Oceanside Beach

I didn’t know it starting out today (Wednesday, Aug 19), but today is a day I have been waiting for!

First on the list was Cape Lookout State Park, just a few miles north of where I’m camping. The drive to Cape Lookout was very pretty – a nice windy road with big evergreen trees.

I come across the Andersons View Point and pull over. The view point has a stunning view of Cape Lookout off in the distance.

Heading further down the road, we find the Cape Lookout campground closed for construction. I guess that explains why there weren’t any available campsites to reserve…

We continue driving, hoping for more view points, but start to see private houses. I think “that’s odd” and pull over to look at the map. Looks like the campground road is the only access to Cape Lookout, but Netarts Bay is picturesque.

What the heck, I might as well drive through Netarts and up to Oceanside. In Oceanside, I see a sign for beach access and find a parking spot. We get onto the beach and it’s nice in the fog, but nothing special. There’s a cliff at the north end of the beach, the tide is too high to walk around.

I notice a concrete structure at the base of the cliff and decide to check it out. I read somewhere about a tunnel on the Oregon coast that leads to a beach… As expected, the tunnel takes us to another beach. At the north end of the new beach I notice some rock formations. Okay, maybe this beach has some potential.

As we proceed down the beach, I see more and more rock formations! Before I know it, I am in sea stack paradise. I literally feel like I’ve died and gone to heaven! I feel like I can point my camera in any random direction and take a good picture.

I spend several happy minutes taking pictures and decide it’s time to start heading back to the van. As we’re walking back, the fog is getting thicker and the light is changing as the sun gets higher. I feel like you could stay here all day – just watching the conditions and lighting change all day. And if I hadn’t investigated the tunnel, I would have missed it all…