A day at Tillamook (Part I): Capes Meares

We spent a great day at Tillamook last Saturday.  Weather forecasted cloudy cum sunny day, however there were some rain along our drive to Tillamook and we were concerned if the rain will spoilt our day.  Luckily, at each of our planned destination, there were no rain and we managed to cover all of our itineraries. :D

After about 1.5hrs drive, we reached our 1st destination: Capes Meares.

Capes Meares State Scenic Viewpoint is located 10 miles west of Tillamook, Oregon on the north end of the beautiful Three Capes Scenic Route.  We missed the trail head to Oregon's largest stika spruce, which is located near the park entrance as we didn't aware that trail we saw is headed to the big spruce, couple with the windy and cold weather, we just drove directly into the park.  Nevertheless, the other features we visited within the park included the Cape Meares Lighthouse, Octopus Tree and the scenic viewpoints still made our trip paid off.  ;)

After entered to the park, we first visited the Oregon Heritage Tree - The Octopus Tree, which is a massive Stika spruce with branches growing like giant tentacles from its 50-foot base.  It is situated approximately 600 feet from the scenic viewpoint.   

Once featured in Ripley’s Believe It or Not, the tree has been described as one of the modern Wonders of the World.

Of course, a picture taken with the Octopus Tree is a must in this itinerary.  ;P

We then headed to the Lighthouse.  Along the way, we stopped at some viewing decks for the beautiful scenery.

The lighthouse was built in 1889, commissioned on January 1, 1890, then decommissioned in 1963. The tower stands 38 feet high and is the shortest lighthouse in Oregon. 

It is interesting to learn that the current interperetive Gift shop that we visited is the previous work room of the lighthouse build in 1895, which was replaced as gift shop in 1978. 

Admittance to the lighthouse is free and is at every 20mins interval, 5 people at a time, with a history sharing from The Friends of Capes Meares.  One have to sign up for the admittance and wait for the earlier group to come down before the next 5 are allowed to go up to avoid two way traffic on the staircase link to the top of the lighthouse and also for the fact that the space inside the lighthouse is limited.

The system that light the lighthouse in the past

The view from our way up to the lighthouse

Interesting viewpoint from the lighthouse: the rocks were upside down

After a good walk, the girls were hungry and we had our simple lunch at the picnic table.

We had an interesting 2 hours spent at Capes Meares.  Part 2 of A day at Tillamook will followed suit in the next post.  ;)