A Week In Manzanita

For the fourth time in the past six years, we rented a house in Manzanita, Oregon, for the week starting 19 August. Manzanita is a small coastal town, population about 600, nestled between Neahkahnie Mountain to the north and Nehalem Bay to the south. It’s main street has a quirky collection of shops and restaurants, a pizza place that used to be great but greatly disappointing this year, and two miles of soft sandy beach. A chain of modestly sized sand dunes separates most of the surf from the homes, except near downtown where the sea can nearly splash main street in a good storm.

We enjoy lazing around the quiet community, our dogs are welcome, and the beach is just a block away. Since the kids are older now, we organized a couple family hikes during the week, both on the Oregon Coastal Trail as it passes through Oswald State Park a few minutes north of Manzanita. The first hike was mostly flat over three miles to Cape Falcon where we picnicked high above a primitive Falcon Cove while perched on a blackberry vine-infested trail clinging to the bluff. Views into the small cove reminded me of something I might see a million years ago — the rocky and narrow cove opening could wreck even the most daring of boaters; and no trail could safely drop the 250′ to the beach. There’s a memorial on the far side of the cove (along the cape) further up the trail than we ventured this time, and I suspect it is from a shipwreck. On our return, we detoured onto Falcon Point where we could look south past Smuggler’s Cove and Neahkahnie Mountain to Manzanita and beyond.

And just as we began our three-mile return trek, a flock of pelicans flew around the cape to fish in Smuggler’s Cove:

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A few days later we hiked another segment of the Oregon Coastal trail for 2 ½ miles through dense forest filled with cedars and Douglas Firs, some 150′ tall, starting in the woods at 200′ elevation and continuing mostly uphill until the trail abruptly emerges from the forest to a breathtaking view of Manzanita and Nehalem Bay from 1600′ above the ocean. Pippin, who’s just about two and has loads of energy to burn off, joined us on this hike, while Raffle, about 12, stayed at the house to relax and conserve her energy for her post dinner beach romp.

I went for a couple long bike rides during the week. The first was a one-way trek from Manzanita to Oceanside. Rather than ride on the busy Highway 101 the entire way, I took some county roads to the east, first along the Nehalem river, past a huge and smelly diary farm, then up Foley Creek Road and then down Miami River Road to meet up with 101 just south of Garibaldi. From there, a steady tailwind helped push me over the next 11 miles to Tillamook as expansive views of the bay opened up to my right. After zipping into town, I passed the cheese factories, crossed the Wilson River, and turned westward into a unwelcome headwind. A few minutes later, I veered right onto the Three Capes Scenic Route. The meandering road soon lead northwest as it hugged the bay’s shoreline to Cape Meares, the first of the three capes. My heart sunk when the road abruptly turned south to reveal the road ascending a long, steep hill. After a brief backward glance in the cowardly hope that Kim would drive up and rescue me from my fate, I started the climb. My legs griped for the next two miles until slowly cresting where the Cape Meares Lighthouse road came in from the right. I thankfully pulled over to take a short break, and at that moment, Kim and the gang drove up with horn a-tootin’. Having struggled up the hill, I decided that we’d rendezvous in Oceanside knowing that it would mostly be downhill the rest of the way. So a few minutes later at Oceanside, we met up again and I hoisted my bike onto the roof rack and climbed aboard. Throughout the ride, I enjoyed some spectacular views of the coastal mountains and forests, a quiet river valley with diary farms and a smokey shake mill, the Pacific Ocean, and Tillamook Bay. Not bad for a single bike ride!

On the drive back, we stopped, as per our tradition, at Tillamook Cheese Factory, and we all stuffed ourselves on huge ice cream waffle cones before browsing in their well-stocked gift shops and spending a few minutes watching the cheese factory operation from the huge observation galleries on the second floor. I remember years ago (~ 1976?) hearing about when my mom and sisters Sue and Holly stopped at the factory when it was so small that their tour guide took them around the production floor and let them talk with the workers. Now they have a gallery and display area that can easily accommodate a hundred people at once, all sealed behind protective glass with HD montitors looping videos of various aspects of making cheese. On one video, the narrator mentioned that Tillamook Cheese has the capacity to age 50 million pounds of cheese at once.

Another day, I rode my bike up the Nehalem River to the Nehalem Falls Campground, curious about the campground and also wanting to see these falls I’d read about. The pavement ended with a quarter mile to go, so I carefully edged my racing bike over that last bit. Turns out there’s a section of the river that passes over and through some solid granite formations including this odd, natural S-curve that at first glance appears to be manmade but clearly is just an oddity. The water flow was minimal, being late August, but the water sluicing through the solid granite created an impressive display. I think in late June when snow melt peaks, it would be especially thunderous and spectacular.

Another day we drove up to Cannon Beach, a tourist town with a strong artistic and boutique flavor which has it’s own popular beach with it’s world famous Haystack Rock:.

After delicious fish and chips for all (but chicken strips for Sandy) at Bill’s Pub, we enjoyed a sunset near the big rock.

Here’s an odd little car I spotted in town:

Nearly every day, we walked the beach. Most mornings, Kim and I would head out to the beach and then walk the ½ mile north to the main street, then buy a paper or not and loop back via the side streets so we could check out everybody else’s beach home.

As always, everybody read a lot, and Scott and Bonnie played this expansive Pirates game. The pirate ships come in little packs like baseball cards, and the ships within are a mystery until the pack is opened and the ship and sails snapped together. They create strategic fleets with their assembled ships and spread them out on the dinner table, following seemingly complicated rules as they push the ships about and launch attacks on each other. Scott always seems to win, but they both have a lot of fun.

Most evenings, we’d all go out to the surf and hope for a glorious sunset, which didn’t really happen this year because of the frequent clouds. But a refreshing beach walk was guaranteed no matter what the weather or time of day, and the dogs would run themselves silly. One day took our turns with the kites, trying Bonnie’s new one plus the old ones we’d brought. The wind was almost too strong for them, especially Scott’s fighter kite. With the nearly constant onshore breeze and cool temperatures, it was really too cold for us to play in the surf much. But it was still a grand week, and perhaps (?) the last vacation when it’s just the five of us.

This entry was posted on 30 August 2006 at 8:48 pm and is filed under Family, Adventures. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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