Day 2 – Nehalem to Newport

Posted byDaniel WeatbrookPosted inmom lettersTags:

Good Morning! Wed May 5th, 2021

Good Morning! I hope today finds you basking in the beautiful bounty!

Yesterday was a pretty slow day. I managed to get out of the campground in Nehalem pretty early (it was easy since I just slept in my car, so I just pulled away). I did so pretty before, and I made it to Tillamook at 9 am. Well. The cheese factory doesn’t open until 10 am, and I wanted to check that out, so I got some gas (17.8 MPG on this tank), read a little bit, and drove a backcountry road.

On the way to Tillamook, I pulled off the side of the road in Rockaway to look at the ocean, and as I did, a woman, that had been talking to another car through here window approached me and asked me if I had jumper cables, and if I did could she get a jump start for her car. I am carrying jumper cables, so I gave her a jump, and we chatted for a while. It turns out her name is Amy Henderson, and she is heading down the coast as well in her sisters’ car. She house sits, and once a month, the folks come back, and so she has to make herself scarce. Not a bad life 🙂

After the Tillamook cheese factory (where I picked up some cheese and yogurt, which just came in handy for breakfast). I started heading south again, and pulled into Cape Lookout state park, and went for a walk on the beach. The trail to the end of the cape was closed because of storm damage, so I didn’t get to do that hike). From there, I took the long slow road (not the 101) that was along the coast. Stopping and lollygagging and just about everything that caught my eye.

I decided that I wanted to have a little downtime, so when I got to Newport, I checked out the lighthouses, and then grabbed some excellent fish and chips at the market, and rolled into south beach state park where I set up camp and went for a nice walk on the beach.

Today I am going to push on through to Northern California. The sailing trip that I am going to do in San Fran, has been moved from Sunday to Friday to not conflict with Mother’s Day on Sunday. And I want to be able to lollygag in the redwood forest.

Love ya
Dan W

Hiking over dunes to the beach as I was leaving Nehalam Bay State park
Some pretty impressive sea stacks on the coast
Helped Amy, and her dog Osso, with a jump start in Rockaway beach
The Tillamook cheese factory was pretty impressive. It’s a co-op owned by the farmers, and they have done quite the job of making their visitor center approachable.
Some more sea stacks on the coast.
Cape lookout.
I found a cave at cape lookout. Note the tide line. I checked before going into the cave to make sure that the tide was still going out. You would NOT want to be stuck in here.
Flat beaches.
These birds were everywhere.
Another sea stack at Pacific city.
This is the devils punch bowl. Apparently it can be pretty impressive at high tide 🙂
This is the Yaquins Bay light house. Apparently it was built in the wrong spot back in the day, because this is where the ship landed. It was only in operation for 3 years until the “right” one was built.
Highway 101 bridge over the Yaquina river in Newport
This was looking out from where Yaquina head light house is. It was SUPER windy here.
The Yaquina head light house
Looking south towards Newport front the Yaquina head.
Quarry cove on Yaquina head. A LOT of basalt was quarried out of here for highway 101. So much so, that they were afraid that the head would actually disappear. So they turned it into a natural area.
This place had some excellent fish and chips. Well worth the wait.
My camp site and South Beach state park

One thought on “Day 2 – Nehalem to Newport”

  1. I’m fairly sure those birds are Dunlin, but the beaks look quite long even for them. Not quite long enough to be Curlews (which are present typically in Eastern Oregon but not on the beach).

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