At the end of January, I took a trip up the coast to Fort Stevens (near Astoria, for any out-of-staters who see this. Astoria being where ET was filmed, for any old out-of-staters 🙂 ). As usual, I came back with every intention of blogging it, but didn’t for the first few days, and then it (as usual) didn’t feel timely, and then it felt too late–well, you get the picture.
BUT I recently got fiber-optic wifi at the house, and am using that as the excuse/reason for doing it now, to see if it speeds things up noticeably. (Later–it did. Yay!)
The timing of the trip was predicated on the weather. The point was to time my arrival at Fort Stevens for the day before a predicted sunny day, so I could have the entire sunny day up there. And it worked! A minor miracle when it comes to predictions about weather even a few days out along the coast, at least three seasons of the year.
One can, should one wish, make the drive from my house all the way to Fort Stevens in one day, but my days of doing long, or even longish, drives are over, so I planned to stay at South Beach SP, just south (duh) of Newport. As expected, it was rainy and windy when we arrived, but I was prepared for that. It was my first time there, and it turned out to be a very good place for this time of year. There were quite a few people in the CG–more than I anticipated– but it was nowhere near full. I don’t think I’d like it full, but then I don’t like most CGs when they are really full.
After picking and claiming my spot, Scamp and I headed over to the beach. Interestingly, there are signs along the way indicating where the beach was in years past. Turns out, the river jetty causes the beach to grow. Once I read the sign that explained that, I could see the signs of the dunes near the current beach growing.
It was windy, and I was using my umbrella, but the rain gave me a bit of a break, and we made it all the way out.
The next morning, we got a pretty sunrise, after a very windy and rainy night.
The forecast for that day wasn’t looking good, so I decided to delay getting to Fort Stevens by one more day. I was curious about Cape Lookout, so decided to at least drive out there and stay if I liked it. Which I did, a lot.
It started snowing on the drive up and out to the Cape. Very pretty. I tried, but this is the best I managed at capturing it.
The snow was rain down at the CG, but the next morning it had lingered on the hills.
You can’t really hear me well on that, but I was talking about the wind, which was intense. More on that later.
I’m getting things out of order here, but so what. I saw a lovely moon in the evening when I was putting the cats to bed for the night. . .
. . . and again in the morning when doing Scamp’s morning pee walk.
Neither picture shows what I saw, because my phone refuses to focus on a full moon so you get the smeary look instead. Which is also pretty, so it will do.
As mentioned above, the wind on our morning walk was impressive, which made for lovely surf.
Those were taken, I think, at two different stretches along the beach. You can see why I didn’t even contemplate a beach walk that morning.
Since it was raining some too, I tried to deploy my umbrella as best I could. On the way out, I gave up after awhile and put up with getting a bit wet, but on the way back, facing into the cold wind and rain, I decided to use it again. Even using both arms holding it up and angled correctly, my arms got tired from holding it up against the wind. At that point, I think Scamp was having more fun than I was :-).
The campground is protected by rocks and a short dune, as you can see here. It wouldn’t last long without that.
Here is some impressive evidence that storms have been known to be much more powerful than the one I experienced.
I took that the afternoon we arrived. Clearly, some storm had tossed that rather large log up and over the dune and onto the fence. Probably the storm surge was aided by a high tide, but still. It looked like the damage had been there awhile, so probably not this winter.
Heading out, I took the scenic route skirting Tillamook Bay. I’d forgotten, if I had ever realized, just how beautiful the bay is. It was one of those occasions when I had to make myself quit stopping to take pictures.
I think I took the first and the last because of the snow. As I commented on FB, fresh snow makes everything look prettier, even clearcut mountainsides.
Found an absolutely beautiful place for the lunch stop, north of Neahkannie. Watching the waves from above was mesmerizing.
I had to tear myself away, but eventually managed to do so.
It was intermittently cloudy and rainy and then just cloudy when I finally got up to Fort Stevens. Which wasn’t all that “eventually”–I had plenty of time to drive around getting oriented–it’s a huge campground– pick my spot, drive around doing some initial exploring so the map would make sense to me, get set up with plenty of time for a walk with Scamp for some more orientation, and then settle in for wine and our usual evening camping routine.
The next day was cloudy and a bit blustery in the morning, but ended up sunny and perfect. The first objective was a long off-leash walk with Scamp. I drove out to the jetty, checking out wach potential trail along the way. There’s now a short observation tower at the jetty, from which you see this view.
I could have stood there for another half hour just watching, but Scamp wanted to walk! Walk now! No, run! Let’s go! This is perfect! Sadly, there was not a good trail at that point, so I spent ten minutes tricking her back into the van, complicated by the damn DEF light coming on. Diesel exhaust fluid to you gas vehicle drivers. Once that light appears, I can only start the engine 20 times before replacing the fluid, or else the Mercedes engineers in their omnipotent and infinite wisdom will lock it off and it has to be towed to he nearest Mercedes servicing place to be dealt with. Freaks me out every time I see that light.
