Our first venture into the state of Oregon was a short 49 mile trip to Brookings. We stayed at the Elks Lodge and spent the day exploring the coast and the nearby Azalia Park with more than 1,000 wild azaleas and rhododendrons. Our timing was off as the blooming was past peak but it was still a very colorful and beautiful park.
From Brookings we traveled just another 100 miles to our next stop in Coos Bay. On our way up the coast we stopped for lunch in Bandon, a cute little coastal town. We lucked out and found a huge parking spot right in front of the Visitor’s Center.
There was no Elks Lodge in Coos Bay so we stayed at the casino. We only had one day to explore and unfortunately it was mostly cloudy and misty. We did take a short drive down the coast to see Shore Acres State Park. This 743 acre park, perched high above the ocean, began as a private estate but as a result financial losses after the Great Depression it ended up being purchased by the state of Oregon for use as a public park. Just a few more miles down the coast we stopped at Cape Argo State Park where there was an observation point to view Simpson Reef and Seal Island just off shore. This island is home to hundreds of harbor seals and sea lions, a very noisy crowd!
The male elephant seals weigh up to two and a half tons and are over 15 feet long! The park ranger told us that because the water is VERY cold, only the male sea lions and seals hang out here. The females are much smarter and stay in the warmer water off the coast of California. On our return trip we stopped at Charleston, a fishing village and the largest Pacific oyster producing estuary in Oregon.
Our next stop was in Florence where the Elks have a beautiful campground just a few miles from the Lodge. The entire park was surrounded by wild rhododendrons and other beautiful flowering plants. It was a great place to hang out while we checked out the local scenery.
Florence is home to the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area with 40 acres of huge sand dunes towering up to 500 feet above sea level. I talked Tom into taking a dune buggy ride!. It was fun, but it took my stomach a few days to recover! I am happy to cross this one off my Bucket List. Florence also has an historic old town along the river with shops, restaurants and many local artists selling their crafts.
From Florence we took a day trip to up the coast to Newport. Along the way we made a few stops at small towns and scenic overlooks. A great stop was at Cape Perpetua, the highest point on the Oregon coast accessible by car.
Another good stop was Heceta Head Lighthouse, the most photographed lighthouse on the coast.
We skipped stopping to visit to the Seal Caves. It is supposed to be the World’s largest sea cave, but it looked like a tourist trap and they wanted too much money. We continued up the coast and saw lots of seals at the overlooks along the highway and a few more sunning themselves on the docks in Newport.
Newport is a great seaside town, home to several big commercial fishing operations and seafood processing plants. There are also plenty of shops and restaurants. We had lunch at one of the local favorites, the original Mo’s restaurant. It is a family owned place serving excellent chowder since 1946! They now have six restaurants all along the Oregon coast and sell over 500,000 pounds of chowder a year!
After lunch we took a tour of the Yaquina Head Lighthouse (built in 1873) and the tallest on the coast.
From Florence we traveled inland to Albany, to visit friends who were the previous owners of our current RV. We met them last winter in Florida when they traded in the Diplomat, our current home, to buy a beautiful new 43 foot Phaeton. It was a win-win for everyone as we love our “home”! It was the license plate frame on their RV that gave me the title of this Blog!
They were familiar with the local area and took us on a day trip to Silver Falls State park. We took a short hike on the Trail of Ten Falls to see some of the waterfalls. It was good to be outside and enjoying the sunny day.
On the way home we stopped to see the Willamette Valley Vineyards, one of many, many local wineries. I pronounced the name of the winery as “WILL - la - met” until I saw a T-Shirt they were selling with the saying: “ It’s will - LAM- It, Dam It!” However you say it, the winery was set high on a hillside with a beautiful views of the valley and vineyards below.
Before returning to the coast we made a short stop in Junction City at the Country Coach facility to have one of our slide-outs fixed. It works better than ever now and we got out of there for less than $200.00! It was kind of sad to see one of the top RV manufacturers basically shut down. There are only 20 employees left out of the original 1600 and they are now a service facility and do not make any new RV’s.
On our return to the coast we stayed one night at the Elks Lodge in Lincoln City, OR and then moved to a campground along the river. Jameson had fun hanging out on the docks looking for fish.
Lincoln City with its 7 miles of beaches hosts two big kite festivals in July & October. We missed the July event by a few days but we did capture a few local kite flyers in action.
From this home base we made a couple of day trips. First we went to see the Spruce Goose, the largest plane ever built. It has a wingspan of 320 feet, over 100 feet longer than the wingspan of a 747. Among other names it was called a” Floating Boat” as it was made of wood. Howard Hughes built it during WW II and metal was restricted for military use only. It was so large that many doubters said it would never fly. To prove everyone wrong, Hughes persisted and eventually flew the plane on November 2, 1947. It flew for just over 1 mile at an altitude of 70 feet at approximately 80 MPH! After that, it never flew again but it went down in history as the largest plane ever built.
It was not possible to get a photo of the entire plane!
The museum is also home to over 150 other historic aircraft
The next day we traveled up the coast to see the Tillamook Cheese factory. Tillamook’s temperate climate and abundant rain produces lush green pastures, perfect for dairy farming! The Tillamook County Creamery Association consists of 120 independent dairy farms with a total of over 28,000 cows. The largest of these farms has about 1700 cows, the smallest about 30.
