Pacific Northwest Coast Trip – Part 1 Heading South

The Olympic Peninsula, Lake Quinault, Washington to Cannon Beach, Oregon

7-9 June 2014

I debated whether or not to include the stop at Lake Quinault, my itinerary kept changing over and over again and in the end, having read some entries on Sporkhashi’s blog I decided to include a 2 night stay at Lake Quinault Lodge, which is in a beautiful setting and is a lovely place to stay.

We had a busy full day between our two nights travelling up the west coast of the Olympic Peninsula stopping at Forks, Ruby beach, La Push (famous for Twilight movies location) and Rialto beaches. We saw some Bald Eagles and we saw huge trees that were drift wood. A strange mist was rolling in from the sea and there is really such a weird atmosphere there, eerie yet tranquil. It was definitely worth adding to the trip.

We went to Quinault Mercantile for breakfast both days and had their delicious ‘yogi bearie crunch’, (Greek yogurt berries honey and granola).

When we got back from our trip we drove to see the world’s biggest spruce tree. We could have walked had we not got back so late. There were signs saying Cougars had been spotted recently in the area. That along with the black bear rumours we were glad we had driven (wimps!)

If you are in the area then the Salmon House Restaurant has nice options for salmon lovers like me and it was cooked well. Outside the window of the restaurant were lots of hummingbirds. Beautiful!

9-10 June 2014

A second visit to Quinault Mercantile for another Yogi Bearie Crunch was the perfect start to our day.  On our way south down the Pacific Coast Highway 101 we stopped for a quick wander around Raymond and Willapa lovely area with dozens of sculptures along the sides of the road, in every direction.   It makes the town attractive and gives a traveller a walm welcome.

We stopped for lunch in Long Beach which says it has the World’s Longest Beach! But put that in Google and there are others that seem to actually be longer.  However it is very, very long and worth a glimpse as you are passing.

As you leave Washington State and enter Oregon, you are on the World’s largest single truss bridge, I haven’t Googled this fact to test it…I don’t want to shatter all these facts we took in.

We had a wander around Astoria but didn’t stay long and we were relieved to have taken advice from TripAdvisor forums that said don’t bother staying there, instead we drove on to Cannon Beach and stayed at http://www.schoonerscove.com. We were I  room 25 and had a balcony and a perfect view of the sun setting, watching people strolling along the beach.  There is a supermarket close by and so we bought snacks and nibbles and had a buffet on the balcony…pure bliss!

In the collage of photos taken on Cannon Beach you can see a man carrying some driftwood that he then put down and watched the sunset!

Cannon Beach to Yachats

10-12 June 2014

We checked out after a lovely evening at Schooners Cove in Cannon Beach. Cannon Beach is a lovely town to browse the galleries, jewellers and gift shops. We spent the morning wandering around and saw some lovely art and jewellery made from sea glass.  A stop for a photo of Oswald West (not in collage), then stopped at Rockaway Beach where friendly squirrels were living in the rocks between the beach and carpark!

We stopped at Tillamook Cheese Factory for a quick self guided tour then lunch including yummy ice cream (3 scoops each!!).  Plenty of cheese samples on offer as well, so by the time we left we were stuffed.  After leaving there we got lost trying to find Nestucca National Wildlife Reserve, I am not sure how we got so muddled but it did give me an opportunity to stop at Bob Straub beach for a quick panoramic shot (after scaling a huge sand dune).

Finally we found Nestucca just at the point we had given up looking.  On the drive up to the higher car park we saw some deer, the photos are not good enough to include in the collage.  After we had parked at the upper car park we then walked up the footpath to the viewing station and what a view!

Driving further south down Highway 101 we stopped at Cape Foulweather, Devil’s Punchbowl and it was a bit windy!!

We finally arrived at the Fireside Motel. We stayed here for 2 nights and in hindsight we would rather have stayed 2 nights at Cannon Beach instead. The Fireside has a great location and offered free breakfast cereal or muffins etc. but there was something that we felt was lacking…I suspect if we had just stayed one night we would have been fine with it. We weren’t too close to the sea but had a sea view and it was pretty noisy.

We had dinner at the the Drift Inn both nights!

On our day off from driving south, we walked along the coastal footpath into Yachats and had a drink and cake in the Green Salmon Cafe, we then walked back to the motel and drove to Newport and visited the Rogue Brewing Company and did some shopping. A nice relaxing day and a walk along the coast is refreshing and makes a lovely change from being in the car so much.

We thought we would stop at Seal Rock and discovered these weird sea creatures.

Umpqua River Lighthouse

13 June 2014

I don’t know the correct way of pronouncing Umpqua, but I can’t help but think of the rhyme ‘umpa, umpa, stick it up your jumper’…random I know!!!

The Umpqua River Lighthouse was interesting for two reasons…1) it is a river, rather than sea lighthouse and 2) there are red lenses, not just clear ones!

The lens is worth the climb up the steps, even if you aren’t keen on heights.

Sun dog and a wrong turn

14-15 June 2014

As we pulled into a petrol station we saw people staring up at the sky, it was a bit like a sci-fi movie and I think we part expected to see a UFO. Instead we saw a Sun dog, something we had never seen or even heard of before. We bought an ice cream and starred in wonder with our hands covering the sun but a good view of the ring.

Another natural wonder we saw was a river so clear and an extraordinary colour, I can’t remember exactly where it was but we were heading inland having stayed the night before in Crescent City.

We stopped at tourist information near the turning for the Oregon Caves National Monument. After some debate we decided not to make the long drive to the caves, as they were going to be really cold and we hadn’t booked a slot. Now I don’t know what happened but somehow we managed to go the wrong way and we did in fact end up driving the many miles down the dead end road to the monument. When we got there we decided we still didn’t want to go into the caves and so we did one of the hiking trails up to the viewpoint and it was worth the climb for the view from the top. It really felt like we were on top of the world!