Day 70 – May 19 – Tillamook

We set out to find the Cape Mears Lighthouse this morning.  The lighthouse is located in the Cape Mears State Park.

It is located about 10 miles from our campground, so we got there about 10 o’clock.  We walked down the path to the lighthouse.  It is a somewhat short tower and the walkway down to the lighthouse takes you to a point where you are looking right at the lens.

 

We took our pictures and then walked a different path back towards parking lot.  While we were stopped to look at the Three Arch Rocks off shore from the lighthouse I saw a water spout from a whale blowhole.

3 Arch Rocks - each has an arch in the rock

Sea Lion

We watched for a while and saw the activity several times, but could not get a picture.  There were at least two whales where we watched, then I saw something on the surface and took a picture.  It turned out to be a sea lion out in the water – not a seal.  The difference being a sea lion has earflaps and a seal does not.

We walked on toward the path for the octopus tree.  It was an uphill walk all the way from the lighthouse to the tree.  It is hard to capture the impact of the tree in pictures.

 

The tree does not have a main trunk like normal trees but multiple branches that extend out and then grow up straight.

We returned to the parking lot and walked over to a deck where some volunteers had telescopes set up to watch the birds and/or whales.  They pointed out some birds to us – one was a black oyster eater, which are somewhat rare and they have two nesting pairs in the area.  One of the volunteers pointed them out to Dorrie.  I looked next and said they had white wings.  The other volunteer said let her look – turned out they were pigeon something or the other, not black oyster eaters.  So the first volunteer told Dorrie to take a look at a different bird, same location – he was quite a joker.  They located the oyster eaters and pointed them out.  They have very long orange beaks that they use to find and open the oysters.

 

We then looked for the cheese factory Tillamook is famous for – the high school team name is Cheesemakers.  Poor kids!  We stopped at the Blue Heron cheese factory first.  They had all kinds of domestic animals and some old tractors.  Dorrie and I sampled some wine – all of it was very good.

 

Dorrie took this picture for Benny - she said she has a rooster too

Turns out that was not the cheese factory that Mary wanted to stop at, so we drove on north to the Tillamook Cheese Factory.  We watched them package cheese from a watch area above the factory floor and then went down stairs to have some of their ice cream.

Back at the camper we were eating supper when another camper pulled in beside us.  I went out to take some pictures.  The young woman was outside and I asked if it was okay to take photos.  She laughed and said sure.  Seems her boyfriend started the organization to help the world food bank.