The town of Tillamook has only 4400 people and even with the other small towns included there seems to be more cows than people living in the area.
Each cow grosses about $3500 annually with about $1500 to $2000 in costs. In addition, you have to factor in an additional $750 to $1000 for raising non-producing calves for replacements as the herd ages. This leaves an annual net profit of $500 to $750 per cow times an average of 230 cows per farm gives an average net income of $115,000 to $173,000 per farm. Sound good? Try milking 230 cows every 12 hours 365 days a year, feeding them, cleaning the barn and equipment, keeping them healthy and growing hay, oats, clover, alfalfa for their meals! NOT FOR ME !
The cows must be milked every 12 hours 24/7, each giving on average of 10 gallons per day. Taking deliveries 24 hours a day, 220,000 gallons per day goes to the Tillamook Cheese Factory. It takes 10 pounds (1.16 gallons) of milk to make one pound of cheese. This factory makes approximately 167,000 pounds of cheese each day! They also make ice cream which I just had to sample, chocolate of course!
After the tour, we stopped at the gift shop. Friends had warned us not to buy the cheese at the factory as it was usually cheaper at the local grocery store. Tom did find a bottle of Dad’s Root Beer that he had to have. He had not seen that brand since he was just a youngster!
On the return trip from Tillamook we drove the 38 mile Three Capes Scenic Loop along the coast. This route gave us spectacular views of the shore, a visit to Cape Meares Lighthouse and a view of the Octopus Tree.
Cape Meares Lighthouse Oregon’s shortest lighthouse is 217 feet above the ocean. It was first lit in 1890 with kerosene.
The Octopus Tree, an unusually large Sitka spruce tree that has no central trunk. Instead it has limbs, 3 - 5 feet thick, that branch out horizontally close to the ground before they climb skyward.
During our stay in Lincoln City, the local casino was having an Elvis Tribute Artist (ETA) Competition. We thought it might be a fun evening for only $10. 00 each. We learned that they are no longer called impersonators, they are ‘Tribute Artists’. We saw 14 Elvii perform many of The King’s biggest hits. It was a 3 day competition so we don’t know who won. Some were better than others and a couple had a few extra pounds on them, but they were all entertaining.
The finalist will go to Memphis in August to compete with 25 other artists from around the US. After the show we were talking to the wife of one of the contestants and she introduced us to their 5 yr. old son named “Presley”. This was the first year that the Casino flew in the actual ETA backup band from Memphis. The band was excellent and it was a very entertaining night.
Driving the entire 363 miles of the Oregon coast we passed by miles and miles of beautiful beaches, rugged cliffs and huge sand dunes and, because of a law that was passed a long time ago, it is ALL public land and available to all. How very unlike the east coast where you have to have a “Resident Only Parking” permit to even get close to the ocean!
The Oregon coast has been designated as one of the most Scenic Byways in the US and it is not to be missed! I think we saw 6 out of the 9 lighthouses along the coast and we took a tour of one of them. Built between 1870 and 1896, they are all on the National Register of Historic Places.
The weather was a little cool during our entire stay in Oregon. Most days it was 63 degrees. This was not just the average temperature. Every time we checked the thermometer in the Jeep as we were driving, it was exactly 63 degrees! Tom decided it was a result of the mix between the warmer inland temperatures in the 70’s and the cold wind blowing in from the ocean with water temperatures in the 50’s. Next time we visit we’ll plan for August.
On July 3rd, after spending just 17 days in Oregon, we moved on to the state of Washington to continue our adventure. Our first stop in Washington was just across the 4 mile long Astoria Bridge in Ilwaco, WA. Just a few miles away is Long Beach. This is a 28 mile long beach that you can drive on without paying for a permit!
On the 4th of July we had a great day! Since it was a little hard to make stops as you drive up the coast in a 41 foot RV, we drove back over the bridge to Cannon Beach, OR. It was a beautiful day and we got there just in time for the local parade which included a great assortment of fire trucks, floats, old cars, marching bands and even patriotic dogs!
After lunch at another one of Mo’s restaurants, we explored the local beaches. They were crowded with hundreds of people, but only a few brave souls were in the 55 degree water!
W then stopped to see the famous Haystack Rock, a sea stack towering 235 feet above the sea.
On our way back to Washington we stopped at Seaside, the state’s oldest resort community to walk along the “Prom”, a 1.8 mile path that parallels the beach. Seaside is also one of the places on the coast that marks the end of the two year westward journey of Lewis & Clark.
We made a quick visit to one of the Lewis & Clark National Historic Park centers but this park is huge and has many sites in both Oregon & Washington.
The evening of the 4th we watched the largest fireworks display we have ever seen on Long Beach in Washington. It was not the largest as in the Boston Pops 4th of July fireworks on the Esplanade, but largest in that there were fireworks blasting away for miles up and down the 28 mile long beach! There was an incredible amount of really big fireworks, not just a few bottle rockets, and it really lit up the entire beach! Quite a show!
So, that’s it for Oregon. We will definitely be back as there is so much more to see! This was our coastal trip and we missed Crater Lake National Park (still had 8 feet of snow up there!), Columbia Gorge, Mt. Hood and everything else east of Interstate 5!
See you down the road!
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