We finally had a sunny weekend for the first time in like 4 months, so we took off for the coast even though I’ve been nursing a cold for almost a week. We left early (for us) on Saturday and cruised through McMinnville on our way along OR 8 toward Lincoln City. We didn’t really have a plan in mind so we hit the 101 and headed north. We stopped at a couple beaches along the highway, which were too heavily motorized (ATVs, trucks, etc. on the beach and dunes) for our liking and finally made it to Cape Lookout State Park, where we grabbed a camp spot. We sat on the beach there for a while until the wind was making my cold feel even worse, so we drove a bit farther north to Oceanside.

Oceanside is a nice little town with two restaurants, and some vacation houses. It has a nice beach looking over Three Rocks NWR. We watched the sunset there and had dinner at Roseanna’s Cafe there. They had excellent food and an excellent view. The crowds there were low-key and it was mostly families with their dogs on the beach.

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A lone surfer getting out of the water.

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Dusty bending backwards to get at his muse.

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Seagulls in the golden sunset.

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Waves breaking at Oceanside.

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The moon overhead.

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Blue sky.

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The sun going down over Three Rocks.

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Burning Horizon.

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A long exposure of the rocks at night. It didn’t work as well as I wanted.

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Golden sand.

After dinner, we headed back to the camp site. We started a fire that didn’t want to burn very well. It was getting really cold, so we played some frisbee with the glowing raver frisbee which got us a little warm. Some surfers a few spots down from us were playing a guitar and singing, which was nice to hear. Usually you get to listen to some idiot’s car stereo when you’re at a state park. The sky was really nice with tons of stars, even though the moon was pretty bright, so I took some star photos. Finally we got inside our sleeping bags and Dusty crashed right between us.
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The Big Dipper.

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Orion.

I woke up in the middle of the night and Dusty was shivering it was so cold, so I covered him up with my down jacket which kept him warm until morning. He usually refuses to be covered by anything, so I know he was really cold to actually lay under my jacket for most of the night. When we got out of the tent, the ground was covered with frost and the condensation from our breathing had left the tent covered with ice. We went down to the beach for the sunrise and the rocks on the beach all had ice on them. It was cold, but brilliantly clear and crisp.

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The cold morning.

We broke down our camp and headed back to Oceanside for some breakfast, then went to Cape Meares and did some hiking in the, by now, warm morning sun. The Cape Meares Lighthouse is pretty cool too. They also have the Octopus Tree which is a giant Sitka Spruce that grew in like 10 directions instead of 1.

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Cape Meares Light.

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The Octopus Tree.

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The bottom of the tree is huge. Some of the branches are like 6 ft. thick.

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Basking in the morning sun.

We then headed north to Tillamook Bay. There’s a long dike that goes out to what probably used to be islands in the bay. Now it’s a long jetty. It’s great for bird watching since the bay is on one side and the ocean is on the other. We did a long hike, probably 6 miles or so, down the dike to the dunes. Then we crossed the dunes and walked back on the beach. We saw tons of different birds, including Bald Eagles, Puffins, Egrets, Snowy Plovers and lots of Cormerants and Seagulls. All through the dunes, we saw signs of Elk. When we were heading back to the car, crossing from the ocean to the bay, we found the Elk. A heard of 15-20 males and females. We kept our distance but I got some photos with my telephoto lens.

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Puffins.

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Bald Eagles.

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Same Eagles.

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Eagle perched.

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Andrea watching from a log.

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Coming out of the dunes on the ocean side.

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Dusty and Andrea on the beach.

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A doe elk.

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A buck and a doe.

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A shot on the beach.

We found lots of cool places on this trip, but, as always, we also didn’t stop at a ton of places that looked awesome. Places we’ll have to hit next time.

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