May 31 - Hiking Ecola State Park

Though it is not raining this morning, the weather forecast calls for rain every day until Friday and not quite in the high teens in temperature yet.  We are assuming rain, so we are geared up for a wet hike which is fine, as the trail will not be busy.  We arrived at the entrance of Ecola State Park and it did start to rain.  The road in is quite narrow and twisty. We had to wait to get to the trailhead, as two vehicles went off the road and a tow truck was pulling them out.

While waiting we had lunch at a lookout and read on the displays about the local wildlife, cormorants, tufted puffins, murrins, peregrine falcons, grey and orca whales.  We have spotted wild irises, sweet peas, and other plant life that I have not found the names for yet.

We discovered this was a mini version of the Saddle Mountain hike we skipped the other day. Still pouring rain but half the height and distance (800 ft in 1 mile).  We donned our rain gear and our “Maid of the Mist” ponchos from Niagara Falls and hit the trail. It is a loop trail with the way up being a small road that was quite steep.

We only met a few other “crazies” out on a day like today. One couple was in light clothes and sandals. Most were hard core and had all the proper gear.

At the turn around point there was a view of the Tillamook Rock lighthouse call “Terrible Tilly” because it is perched on a small rock and must not have been a nice place for the keeper to stay. It is now decommissioned and used as a columbarium which I discovered means it is used to store people’s remains. Interesting place to spend eternity.

The return path hugged the cliffs on the coast and was much more scenic and full of hairpin turns but not as steep.  Even though it poured the entire time, since we were dressed for it it was a very comfortable hike.

Next we went back up the coast to the town of Cannon Beach to stroll the beach and look at Haystack Rock. Out on the beach distances are very hard to judge. The beach is 4 miles long and it was very wide as it was near low tide. What we thought was close turned out to be about a kilometer but it had stopped raining by now so it was a nice walk. Although it doesn’t look it in the picture, the rock is over 250’ tall and quite impressive as you can get quite close to it.

Back for some more late night beach time near the campground.

May 30 - To Nehalem Bay, Oregon

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It is 12 C and it is bright for now; not really sunny outside.  Memorial Day is over and many campers are leaving this morning. 

We are also leaving today and moving down the coast. It is only a 1 hour drive to the next place so we waited at the KOA until checkout time at noon to give time for people to vacate our next campground.

We are now at Nehelam Bay State Park. It is on the long sand spit in the picture below. It has about 260 sites with electricity and water but I would guess only about 40 are occupied now.

After setting up we went out onto the 3 mile long beach immediately behind out site. I’m not sure if we will ever get bored by it but we can sit and stare at the wave crashing in for hours.

Wandering around the campground there is a section called the horse camp for people who bring their horses, complete with corrals on each site.  It was most unexpected, as I had never seen this at a campground before.  While strolling around a couple drove by and handed us a business card for their B&B; with accommodations for horses too. 

May 29 - Farmers’ Market Astoria

It is around 13C here, not quite sunny just yet but it is trying (at least it is not raining).  There is a Farmers’ Market every Sunday, 10 am – 3 pm, which is where we are headed to soak in some ambience and good food (I hope).  It is full of people searching for bargains and samples.  We tasted flavoured popcorn, salsa, shrimp on toast, baked breads, teas, stir fried Chinese greens, fudge, etc….. (oh my tummy aches).

This is a lovely market with lots of interesting things to sample, look at, like big bouquets of tulips $10 -$20 assembled by request, touch and buy.  We a delicious shrimp, fish and coleslaw po’boy sandwich ($8) and a too large omelette ($13), stuff with veggies, cheese and chicken.  The food was delicious and the entertainment, a three piece band, was free.  Four hours later, we managed to tear ourselves away to see more sights.

Three little girls were running a booth painting finger nails. I guess someone’s dad built the booth for them. It looked like they were doing OK.

The azaleas were in bloom everywhere but this one was huge.

The next item on the checklist of things in Astoria to see was the Astoria Column. It is on the highest point in Astoria and has historical scenes painted on it. There is a circular 164 step staircase to the top. Going round and round on the way up got us a little dizzy and it visibly swayed a bit once we got out at the top. They sold balsa gliders in the gift shop which you were allowed to launch from the top. There were a lot of updrafts on the hill and I saw one kid’s have a flight that lasted at least 10 minutes and went at a good 1/2 mile.

 

The final checklist item was to drive across and back on the bridge between Oregon and Washington over the Columbia river. The bridge is 4.1 miles long. The start of it is the bridge on the right in the picture above. It was nice view but by then the weather had gotten a little dreary.

Great travels on the road of life. Tomorrow we move down the coast a bit.

May 28 - Sightseeing around Astoria

It rained most of the night but this morning the sun is out, although it is still a mite cool . There is a free pancake breakfast here at the KOA so, never being ones to turn down free food, we got into line with the other campers.  Essentially you get as many as you want, two at a time, with everything else being extra, like $2.50 for 4 strips of bacon or sausage, $2.00 for scrambled eggs, etc. The place is very busy now.

We drove down the coast a few miles to the town of Seaside to walk along the beach and “famous” Promenade.  The beach was expansive, the waves from the Pacific were rolling in fast, some people were in shorts and playing in the water while we were in windbreakers and boots.  Lots of broken sand dollars, crab and clam shells washed up on the beach.  Some of the waves were tinged brown due to the diatoms mixed into the water.  There were signs everywhere saying that the bacteria in the water is tested and safe but do not swallow.

The promenade a was long sidewalk along the shore, filled mostly with hotels and condos rather than an interesting assortment of boutiques and eateries that I have found around most beaches. By noon we were done with Seaside. 

We had read in the Lonely Planet books about a hike up Saddle Mountain just outside Seaside. They said it was very challenging (1600 ft vertical in 2 miles). We knew that would be too much for us right now  but there was a lookout part way up that we might try for. We got off the highway in bright sunshine and drove 7 miles UP a narrow twisty road to the parking lot.

 

As we rose higher it got cloudy, then got very cold and started pouring rain. We decided there were more enjoyable things to do, took a few pictures and left. We could not believe there were people camping there. Back down at the highway it was bright sunshine again.

We drove to Fort Stevens which is a historic military site in the state park near our campground. It guarded the mouth of the Columbia River from early times and was actually fired upon by a Japanese submarine during WWII.  We walked around the old fort and looked at cannons. Since it was memorial day weekend there were some demonstrations and we saw and heard a cannon and a howitzer go off.

May 27 - Hiking near Astoria Oregon

It was cool and raining when we woke up however the weather improved around 10:00 am so we decided to make a dash for the outdoors to do a hike. We packed a lunch and went to the Fort Steven State Park which is literally on the other side of the road from our campground.

We got our first view of the Pacific as a few rays of sunshine came along. The beach looked beautiful. There was fresh air, a strong breeze pushing the waves to shore, peaceful solitude and sunshine, as there were not many visitors just yet.

We left the car at the beach and hike about 9 km of trails in the park.

The interior of the park was somewhat non-descript but we had lunch at a viewing platform and a deer appeared right on cue but it was too far away for a picture.

We were pretty tired when we got back to the car but saw that they allowed you to drive on part of the beach if you had 4 wheel drive.

We drove a few kilometers down the beach and then just sat for a while watching the wind and the waves. On the way back Jennie was grossed out by a dead seal on the beach being snacked on by an eagle and a crow.

 

At the entrance of our campground, a woman was selling live Oregon Dungeness crabs from a tank. We picked one and asked the best way to cook it. She demonstrated the best way to “prepare” the crab on one that had already died. Being a little squeamish we asked to her to help us with ours. We took it back to the RV and had a great dinner.