Backtracking And Exporing

Travel Day

• Lincoln City to Oceanside via Three Capes Scenic Route
• Oceanside to Tillamook via SR 131
• Tillamook to Lincoln City via US 101

I decided to backtrack today, heading north up the Three Capes Scenic Route. Most people traveling on the Oregon Coast Highway miss this stretch of road, with its amazing scenery and vehicle accessible beaches. This detour, whether from the north or from the south, is will worth the effort. Doing it as a circle trip for a day, or even an afternoon, is also well worth it.

As you head north on the Three Capes route, the first place you come to is Pacific City. This giant thing stands just offshore. It looks like it is right onshore from here, but trust me, it's so big that it is deceiving. You can't get there from here; you need a boat.

Just in town is one of the first beach access roads. The sign says only street legal vehicles are allowed here. There's even a speed limit!

So I tried driving my truck up the soft sand dune. I had it in 4X4 Low. You can see my tracks right in the middle of the picture. With street tires I could not make it up the soft dune. I am not sure if this is humour on the part of state officials, or if they really just want street legal monster trucks going up here.

I gave up my attempt at dune bashing and instead went to one of my favourite little pubs on the whole of the Oregon Coast, the Pelican Brew Pub in Pacific City. The only beer they serve is the beer they brew, and it's good beer. The food is great too.

The view ain't so bad either. This is from my table in the pub.

And this is the delightful young lady who was my server. Her name is Jill.

Jill took this picture for me,to prove that I am actually where I say I am.

I took this picture from outside on the deck of the pub. I noticed that there are cars on this beach.

So I drove on this beach. Yes, those are my tracks, at least some of them. This is looking north.

And this is the view as I drove south on the sand.

This is another beach, just around from Cape Kiwanda, where the Pelican Pub sits. You can drive on this beach too! So I did!

However your driving distance is substantially shorter on this beach. I guess you can only go north in the winter, when the beach storms are dangerous.

This is the parking lot at a place called Sand Lake. The dunes here are all light sand, constantly shifting. You can see how the sand forms small drifts as it blows through the separations in the roadside barricade.

Sand Lake is for ATV's only, including dirt bikes. Only vehicles with Off Highway capacity can go on the dunes. Technically, my truck is an OHV, or Off Highway Vehicle, but I decided not to put it to the test today.

There are a couple of campgrounds at Sand Lake. It looks like the RV crowd likes to come here with their ATV's and such. There is a classic dune buggy beside that trailer on the left.

Another one of the incredible views along this stretch of road. There seems to be a view like this around every curve of the road.  This one is Netarts Bay. I have lots more pictures like this one.

From Netarts you can go to Oceanside but the road stops at Cape Meares. It used to go all the way through; I've been there. But the road must have been eroded away or damaged beyond repair somewhere between Cape Meares and Tillamook. So instead I took State Route 131 out to Tillamook, home of the world famous Tillamook Cheese.

I headed home from Tillamook. If you are heading south along US 101, the Oregon Coast Highway, this is where you turn on SR 131 to get on to the Three Cape Scenic Route. I highly recommend this detour.; do it, you won't regret it.