8/11 - Haystack Rock and Cheese

Today we worked our way down the coast on Hwy 101 as far as Tillamook (about 60 miles). This is the same route we'll be taking south on Saturday when we move to Newport.  After what we saw today, we are expecting traffic to be really heavy on Saturday and anticipate that it will take us at least four hours to go 130 miles. We'd rather expect the worst and then be pleasantly surprised if it doesn't happen.


The first stop was Ecola State Park, 20 miles down the coast near Cannon Beach.  This is the location of the most famous Haystack Rock (there are at least two others with the same name) and the most often seen photo of the Oregon Coast.

When we arrived there was still heavy fog coming off the ocean which had the 235-foot high Haystack surrounded.  It's in the distance with clouds around it.

I have been waiting 50 years to see this view in person. It is much more spectacular than its pictures.

Another shot of the Haystack as the fog was lifting. I'm included two photos because the top one has a better view of the surf, but the bottom one has the best view of the Haystack. 


We then drove further into Ecola to go to Indian Beach. The road is hardly wide enough to be called a two-lane road, especially for wide vehicles.

It's a lovely tree-shrouded road which looks a lot like rain forest except for the lack of moss hanging from every limb. There were a couple of times when we had to stop for oncoming cars to go by us because the road was so narrow and the shoulder was a 3 foot deep ditch at that point. The road was so tricky we probably would not choose to go back again.....we wouldn't have missed it for the world but doing it a second time would not be high on our list of things to do.

The rocks off Indian Beach were also beautiful. Fortunately, the fog had lifted enough we were able to get a clear view of them.  Using binoculars we could find no animals on any of the rocks....no seals or sea lions or sea otters anywhere.

From Ecola State Park we continued south, stopping at an overlook that had this wonderful view of the coast and the little town of Manzanita. Hwy 101 goes up about 550 feet in elevation to get over a headland jutting into the ocean. It makes a great place for an overlook.

After winding our way through the countryside to get out of a traffic jam caused by an accident, we finally got to the Tillamook Cheese Factory. It was an absolute zoo (as Gabe had been warned us it would be). We had a tasty lunch which included Tillamook cheese, of course. Tasty but extremely noisy.

These are the eight stainless steel vats that make 167,000 pounds of Tillamook cheese every day. It takes ten pounds of milk to make one pound of cheese.  Each vat holds 53,500 pounds of milk.  More than 1.7 million pounds of milk arrive at the plant every day.  (A pound of milk is 1.16 gallons.)

We learned a lot about Tillamook County's cheese industry by taking the self-guided tour of the plant.  When settlers arrived in the 19th century they soon found out the Tillamook Valley wasn't suited to regular farming because of the climate. The growing season for vegetables isn't long enough for them to ripen. But the growing season for grass is 12 months a year so the settlers' cows thrived. Soon they were producing more milk and butter than they could sell so the next step was to start making cheese.  There were originally many small independent creameries but eventually they all joined together in the Tillamook County Creamery Association where cheese was made in a central location. It has been a very successful cooperative for many years, making some of the finest cheddar in the country. At one point they even outsold Wisconsin cheese. (No longer....Oregon isn't even on the list of top ten cheese producers.)  Tillamook ships it all over the country including to Ingles where we will be looking for it when we get home. 


It was another long day as we didn't get back until after 5:00. When walking Lovie I thought I'd take a few photos of where we're staying.

For those familiar with military installations it will be noted that Camp Rilea is not typical. It is very small. It has a live-fire range with all kinds of warning signs around it, but we've yet to hear any noise coming from it. If we can find someone tomorrow to ask, we'll try to find out who's being trained to do what.


We have been so efficient in finishing our list of places to see here, we have an empty day tomorrow.  We're thinking of going across the Astoria-Megler Bridge to the southern tip of Washington and the Cape Disappointment section of the Lewis and Clark National Historical Park.