Continuing our Journey up the Oregon Coast

 So far our journey along the Oregon Coast has taken us to some of our favorite and familiar places

but this trip was different!

We headed to Winchester Bay, which is just West of Reedsport, on the Central Oregon Coast. Here we joined a group of fellow RVers from our church. It was a delightful place to visit with friends. We really enjoyed the Winchester Bay RV Resort, a very nice, well maintained RV Park with a large activity center perfect for group get togethers. 

Winchester Bay is also a small fishing community, and since photography is our main “ focus”  we enjoyed photographing some colorful fishing boats at Salmon Harbor Marina next to the RV Park.

Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area is just south of Winchester Bay and home of the tallest sand dunes in the National Recreation Area – perfect for ATV enthusiasts. 

We tried to photograph these dunes, but since light is our “subject”  and we never had good light, we did not get any photos of this area. 

Maybe next time!

On to Pacific City

The Central Oregon Coast is home to a unique little community, Pacific City! It  is a small town and very picturesque with a beach overlooking Cape Kiwanda and the offshore Haystack Rock. Cape Kiwanda is a main attraction in Pacific City. It has beautiful rock formations, long stretches of sandy beach that can be driven on, and you can even have bonfires. 

We stayed at the Cape Kiwanda RV Resort.  This is a nice park located right across the street from the beach. There is a nicely equiped marketplace and several great restaurants including a Pub/grill right on the beach, all within walking distance. The park even had wild bunnies.   Tillamook is only about a 30 minute drive to north and the home of the Tillamook Cheese Factory and an Air Museum. Thirty minutes to the south is Lincoln City.

There are sand dunes at the North end of the beach and the views of the iconic Haystack Rock are worth the climb. 

But perhaps one of the most unique and fun things to see are the Dory Boats.  We had heard so much about the Dory Boats.  They were the main reason we decided to add Pacific City to our Oregon Coast travels.

What is a Dory Boat?  Initially built from spruce planks in a design only found in Pacific City, Dories were originally powered by oars. They had two sets of oars and were able to be rowed through the Pacific surf and out to sea.

While still flat on the bottom and crafted to ride  ocean waves, Dories are now motor-powered. The modern Pacific City dory is still open hulled and flat bottomed and is pushed or rowed into the Pacific surf until deep enough to drop the outboard motor which then powers it through the surf into the open ocean.  

The video below shows the launching and landing of the Dory Boats. 

Another attraction in Tillamook County besides the famous Tillamook Cheese Factory is the “Quilt Block Trail” in and around Tillamook. Again, this is something we had heard about and even had seen some on buildings and barns on some of our previous trips. What we did not know was that there was something called a “Quilt Block Trail”.  It is a self guided tour with the help of printed maps.

The trail is the first of its kind on the West Coast.  The Tillamook County Quilt trail showcases the heritage of historic barns and buildings in the Tillamook area.  Each structure has large wooden quilt blocks mounted on them.  You can drive along the trail to see the many barns with these quilt squares or walk the downtown area where they are mounted on various businesses. It is a great way to see the area and it reminded us somewhat of a scavenger hunt.

See you soon on our next adventure as we travel further north up the West Coast, stopping at Long Beach, Washington and Anacortes/Deception Pass

Music in all videos from https://www.bensound.com