Mud-on-the-tires Full-time RV Adventure: OR -- Nehalem Bay State Park, 10-17 Nov 2017

One week at Nehalem Bay State Park…

Why we came…

To check out the quaint coastal towns and find some shrooms!

The campground…

Nehalem Bay State Park is big and quite nice. There are 265 sites with electric and water, 18 yurts, a horse camp area with 17 primitive sites, a hiker/biker camp, airport camp with primitive camp sites, and a meeting hall. During the busy summer season, it would be like a small town, but during our stay, it was a ghost town! There are also miles of trails, miles of beach, and a boat ramp. We especially like the two mile beach walk to cutesy Manzanita.

Our back-in site was paved, fairly long, and fairly level. Our site was also open which allowed the rare sun to bathe us in its welcomed warmth and light. We had water and electric. There is a dump station near the campground entrance. Satellite worked well from our site, but would be challenging in a few. We did not have wi-fi, but did have a reliable 3-4 bar LTE Verizon signal. There are also well maintained bathroom and shower facilities. We washed our clothes at a small and expensive laundromat just a mile from the state park entrance.

We really like Nehalem Bay State Park and would gladly return, especially during the off season.

Nehalem Bay State Park has 265 camp sites

Nice camp sites with lots of space. Just 15 of the 265 sites were occupied during the week!

Nearby towns…

Manzanita, population 598, and Nehalem, population 267, are just a couple of miles from the campground. Both are cute little coastal towns with a few touristy stores, a small selection of restaurants, and a couple of small grocery stores. We enjoy parking at one end of town and slowly walking through along each side of main street.

Cannon Beach, 15 miles north, Rockaway Beach, 13 miles south, and Garibaldi, 18 miles south, are a little bigger and offer a few more stores, restaurants, and services. They also have that quaint Oregon coastal town vibe that draws visitors.

Tillamook, population 4,942, is 27 miles to the south. It is the main service center in the area with a big Fred Meyers, a decent Safeway, a good selection of restaurants, the fun-to-visit Tillamook Cheese Factory, and a hospital.

Weather…

We know that fall weather in the Pacific Northwest can be yucky, but we always hope for the best. Plus, we figure that during a one week stay, at least one or two days will be nice. Things didn’t work out this time!

It rained every day. We got six inches, most of it being blown horizontally by 50-60mph winds. Thankfully we were camped in a good spot, blocked from most of the winds. We lost power three times for a total of 8-10 hours. Seas were reported up to 25 feet and two water spout warnings were issued! I attempted to watch the waves once but retreated after getting sand blasted. Sadly, the nasty weather kept us pinned in most of the week.

Adventures…

Exploring the state park…

During brief breaks from the drenching rain, we took walks around Nehalem Bay State Park, which has a variety of routes. We had the option of ambling around seven loops of campground sites. Or we could hike the two mile Spit Trail. Or we could walk the 2 mile bike trail around the airport runway (primitive fly-in-camp).

Surprisingly, we did not find any of the edible choice mushrooms we were looking for outside of the campground. Like most easily accessible places along the Oregon Coast, we found mushroom debris left by previous hunters. However, we found two or three Porcini (Boletus edulis) a day around the empty camp loops. It was just enough to fill an entire container during our week long stay.

Walk route around Nehalem Bay State Park / King bolete mushroom…a tasty treasure!

Looking south towards Cape Meares

Looking north towards Manzanita and Neahkahnie Mountain

Looking for mushrooms

We found a few nice king bolete mushrooms

Cape Meares…

Arleen and I started our afternoon by having lunch at Hidden Acres Greenhouse and Café. It was a perfect place for a unique sandwich and a cup of yummy soup.

Afterwards, we set out to Cape Meares Lighthouse. There are a few different routes to get there. We followed the Google suggestion by following Bayocean Road to the north which followed the Tillamook River. However, a part of the road washed out in a mudslide four years ago. Sigh…

We parked at the closed road sign near two other vehicles and hoofed it a few miles to the lighthouse. It gave us a mushroom hunting opportunity! We walked across buckled areas of road and saw other sections of the road that had slipped several yards down the hill.

We finally made it to the lighthouse. Because it’s perched on a 200 foot cliff, the petite 38 foot high lighthouse is adorable compared to other imposing beacons.

“Named after Captain John Meares who first charted it in 1788, Cape Meares was deemed an ideal site for a lighthouse. Easily seen from the sea, the outer point is below the fog line, making the light visible during conditions when it is most needed. The lighthouse served from 1890 until it was replaced be an automated beacon in 1963.”

“Nine lighthouses were built along the Oregon coast in the late 1800s. Each light had its own “signature to help mariners navigate. Lighting along the coast was designed to keep a ship within sight of a light at all times.”

Cape Meares is not just about the lighthouse. The area is also a wildlife refuge: “A small point of land important to people, plants, and wildlife.”

Next, we visited the Octopus Tree. “The forces that shaped this unique Sitka spruce have been debated for many years. Whether natural events or possibly Native Americans were the cause remain a mystery.

The tree measures more than 46 feet in circumference and has no central trunk. Instead, limbs extend horizontally from the base as much as 16 feet before turning upward. It is 105 feet tall and is estimated to be 250 to 300 years old.”

Finally, we were going to hike a trail where we had discovered our first chanterelle mushrooms six years ago. Arleen was so excited! She remembered the exact tree where she had found them.

However, glancing to the south, I saw a dark, menacing rain shower moving towards us. We quickly moved back to shelter just as chilly rain and gusty winds inundated the area.

Here, we stayed dry and learned from informative signs. We were surprised to learn that Brown Pelicans inhabit the area!

After the rain shower finally passed, we had to head back to the truck to beat the dark. The memory of those first chanterelles would not be repeated.

Hike route to Cape Meares

Cape Meares has nice trails and informative displays / The rocky islands attract seals, sea lions, and birds

The oddly shaped Octopus Tree is estimated to be 250-300 years old

Cape Meares lighthouse

Visit with Jim and Kay…

Arleen and Jim worked together at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. Jim and his wife, Kay, always welcomed Arleen into their homes for the holidays when I was deployed. We will always be thankful to them for their friendship during those times.

Jim was shocked that we had been on the road for six years! We spent time expanding on our travel stories. Plus we both shared future adventure plans.

Jim and Kay have recently retired and are planning to build a new home in a few years, just like us. We spent a lot of time comparing notes and house plans.

It was good that we had a lot of jibber-jabbering to do because the weather outside was frightful. We drove to Cannon Beach for lunch. Arleen tried to pose for a picture on the beach for a friend. But it was impossible due to the winds blasting her with stinging sand.

The four of us shared a meal at the famous Mo’s in Cannon Beach. It was an ideal setting to watch the weather raging outside. Unbelievably, a dedicated (or crazy!) fisherman was trying his luck in the maelstrom.

We look forward to seeing Jim and Kay again. Hopefully, it will be in less than another six years!

We had a wonderful time catching up with Jim and Kay at Cannon Beach

Previous visit…

We spent a week here six years ago. The weather was more pleasant and we had more adventures. Here is the link to that blog: http://mud-on-the-tires.blogspot.com/2011/10/or-nehalem-state-park-10-17-oct-2011.html

Next…

We spent a week at Fort Stevens State Park near Astoria OR. Now we are in Tacoma WA visiting a bunch of friends. Then we’ll spend two months in Sequim WA and two months in Port Angeles WA. After winter on the Olympic Peninsula we will spend the summer in Alaska!

Parting shots…