not with
the wind. We choose badly and in no time (it was quite
windy) we were at the far side of seaside. We turned around
and the headwind (and rain) turned into quite a barrier. We
got home pretty wet.
Cannon Beach
A local inn owner hosts a morning "Puffin
Tour" at 8am. It was a quick drive over and we met up with
other guests. The puffin tour only runs on low tide mornings
and you get reasonably close to the haystack rock and the hosts
show you where to look to spot puffins. They are slightly
smaller birds compared to the many Murres on the rock, but with a
bit of time you learn to spot them. There were maybe a dozen
easily visible from our vantage point and apparently they are at
the end of a chick rearing season. In a few more weeks they
will simply fly away and the rock will be empty until next spring.
I went back to Seaside, picked up the family and we returned to
Cannon Beach to see the sights. We made it onto the beach
and then walked around town. What I didn't know is that
Tuesday is basically a weekend in Cannon Beach and many things are
closed - only one of four coffee shops we visited was open and it
had a huge line up out the door and around the sidewalk.
Similarly, some galleries and clothing shops were closed. My
bad.
Wreck of the Peter Iredale
Last year we were in Haida Gwaii staying in
Daajing Giids, we had a low activity day. I left early in
the morning and
walked out to see the
wreck of the Pezuta on the beach. It was a 12 km trip
(6km out, 6km back) so I got back to our place just before lunch
and it turns out the kids really wanted to see wreck. Being
a 6km walk that gets muddy as the tide comes it, it just wasn't an
option. Fast forward to this year and when I mentioned there
is a wreck near Seaside the kids were keen on going. To make
it even better, instead of being 6km from the parking lot, this
wreck is 50 meters from the parking lot.
The kids found two posts from the stern of the boat and they
wanted do some posing.
We went home to have dinner (Helen found
some more fresh seafood). As sunset approached, I took the
family back downtown for an ice cream and a walk on the beach.
We went for a walk on the beach and the
kids found a large wet bit of sand that behaved like a mirror.
Driving Back Through Seattle
You can drive from Oregon back to Vancouver
in a day, but we decided to stop in Seattle on the way back.
The kids have been to Seattle before but it was so long ago that
they don't remember. Helen wanted to do some shopping
and we started the day at the Pike Place Market.
Tags: beach(10), market(5), Seattle(4), sunset(3), biking(3), corrosion(2)
People: Nara(16), Claira(11), Helen(3)
From: John Harvey Photo > John's Overnight Page > Oregon Coast Road Trip > North Oregon Coast
Last Modified Tuesday, October 1st, 2024 at 00:12:55 Edit
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