Gypsy & The Navigator

Foggy Skies Still Let Tillamook Shine

It was hard leaving the Olympic Peninsula but I knew I had another week near the ocean to enjoy.

Heading south on Highway 101 the landscape changes and often seems to open up and offer meadow views.

Taking route 101 has us crossing the Astoria-Megler Bridge.

Opened in 1966, it is the longest continuous truss bridge in North America.

Crossing the bridge made me marvel at how big the Columbia River is.  We are only 14 miles from the Pacific Ocean so by now the Columbia has really grown since it started way up in the Canadian Rockies. 

The Astoria side of the bridge is really high allowing ships to pass through.

Heading south from Astoria toward Tillamook this beautiful white slice of cloud gave us a clue of what is to come.

 

This white cloud will be our companion every day of our week in Tillamook.

This is a picture from our visit on practically the same date in 2015.  We had sunshine every day then.

There are additions to the cloud this visit........foggy foggy days but that white cloud is always there behind the fog.  We arrived at the same RV Park that we stayed in in 2015.  Pretty much the same except they have added Yurts.  It was fun to see the comings and goings of Yurt stayers.  A lot of unpacking and packing back up for usually only an overnight stay.

We had found a beach in Rockaway Beach in 2015 that I really liked and amazingly Walt drove right to it this time even though it is down an almost hidden narrow lane off the highway.  Good memory Walt!

Again many happy hours were spent beach walking and this time I was enveloped in the fog that seems to buffer the outside world.   I look at this photo and think what a wonderful soothing color palette this would be for a bedroom.

The nice thing about coming back to a place you have been before there is more relaxation time because many of the "must sees" have already been visited.

This is how Walt spends time at the beach.  Probably listening to a Diamondbacks game as I wander up and down the sand.

Found an abandoned sand castle.

I guess it should be named Starfish Castle.  Not long and the tide will have it completely washed away.

Another day we took a back road drive we hadn't explored before.

Foggy days don't stop fun on the beach.

 Must be a huge shark out there considering the size of its tail fin.

Lots of herons along the shore.

Lots of Tillamook cows ready to do their part in that delicious cheese.

A little hike to a destination we hadn't been to before.

The walk down the sun dappled path was pleasant.  We were far enough away from the coast that the sun was bright and the sky was clear.

The path is bordered by red cedar and sitka spruce and adorned by moss. 

Munson Creek in the fall is filled with spawning salmon but today it is filled with diamond sparkles.

Moss covered rock and the burbling sound of the creek makes me want to linger.

What is it about a waterfall that makes me have to go there?

 This is Munson Creek Falls.  Munson Creek Falls tumbles 319 feet making it the tallest waterfall in the Coast Range.

Not sure why but the trail is closed before you can get right to the base of the falls but it was close enough to enjoy the beauty and the coolness of the spray.

 

Such beauty every where we look.  I will miss all these shades of green.

Walt is always ahead of me on the trail.  I stop often to take photos or look a little deeper.

A banana slug on the path.  Some people actually eat these.  Reminded me of some people we met on the trail to Cape Flattery.  They told us they were slug hunting.  We didn't quite know how to respond to that so we just nodded and headed on down the trail.   

 

Can you tell we are headed back to the coast?  A little fog in the sky.

Even though we had been there before the Cape Meares Lighthouse was nearby so we stopped.  Last time we were here the sky was clear as a bell.  Not so today.

The lighthouse has been inactive since 1963 but the red and white fresnel lens still glows even in the fog.  

Heading back to GypsyII it seemed that the fog made the greens and golds even more intense. 

More foggy beach days were in the plan.

Fog doesn't slow down beach goers.

My trusty white slice cloud is still hanging on.

The last days walk on the beach was a little wistful for me.  Knowing next year we won't be back to the beach it made me wonder if this could be the true last walk on the beach for me.  We just never know what the future will bring. 

Foggy days are good for flying kites.

Our coastal week has ended.  We are going from green to gold and brown.

We are on our way through eastern Oregon with a destination in eastern Idaho. 

Washington Wrap Up

They say that you can tell a lot about a person by how they handle 3 things.......1. a rainy day 2. lost luggage and 3. tangled Christmas lights.  I think another one should be added...........how you respond when something on the computer does not save. Such as a spreadsheet you have worked on for hours or a blog that seemed liked it was almost done.  I handle rainy days really well.  I have never had lost luggage so no experience there.  I FLUNK tangled Christmas lights so it's a good thing I don't do them anymore.  And a lost blog caused immediate shut down on my part.  I can't say the past 3 weeks have been a loss.  I have enjoyed where I have been, I have read 6 books, watched many PBS English mystery shows and have had many hours of Mr. Kitty comfortably settled in my lap.  Now it seems the fog has lifted and I am ready to wrap up Washington for the second time.

I can still confidently say that the Olympic Peninsula has exceeded all of my expectations.

The beaches are rugged,  filled with sea stacks and tide pools.

The mountains come right down to the ocean with many different trees and wildflowers covering every inch.

I will miss taking walks along tree shaded paths. 

I will miss taking drives along tree covered lanes.

And where will I see so many huge bushes full of hydrangeas? 

The last outing we took was to fulfill my wish to go back to Salt Creek when the tide was out.

 With the tide out there is another world to discover.

Sit still by a tide pool and it will come alive.

The most amusing to watch are the hermit crabs.  When a new larger shell becomes available there is a great competition as to who can claim it.  Possession is 9/10ths of the law in the sea world too.  Just like humans, they want a bigger, better home.

Even though they look like plants sea anemones are actually animals.   Those waving little tentacles actually help capture their prey. 

 Loved finding a row of pink anemones.

It was another great day at the ocean in the Olympic Peninsula.

Hard to believe our month at Elwha Dam RV Park is at an end.

Our stay was all about location, location, location.

When I started calling at the first of the year for somewhere to stay in the Olympic Peninsula I got told time after time they had no openings.  I am hearing this mantra more and more now.  When we started RVing 5 years ago there was no problem in securing places to stay.  I remember in one of my blogs saying that full time RVing wasn't for everyone.  Now I am starting to think it must now be for everyone.  There are more and more RV's on the road and "destination" places have no room at the RV Parks. Not to mention how much the costs have increased in these 5 short years. 

Several times I was chastised that if I wanted an extended stay such as a month I would need to schedule at least a year ahead.  

I was determined to spend that length of time so I was afraid maybe we would have to move from place to place.  

I kept on calling.  But now I was asking that they put me on a waiting list for a call back.

Eureka I got a call back from Elwha Dam RV Park.  They could put us in one of their overflow sites for a month.

The pro's..............we have a home base to explore the Olympic Peninsula near Port Angeles which was my first choice of where to be.

The con's....................it is truly a weed filled overflow site.  We have water and electricity but no sewer.  The resolution to that is the owner's young son trails over a "honeywagon" and empties us out as needed for a $15 fee. (The last of which Walt got back because the young man left the outside cover laying on the ground and it got run over as we were leaving.)  The washers and dryers in the laundry room were the most expensive we have ever seen in our travels.  The showers are $1.00 for 6 minutes.  There is no TV reception (even people with satellites were having problems...trees I guess) and the largest con for me was that all of this cost $1000.  

There are no regrets.  (Well maybe one.  I didn't get to meet Sasquatch.) It was the place to be to explore this majestic place.