Day 9: Moro to South Beach State Park, OR
I didn't realize all the beauty and excitement I would be in for today. It started with an interesting abandoned church along the route from Moro to The Dalles, OR.
In The Dalles, I planned on just the pulpit rock
mentioned in roadside america.com, but got so much more from cool churches to the end of the Oregon trail and the Clocktower Ale house
There was so much we had to get out and walk to take it all in. Jasper appreciated that.
After The Dalles, we stopped in Hood River to check out the scene and try to find another roadsideamerica.com attraction, and found ourselves on historic columbia river hwy 30. This took us past waterfalls and some beautiful vistas. Unknowingly, we ended up at the Vista house - western statue of liberty in Corbett, OR, which was on the roadsideamerica.com list.
Despite the rain, it was gorgeous and allowed Jasper and I to get out of the car a lot.
As we approached Portland, I let my friend know we were close. He was busy with work, so I decided to detour to Astoria, OR for some Goonies filming locations, and then capture the entire coast of Oregon. Maybe my friend could meet me in Tillamook for dinner!?
When I decided to go to Astoria, it was on a whim and so I simply plugged it into my GPS without actually looking at the route. I had plenty of time. Imagine my surprise when the GPS welcomed me to the state of Washington!? Hey! I collected another state on this adventure, AND one of the originally planned states.
The trio to Astoria from Portland was maybe 1.5 hours, mostly due to the rain and a traffic jam caused by an accident. I wandered Astoria a bit finding the jail filmed in Goonies
before learning the visitor center had brochures of film locations for a variety of movies filmed in the area; Goonies, Kindergarten Cop, Free Willy (1&2), and so many more! I was overwhelmed.
I plugged the Goonies ones into my GPS and decided only to check those out. We saw the bowling alley where chunk watched the car chase of the bank robbers. The Flavel house museum is in the background as the kids tear through town on their bikes to find One Eye Willies' gold. Then, the last point took us down the coast to Ecola State Park, Cannon Beach.
Upon seeing what I could of the Goonies locations, I continued down the coast with the hope my friend would be up for dinner in Tillamook.
Unfortunately, due to a series of miscommunications and hurt feelings, we did not end up meeting for dinner. It was probably for the better with the rain, the dog, and my still needing to figure out where I was staying. Our not meeting for dinner also allowed me to get further down the coast than originally planned, thus shortening my drives the next few days.
I did stop at the Tillamook Creamery and The Blue Heron French cheeses, but both were closed by the time I got there about 1800. The thought was entertained to stay in Tillamook for the night and try to catch the creamery and cheese shops in the morning, but I still had hopes of camping along the coast, and thought maybe the rain would let up further south. I was wrong about that one.
Along the majority of the Oregon coast there are day use areas and Vista pullouts, leaving very little space to dispersed camping. So, when I hadn't found a spot by 2200, I decided to do the next state park campground I encountered. That just happened to be South Beach State Park. After driving around looking for tent sites vs full hookup sites, I pulled into a spot and settled in for the night, once again sleeping in my car. I wasn't going to put my tent up in the rain, dark, and wind just to tear it back down again in maybe 6 hours. Besides, by now, I was pretty used to sleeping in the car, and Jasper seemed to manage it ok too.
You sure have seen the sights!! Love the posts. Its like traveling with you.
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