October 24, 2013 Cape Mears, Oregon

We are camped in the middle of the Three Capes scenic drive. The north cape is Cape Mears, we are camped at Cape Lookout. We headed up to Cape Mears today.

We stopped at Munson Falls first. It was a 1/4 mile walk up the canyon to the falls through rainforest and lots of moss and fall colors.

Munson falls is 266 feet tall, so tall the top gets lost in the fog. It is the highest falls in the coastal range of Oregon. There was a whole grove of these moss trees. They are alive and have leaves on the top.

At Three Arch rocks there is this cement doorway in the cliff. I went in and it was a tunnel to the beach on the other side with these views.

Three Arches rocks.  The Tsunami in Japan sucked like 500 thousand tons of debris into the ocean. About 70% of it sank. The rest formed a mat on the ocean and has been slowly floating to the USA . It has fauna and flora from Japan and has been contaminating the beaches here.

Halloween beach art. Here is John emerging from the tunnel from  the other beach.

Cape Mears interpretive  signs. A view from the Cape Mears trail looking north.

The Lighthouse at Cape  Mears is  very short because it is on top of a very high cape, this way the light is under the fog when it helps the most. This side of Three arches rocks you can see two of the arches. From the other side you can see the third, but not these two.

Sue at the Octopus tree posed like the tree.  The forces that formed the octopus tree have been debated for years. Whether natural events or possibly  Native Americans were the cause remains a mystery.  It was sacred to the Indians. The tree measures more than 46 feet in circumference and has no central trunk. Instead the limbs extend horizontally from the base as much as 16 feet before turning upward. It is 105 feet tall and is estimated to be 250 to 300 years old.

The view south from the cape. Looking at town of  Oceanside. I hiked to see the Big Sitka Spruce. It was dedicated as state champion  2008 as the biggest Sitka spruce in  Oregon. Standing 144 feet tall, 48 feet in circumference and 15.5 feet in diameter it is estimated to be between 750 and 800 years old.  You need to see it to realize how HUGE it really is.

We had dinner at Roseanna’s in Oceanside. John said it has kayaks out front, it is probably a dirt bag place. But he was wrong.  The dinning room overlooks the beach and three arches rocks. You can watch surfers on the waves while eating. And sunset if it wasn’t so foggy. We had fresh Dungeness crab cakes, Saints on a wire-scallops wrapped in bacon on a skewer –pictured with John. After that John had coppino-shell fish stew and I had chicken wild rice soup and salad. There were all kinds of really good seafood and pasta items on the menu, but after the appetizers we couldn’t eat a whole entrée. You will notice Johns halo in the photo.

Mushrooms galore today.

Porcupine in the parking lot. John tried to pet it with a stick and it fluffed up and just kept eating. All the quills on it’s hind end are missing, some dog must have bit it. Ouch for the dog, the porcupine was fine.