Woke up to clear blue skies and sunshine. The temperature here on the coast is definitely cooler than inland. Inland has been forecast to climb to the mid 80’s, but here the Ocean is keeping the temperature in the mid 50’s. Just after breakfast we lost all power, I thought at first maybe were having electric problems again after last weeks issues. This time it was due to a downed hydro pole. The estimated time to restore power was 2 hours, so with no power and no internet, we decided to head out earlier than planned.
About 5 miles south of the campground we ran into our old friends, mist fog and low cloud. We were heading about 50 miles south to see some of the coastline, however there wouldn’t be too much to see in these conditions.
We first stopped at Tillamook and went into the visitors centre to get some local maps. Much to my amazement they had State road maps for most of the States we would be driving through so I grabbed a bunch.
One of the big touristy things in the surrounding area is the “Quilting Trail”, which features Barn Quilts.
Over time more and more of these quilts have appeared, and there are now 101 of them along the Highway 101 corridor.
There are also a number of geocaches which use some of these quilts in their clues.
Where there are quilts, even painted ones, there is bound to be fabric. This time it wasn’t a fabric store as such, it was a textile centre. Somehow, Lyn managed to go in empty handed, and come out not empty handed!
The centre had a quilt themed mural painted on on of the buildings.
While driving around the quilt trail we found another cache that was located in a small gardens area maintained by the areas Master Gardeners. Again the quilt theme was present.
From here we headed out for coastal route called the three capes, unfortunately it was quite disappointing as the route itself was either quite a way inland, or the ocean views were hidden by trees. The hazy weather didn’t help either.
Heading back to the camp ground we passed Haystack Rock.
This is the 3rd highest inter tidal ( it can be reached by land at low tide, but only by sea at high tide) structure in the world at 235ft high.
Just up the road was the town of Cannon Beach, a very touristy area, even on Friday in early May!
Here we saw something we never expected to see here!
This is a British vehicle from the 1950’s, a Morris Minor van in pristine condition.