We don’t usually go anywhere over Memorial Day weekend as we don’t want to fight with the traffic and crowds. However, this Memorial Day weekend would be a bit different. The last of my uncles died recently, and his family was having a memorial service for him on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. The service was in Salem, Oregon. We decided to go to the service and then drive over to the coast to explore the Tillamook area.
To avoid some of the traffic we headed out early Saturday morning. We didn’t miss all of the traffic, but we managed to arrive in time for the service. After the service we headed west. We were concerned about leaving Salem late so I had booked a room west of Salem in the university town of Monmouth. Monmouth is in the agricultural area of the Willamette Valley. It’s a small town, however, Western Oregon University is there. Even though I grew up in Oregon, I was not familiar with this university.
We arrived in Monmouth in the late afternoon. After a rest we went for a walk and checked out the campus of the university. It was pretty quiet since it was a holiday weekend. The campus was actually larger than I expected, and they were doing some new construction as well. There were some interesting old buildings around the campus. However, I hadn’t thought to bring my camera so you are spared looking at photos of buildings this time.
Sunday morning we headed out to the coast. We enjoyed the drive over. We were headed to Tillamook because it was an area we had not explored before. Coming from Salem this seemed the perfect opportunity to discover Tillamook and not just stop for ice cream.
I had intended to take roads that would come out around Pacific City. However, I missed the turnoff, and in the end that turned out OK. We got to Highway 101 just north of Lincoln City and turned north. We soon came to a sign for Neskowin Beach. Since we had never stopped here before, we decided to check it out. I’m glad we did.
The parking area is fairly small, but it wasn’t too crowded when we arrived. The trail to the beach runs along Neskowin Creek which then cuts through the beach. The creek is shallow here, but it has created fairly tall banks of sand beside it. Some kids were crossing the creek, but for the most part, people stayed on whichever side of the creek they were enjoying.
Ahead on the beach was a large rock named Proposal Rock. At first I thought it was an island, but at the time we were there it wasn’t. It seemed like low tide when we visited so it might become an island when the tide is higher. I thought people would be climbing on it, but that’s not very possible. While there are trees and vegetation on the top, the lower edges are solid rock and fairly vertical so it would require some skill to climb up the sides.
One can walk around to the other side of the rock. Only the north edge of the rock seems permanently next to water. There’s a fun hole in the rock that kids were climbing through. I tried, but the one edge was too steep for me to feel comfortable climbing down.
After exploring around Proposal Rock we walked north along the beach for about a mile. The beach here was very wide and continued on for some distance. Despite it being a holiday weekend, it was not a crowded beach. We saw families playing in the water and others walking the beach or playing games. It seemed a very family friendly location.
After leaving Neskowin Beach we drove a little ways north where we came to an overlook. We stopped to take in the view of the ocean.
Our next destination north was a national wildlife refuge. I have written about them before. This one is the Nestucca Bay National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge is a stopping place for a certain type of geese as they migrate each year. In the lower parking area there is a covered lookout that can be used to observe the geese in the large meadows below when they migrate in the spring and fall. We could look down over the fields, but we were too late for any geese
The information guide indicated a trail farther up on the hillside. A hike starting from the upper parking lot was a little over two miles. We had parked in the lower lot, and the sign said it was 0.4 miles to the other one so we decided to walk it. We didn’t realize that 0.4 miles was pretty much all uphill. It seemed a lot longer.
The hike was to the point overlooking the joining of two rivers, the Nestucca River and the Little Nestucca. There are two different trails that one can take. We took one going out and the other one coming back. One thing we noticed at the beginning was a number of places where there were little tent like coverings. I’m not sure what they were protecting although a certain species of butterflies is also being protected here so perhaps it has something to do with that.
The trail we chose to hike out to the point on was quite narrow, It was definitely a one-person-at-a-time trail. It looked like someone had recently been through and cut back the grass and plants some along the edges. It was not a difficult trail except for the roots. Tree roots would occasionally trip me up as I was walking along. Fortunately I never fell.
The trail was pretty isolating. We basically just saw the trees and plants around us. Nevertheless, it was a very peaceful hike. The only sounds we heard were our own footsteps and the birds busily calling to one another.
As we approached the point, the view began to open up some, and we could see the Nestucca River through the trees. At the point there was a guard rail fence around it as well as a welcome bench which allowed us to sit and rest while enjoying the view. The view wasn’t spectacular, but it was nice and still a peaceful location.
After resting a while we started back. This time we took the other trail which eventually led us to what was called a picnic area. The only thing is there was only one picnic table so I guess they didn’t expect many people to picnic here. From this location hikers could get a view of the mouth of the river as it flowed into the ocean.
From the picnic area back we would be hiking on an access road. I thought it would be easier to hike back on a wide trail. I was wrong. For three quarters of the way the road was uphill, at times quite steeply. It definitely gave us a workout. At least the last part of our hike was back downhill to our car.
Hungry by this time we left Nestucca National Wildlife Refuge and drove away from Highway 101 to the town of Pacific City for a Mexican meal. This town is one of the places I wanted to check out, but we were pretty much done for the day. We plan to spend more time here tomorrow. Today we would continue north to Tillamook
We thought we would stop and get some ice cream at the Tillamook Creamery. Wrong. When we arrived, the parking lot was jammed, and there were two separate lines for ice cream, both very long. We figured it would be at least a half hour in line, and we didn’t want to wait that long. We’ll try again on Tuesday after the holiday.
Our motel room was actually in a town just north of Tillamook, Garibaldi, so we headed there to check into our room and take a late afternoon nap. Garibaldi is a fishing town so later in the evening we wandered around on the wharf to check the sights. We enjoyed the views over Tillamook Bay.
With that we finished our first day in Tillamook County. Tomorrow we will discover where the beaches are so join me next week. Follow along as we drive the Three Capes Byway and see what the Tillamook coast has to offer. In the meantime I look forward to your comments and likes. They are much appreciated.