Cape Lookout Trip August 8, 2007

            Last weekend we made a big trip to Cape Lookout.  We had originally planned a trip to one of the coastal lakes to the south, but we couldn’t get a spot at the RV park that we were interested in on Holly’s long weekend this month.  I saw an open spot with full hookups at Cape Lookout  in an otherwise totally full state park for Saturday and Sunday night, and Holly had a long weekend, so I took Monday off.  

            Last week was the week of the Benton County fair in Corvallis, so Holly and I hit the fair on Friday night and saw Grand Funk Railroad as well as the many exhibits.  I had a real busy week at work, so I hadn’t had time to carefully look over the travel route.  I quickly printed up the directions from Mapquest which were the same as those suggested by Google Earth from the campground website itself.  I quickly looked over the start of the directions, and it led me along some good roads so we got the trailer ready and took off.

            The drive started off quite well with travel on well maintained highways, but after a little over an hour into the drive, the route took us gradually onto less and less traveled roads, many of which were not marked.  Holly and I got pretty nervous when we had to travel several miles on single lane gravel roads with turnouts with our 30’ trailer.  We ran into a couple of oncoming vehicles, but were able to safely pass.  Finally, we got onto regular highways again and miraculously made it to the park as the directions said.

            The park was busy but well forested and right on the beach.  Once we got the rig backed in, leveled, and all the hookups connected, we took Sadie for a walk on the beach.  Even though it was late afternoon, there was still a little fog on the beach, but we could still clearly see the three arches which were 11 miles to our north.   The State Park has about 10 miles of sandy beaches and several more miles of rugged cliffs that go right into the ocean.  Although there were a lot of people at the campground, there was more than plenty of space on the beach for everyone.  We even saw people out in the fifty some degree water without full dry suits!!!

            On Sunday we awoke to a much foggier day than Saturday and drove through to the small town of Netarts to Oceanside and had a nice breakfast before heading to Tillamook and the famous cheese factory.  It appeared that everyone else in Oregon was also at the Cheese factory that day, but we were able to find a nice place to sit outside and enjoy our fresh ice cream.  Despite the surprisingly large crowds, we enjoyed the visit and would recommend it to others.  Right across the street there was a nice fresh seafood shop and open air market where we got some fresh Netarts bay Oysters, Dungenees crabs, and vegetables to go with the steaks we brought from home.  Back at the campsite Holly, Sadie, and I took several hikes around the state park.  We covered only a very small portion of the park, but still saw some wonderful beach scenes and coastal forest.  The forest had been logged years ago and had huge stumps from the primeval forest surrounded by the more recent forest.  Some of these stumps were 8’ across at the base or more.

            Our beach walks on Sunday and Monday were less scenic due to the increasing fog, but still as enjoyable for Sadie, who seemed to love the beach.  She ran up and down the beach with obvious joy.  We pulled out about noon on Sunday and were sure to take only major highways home.

View from the Pass in the Coastal Range