Anyway, I picked our trail and headed off for about a 45 minute walk with Scamp. There was no walkable beach–the tide was too high–so we ended up skirting some dunes. This was my attempt to capture the scene–not particularly successful, but the best I could do.
Here’s Scamp, posing for me. I was amazed–usually she (and every other dog I’ve ever had) runs up to me as soon as I point a camera her way. She started to this time, but I said “wait”–and she did!
After the walk, and to assuage my DEF anxiety so I could enjoy the rest of the day, I headed over to Warrenton to a NAPA store to buy four gallons of the stuff. It took almost all of it to fill the reservoir. The DEF light, however, was still lit when I started the van, which made me nervous–by this time it was down to maybe 12 remaining starts before the van would lock up, so I contemplated driving to a place that could take care of it, and got the name of a place from the NAPA guys. But fortunately I remembered that it sometimes takes two or even more re-starts before the system kicks in and does what it’s supposed to do, and the light went out on the second try.
Time for lunch. I debated briefly whether to cross the river and explore Cape Disappointment, which I am also curious about; every time I’ve thought to camp there, it’s been full, so it would have been a good time to check it out. And I love crossing the Astoria bridge. But decided to head back to Fort Stevens instead, eat parked at Coffenbury Lake, and then walk the trail that encircles the lake. Which turned out to be an excellent decision.
By the time I got there, the fog had entirely cleared, there were just enough clouds to enhance the view, and the rest of the afternoon was simply gorgeous.
Here’s Scamp, with the lake in the background, at the beginning of our walk. It’s about two miles, if I remember correctly, and more of a walk than a hike–there’s a bit of a hill on one side, but then virtually flat the rest of the way around.
More pictures from the walk. I was tempted to take a lot more, but figured they’d all look pretty much the same, so restrained myself until we got to the far end of the lake. If you look re-a-a-lly carefully, you might be able to spot my van in this one. It’s a tiny white dot next to the bushes at the other end of the lake.
This is what it was like on the other side of the trail at the same point where I took the above picture. There’s more trail that went on down the right side of this, and I was curious and briefly tempted, but decided to be sensible and not over-tire myself.
My self-imposed restraint on taking pictures failed me at this point–this was taken just a few feet from the previous two. But who could resist? Just look at the clouds reflected in the lake.
A close-up of moss and ferns growing on a tree. One such of many.
A couple from the way back.
And back where we started, with Scamp on leash this time on accounta there were a few people around.
That walk was definitely worth the whole trip all by itself.
Before going back to set up camp again, I drove out to the wreck of the Peter Iredale, which now has a road named for it, and a parking lot, and has become a Destination. You can see what’s left of the wreck sticking out from the sand here.
The first time I ever camped there, way way back when, when none of the CG was paved, I remember walking down the beach and “discovering” the wreck for myself. I don’t remember where I had accessed the beach, but definitely not right at that point, and the wreck was much more impressive. It probably stood twenty feet over my head. There may have been one or two more wrecks still visible back then–they’re there in my memory, but since that would have been fifty or so years ago, that memory just may not be accurate :-). Somewhere I probably have pictures of the Peter Iredale taken then; they’d be rather faded now, I would imagine. The current bit is a disappointment every time I see it now.
The next morning, the fog was back, and with rain predicted for later in the day, I did not prolong the trip. Scamp and I took a short walk out by . . . something. I forget what it’s called. Clearly some remnant from military days.
The fog lent the scene a beauty all its own.
Heading back south, I stopped at our lunch spot from the way up. While still beautiful, it wasn’t quite as mesmerizing with the ocean calmer.
It was too early for lunch there, but I can’t complain about my lunch scene (though I did have to hunt a bit for just the right spot.) Tillamook Bay again.
Sure enough, by the time we were back at our happily still (or once again) available camp site at Newport, rain was pouring down, with wind out by the beach. I was curious about the jetty walk, so we made our way up a path through the trees,and found a nice view of the bridge out there. It was a bit of a challenge to get a picture, what with wind and rain and dog on a leash, but I managed. (Jane B., you may remember that bridge. You would have seen it from the other side, when we stopped at the aquarium in Newport on our wayback to Portland to put you and the kids on a plane for home.)
I’ll leave you with a selection of critter shots. No matter how repetitive, I can never resist taking more on each trip.
And they say you can’t buy love. Ha.
Great story – such beautiful sites.
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What a mixture of weather and beautiful sights! I admire you for taking a trip this time of year, but you got some gorgeous photos in spite of the changeable weather. (pictures never do a place justice) Your critters look comfortable and cuddly!
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It really was an excellent experience, from beginning to end, in spite (or even because of) the seasonal weather. Unlike you, I almost never see snow where I live, so the snow was a real treat, and the rain and wind gave me just the right amount of challenge.
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Nice pics! I can never get over Scamp’s heterochromia. And you have a Warrenton where you are, eh? I used to live close to Warrenton, VA. Small world.
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