Day 4 - Tokeland - Oregon

Tokeland is in an area called Grayland, and when we get up in the morning we discover why. A heavy sea fog has rolled in and covered the coast. The air is heavy, wet and COLD. We are up early and on the road by 8:00AM. We have to drive 20 minutes to find coffee - a crisis! We are headed due south to Astoria and the mouth of the Columbia River.

On the way we discover a nature preserve and follow a well marked path through the woods for 1 mile - A true Pacific Coast rainforest.
We see woodpeckers, finches and see dozens of "Rough Skinned Newts" in a pond (brilliant orange underbelly). Strange amphibious creatures that we city folks rarely see. Overcoming my Tom Sawyer urge to catch one, I take this photo and learn later (NOT from the Park Ranger) that the Newt has highly potent toxins in its skin, 1/30th of which is enough to kill an adult human. Hmm.


By 9:30AM we have had a hike, eaten breakfast at a roadside table, and we are at the mouth of the Columbia River. The area was actually discovered and mapped by Europeans by a Robert Gray (hence Grayland) in 1792 from Boston, later Captain Cook and Vancouver. Alexander McKenzie trekked across Canada in the same year and forged a trail to Bella Coola (13 years before Lewis and Clark south of the border).
The mouth of the Columbia is more like a large bay, and you can see what a problem is was for the early explorers - what is land, what is cloud bank, what is a bay, what is a river - and sand bars to founder unsuspecting ships everywhere.
We cross over the long bridge, part floating, to Astoria and get camping maps and information then onto the Coastal 101 highway.





Incredible scenery as we wind our way along the coast, climbing over rocky points, then winding down to long ocean beaches.














We explore the coastal resort areas as we drive, such as "Seaside" - which is a real summer holiday resort with a fairground atmosphere (like Blackpool), stop for cherries at a stand, and finally settle into the Nehalem Bay State Park campground about 2PM - and get one of the last campsites remaining.


We are right next to the beach, protected from the wind by 10 foot high sand dunes and grass. We set up camp - takes about an hour - and set off to explore.

The Beach

Bill Flies a Kite

A Quaint local resort town called Manzanita, not at all like Seaside - quiet, residential and lots of local character. We eat dinner here at a Mexican restaurant. It like most of the residences and businesses is landscaped simply but beautifully, with flowering bushes and Nasturiums! Everywhere.
We are invited to another campsite for a glass of wine and a campfire and at 9:30 we are done - the mattress has inflated, the sleeping bags are puffed up, the pillows are setup and we crawl in for our first night on the ground! And it feels great.