We are now arriving at the town of Tillamook. As I already mentioned, the name comes from the indigenous Tillamook people. The city sits by Tillamook Bay, the biggest and most convenient harbour on the Oregon Coast. It’s well-protected from the ocean and is much safer than the treacherous Columbia River estuary. Too bad you cannot go anywhere from here, since there are no significant rivers flowing into the bay. That’s why the first European-American to ever set foot on Oregon Coast, Captain Robert Gray, didn’t stay long. He made landfall in Tillamook Bay after mistaking it for Columbia River, in 1788, and was gone in 1 week.
Tillamook is not a pretty touristy town, that’s why you won’t see pictures from the actual Tillamook here. It’s a centre of a farming community, known for its cheese (Tillamook is one of the major cheese brands in the US). You can visit the cheese factory (I did, it’s fun), and there is Air Museum, where you can see different types of aircraft. Other than that, it’s just a stop on the road, where the highway makes a big curve away from the ocean and then returns back to the shore near a place called Pacific City. Since we are not very interested in driving through the woods (and that’s what you get if you stay on Hwy 101 on this stretch), we will be deviating from the highway and try to get to the shore by the small roads.
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The first look at Tillamook Bay.The first town on the shores of Tillamook Bay, as we drive, is Garibaldi, named after the famous Italian liberator. He himself has no connection with this place. It′s just back then he was so popular, people here chose to name their town after him. (The statue here is not of Garibaldi, but of Captain Robert Gray.)This is the Old Smoke Stack. Like that, all capitals. Apparently, the area doesn′t offer much in terms of historical edifices, so even an old smokestack becomes a thing. This was the smokestack of a sawmill, which doesn′t exist any more. The smokestack remains one of the tallest man-made structures along the Oregon Coast.Here, we′ve already passed the town of Tillamook, and are driving towards Tillamook Air Museum I mentioned before. The museum is housed in the WWII hangar for blimps, those huge Zeppelin-like balloons they used for surveillance. Tillamook sits quite away from the shore, on the curve that Hwy 101 makes to get around a very rugged stretch of the coast.So, you have to drive through the woods like this for quite some time, while the road makes that bend.But I personally suggest diverging from the highway and venturing to the coast by the small side roads.In this case, you won′t miss the views like Netarts Bay here. The bay is the body of water on the right, separated from the open ocean by Netarts Spit.The ocean-facing side of Netarts Spit.The surf on Netarts Spit beach.Still on the outlook above Netarts Bay.Not far from Netarts Bay there is another interesting spot - the so called Sand Lake Recreation Area.It′s 1,000 acres of open sand dunes, which cut into the otherwise wooded landscape next to Sand Lake - a small ocean inlet, so shallow that it′s mostly wet sand than water.These dunes start right at the ocean beach, and extend 3.5 miles into the coastal forests as a long narrow sand bank. Scientifically, it is called "an extended dune system". Yup, looks pretty duney to me.If you keep going along Sandlake Road, you will eventually arrive at Pacific City, a small settlement on a beach. It was called Ocean Park first, but then it turned out, there already was an Ocean Park in Washington up north. So they had to rename themselves.Pacific City′s biggest claim to fame is Cape Kiwanda, a sandstone headland jutting out into the water, with a huge dune attached to it at the back.You can climb the steep dune, like those people in the picture, and if you do, the sight on the other side is promised to be amazing, with waves pummeling rugged, twisting rocks and crevices. I didn′t climb, so I wouldn′t know.Another interesting thing about Pacific City is that it′s one of a very few places in Oregon where it is allowed to drive right on the beach. In Washington state, for example, the beaches are considered a state highway, and you can drive on almost any beach, as long as you don′t exceed the 25-mile-per-hour speed limit. I did once, and got a stern talking-to from a state trooper. Got off with the warning though, on account of me being a clueless Canadian, who wouldn′t know the rules. All that driving on the beach, though, doesn′t make for a very nice experience if you are not in the car. The beach sand gets so packed, it doesn′t even feel like a beach anymore. Probably, that′s why I will always prefer Oregon′s Coast to Washington′s. Which is a shame - Washington has some very nice places along its coast too.This small body of water right by the beach, a little bit south from Pacific City, is called Daley Lake. The Daleys were a pioneer family, who built their cabin by the lake, that′s how it got its name.Despite its small size, the lake was a centre of a very dramatic episode in American Indian wars. Modoc Indian tribe was forcibly relocated here from northern California. The Modocs resisted fiercely, so, to resolve the conflict, a three-member peace commission was sent here in 1873 from Washington, D.C. ⇨ ⇨ A Modoc woman called Winema learned of a plot to kill the three commissioners and tried to prevent it. Two of the commissioners were nevertheless killed, but she managed to save the third one. A little hamlet on the shores of this lake is now called Camp Winema in her honour. That red roof is one of the hamlet′s houses. ⇨ ⇨ The murder of the two commissioners, though, started what is known as the Modoc War, which lasted for many months... [And on this peaceful note we are finishing this gallery.]Press ESC to exit
