Tillamook, Oregon--July 21-23, 2008

We arrived at Tillamook Airport Monday around noon. The airport has an rv park where the sites have no hookups and are $5 a night. There are about 25 sites at the airport. We decided to pay daily as we weren't sure how long we would stay. We can see the Tillamook Air Museum from our site.

The next item on our agenda was to ride into town to find a grocery store. We knew from our road atlas and the internet that there was no Wally World so we settled for Fred Meyer. We picked up groceries to last a few days and returned to the airport. The ride into town also let us get our bearings for where things were located so we could plan our stay.

Once back at the airport, we noticed a lot of rvs with WIN stickers. We looked on the web and found that WIN stands for Wandering Individuals Network--a group of single rv-ers. Some of them are also members of Escapees. All our single friends take note--it is an active group of older rv-ers having a good time (many of them have kayaks & bikes on their vehicles).

Tuesday morning we started a day of sightseeing. Our first stop was the world famous Tillamook Cheese Factory. It operates 24/7 making all types of cheeses. There is a self-guided tour so you can watch the cheese making process.

The workers were cutting and packaging three different cheeses as we watched. The big blocks of cheese are cut into smaller chunks (the excess that is shaved off to make all blocks the same goes into big tubs and even on the floor). I think if I worked there, I wouldn't like cheese as much as I do--too much of a good thing!
From the cheese factory we drove the Three Capes Scenic Drive. Our first stop was the Cape Meares Lighthouse. As we walked the trail to the lighthouse there were viewing areas on either side of the cape. These rocks are a sea lion refuge, but we didn't see any sea lions. The rocks all have arches in them.As we approached the end of the trail we could see the top of the lighthouse. We thought it would be taller than it was!
We went in the lighthouse and took the tour to the top. We found out that the lenses for all the Oregon lighthouses were shipped from France in barrels of molasses to keep them from breaking. The floor in this lighthouse had decorative glass that was really utilitarian. The lighthouse keepers weren't allowed to have lanterns in the lighthouses at night, so the glass was built into the floor to allow light to pass through so the keepers could see to walk up the steps!
From the lighthouse we walked back to the parking lot and into the woods to see the octopus tree. It is really a sitka spruce that has been shaped by the winds on the cape. The branches began near the base of the tree and grew upwards giving the tree a candelabra appearance. The base of the tree is over 50 feet in circumference.
We continued on along the 3 Capes Scenic Drive to the town of Pacific City. We had been told by several people that we needed to stop at the Pelican Pub and Brewery. So we did! Bob and I each had one of their award winning ales. Then it was back to the rv to plan our next excursion.

Well, our next excursion occurred that very same afternoon! We drove south of the airport about 2 miles to view Munson Creek Falls. It was off the highway about a mile and a half down a one lane road. The trailhead was about 1/4 mile from the falls. Evidently a lot of trees fell near the falls this winter and spring so access to the base of the falls was closed. If you look carefully at the picture, you can see a downed tree to the left of the waterfall--roots at the top, just hanging!

We returned to the rv to plan our activities for Wednesday. We have many brochures and magazines with suggestions. We chose hiking to Cape Lookout for our activity. We passed the trailhead during our travels on Tuesday, but weren't prepared for a 4.5 mile hike.



Wednesday morning we took water, our hiking sticks, the camera, and our GPS. As we drove to the trailhead we picked up a few geocaches. There was also a cache on the trail. The trailhead parking area was pretty full, but we found a spot. As we were getting out of the car, a van stopped and the family asked for directions. They were from Switzerland and were hoping to make it to Crescent City, California that night, but they wanted to know what sights to see along the way. They were hoping to find a place to watch whales. We recommended Depoe Bay as there was a whale watching center located there. The kids just wanted to go to Six Flags!



We continued on our way after that and found the trail to be a nice one. It meandered through the forest out toward the end of the cape.
About halfway out the trail is a plaque memorializing the crew of an airplane that crashed into the mountain in 1943. One of the 10 crew members survived the crash. We've been told that when the underbrush is not so thick (winter and early spring) you can still see pieces of the airplane on the mountain side.

There were many photo opportunities along the way. The day was hazy so the coast was shrouded in the haze.

On the north side of the cape we saw a gray whale feeding near the rocks. By the time Bob got the camera ready, we lost sight of the whale! There were a lot of trees in the way.

We continued on our way. We met a couple from Oklahoma City. They wanted us to pass them as we were going at a faster rate than they. We didn't want to pass as we were getting close to the geocache! We passed them anyway and as we found the cache, they let us know that their daughter is also a cacher. We told them to tell her that they muggled some cachers in Oregon!

We finally reached the end of the cape and what a view!

The couple from Oklahoma caught up with us again and we chatted for a while. A younger couple from British Columbia joined the chat. We found out that it was the woman from Oklahoma's 75th birthday! She and her 78 year old husband had hiked Whistler in British Columbia a few weeks ago!

We enjoyed the view for a while then we started our trek back to the trailhead.
Even though it was a hazy day, we enjoyed the views and our hike to Cape Lookout.
We returned to the rv to plan our adventures for Thursday. Hmmm....maybe we'll return to the cheese factory for more samples or some Tillamook ice cream.....