A landscape photographer's tour
Pacific City, OR to Cannon Beach,OR

Keith's travels in California and the Pacific Northwest - April-May 2007

This photo-diary covers a driving trip up the coast from San Francisco in April/May 2007 along the Pacific highway. Now I've returned, I've included some of my travel photography from this trip in the main Gallery, and updated any info that may be of help to people who come across these pages as part of their planning for driving tours of the California and Oregon coasts, looking for places to stay or sites to visit. It's a great place for a vacation, or just a road trip up the Pacific coast to photograph some of the scenery. If you've any questions about the hotels/inns/motels where I stayed, then please do feel free to drop me a line.

Today I have to start giving some attention to the fact that I've got to drop the car off and fly home from San Francisco on Thursday morning.

I've driven some way up the Oregon coast and am staying in Cannon Beach, deciding to treat myself to a room with a very nice view (pics later :-)

On the way up I see the usual great views of the ocean, this time on the way towards Tillamook.

If you're at one of the viewpoints near the water, then there is usually this handy collection of warnings...

Time for a good hefty American Breakfast - I remembered the excellent Red Apple Inn at Tillamook from passing through several years ago, and it's still going strong.

One breakfast that'll keep me going for much of the rest of the day :-)

Upon leaving, what do I see but my favourite ugly American road vehicle - a Dodge

With gas at only $3.29 a (US) gallon here, who needs fuel economy...

Tillamook also claims to be famous for its cheese

I remember visiting Oregon many years ago, and at the time, how much my friend Vicky was impressed with the range of cheeses to be found.

Fortunately there are gift baskets available... ;-)

The coast in this area is quite mountainous alternating between rocky areas and the many beaches

This view of Manzanita is from a mountain several thousand feet high (I'll leave finding the details to a later day)

Interestingly enough, in Manzanita I spotted one local business that has perhaps seen a bit of an increase in business over the last few years ;-)

I drove past Cannon beach, up highway 101, just to remind myself how like a British seaside town some aspects of Seaside are - fortunately it was busy

and with people out in cycle powered vehicles

I decided that the smell of candy floss was just too much ;-)

So, back to the genteel 'Tweeness' of Cannon Beach, with it's galleries and other emporia

Of course if you go for a house by the beach, I'd expect you get to clean up a lot of sand...

I'd decided to stay at the Lands End Motel - here's a view from the beach (it's about a 5th of the way in from the right)

With a nice view from the room

Quite a few people were out for a Sunday lunchtime walk on the beach

There were also flocks of those small fast moving birds I'd seen on other beaches

A few shots of when the sun went down

and an hour or so later - the bright star is Venus

Tomorrow I'm heading back south down I-5, so I'm not expecting much in the way of scenic pictures to show - but who knows?

NEXT DAY