28 May – Ocean Park – Cape Lookout

We left Ocean Park and continued up the peninsular to a place called Oysterville, very small but full of historic houses and a cute little church. 

There were piles of oyster shells everywhere, dump truck size piles, not just small heaps. They like oysters around here! Turning back along the peninsular, we headed South to the bridge over the mouth of the Columbia River. Heading over the bridge was interesting, it has two big spans to let shipping through and the rest is quite low down, so you drive up quite steep inclines.

Over the bridge and into Oregon and the seaside town of Astoria. We continued down the coast to Cannon Beach – one of our favourite spots from last years trip (and coincidentally on this day exactly 12 months ago was the last time we were here). We stopped at the PigN Pancake for lunch before continuing South (blueberry pancakes..mmm). 

The highway winds along the beach and goes around headlands on big stone “bridges” built into the cliff edges in the 1940’s. Prior to the construction of highway 101, the beach was actually the state highway and people travelled along the sand at low tide, then went over the headlands on old Indian trails. The coastline here is just stunning! The forests and mountains come down to meet the sea, and the surf is wild. The old lighthouses often had the lights smashed by boulders thrown up 130 feet by the waves. . There are rock outcrops in the sea, with birds circling over them. The towns are pretty and the streets have lovely names like “Wild Daffodil Lane” and “Picture Window Lane”.

Continuing south we stopped in at Tillamook, to the Tillamook Cheese Factory where we watched the cheese making process, sampled cheeses and bought the local Tillamook Ice-cream. Seriously delicious! Then to the Blue Heron French Cheese Factory for more cheese tasting and some wine tasting also.

It was getting late in the day so we drove on to the Cape Lookout State Park for the night. We walked along the beach in the rain, before BBQing some Sockeye Salmon and oysters. Another beach walk after dinner, along to where 2 waterfalls were cascading into the sea. Very pretty.