Cape Lookout State Park…In the Sunshine!

Although rugged and beautiful, the Oregon coast isn’t known for hospitable weather, even in the summer. But, every once in awhile you luck out, and boy, did we luck out this weekend!

Sunset at Cape Lookout State park

With the weatherman promising sunny skies, we decided at the very last minute to take a gamble and head to the beach. We have only beach camped one other time and we really weren’t sure what to expect. We knew nothing of the campgrounds so we picked one at random and just drove. One nice benefit to living in Portland is its location to so many different climates and geographical regions. Mt. Hood, the coast and the deserts are all just a short drive away.

Cape Lookout State Park is a wonderful campground located on the northern Oregon Coast near the town of Tillamook (famous for its cheese :)) This is a full service campground located right on the beach, complete with cabins, yurts and plenty of RV and tent sites. Although only two loops are open during the winter months there were plenty of open spaces and reservations were not needed. I would imagine during the summer season this is a busy park, but it was quiet and beautiful in February! The campsites are large and really quite private with a lot of ground foliage separating the sites.

Our campsite…large and private

An early morning walk along the beach.

Tormenting Cooper as we walked….

Enjoying the sunset

We also enjoyed a nice afternoon in the quiet little town of Oceanside. Oceanside beach is one of our favorite beaches on the Oregon coast. There are beautiful rock formations, tide pools, a long stretch of sandy beach and great rock hunting. When our kids where little we were quite the rock hounds and we spent many afternoons in search of treasures in the form of colorful agates and jasper. We invested in a nice rock tumbler and I’m proud to say we have quite the collection! We didn’t have much luck rock hunting this time because the tide was high, but we did find a lot of tsunami debris that had washed ashore.