The research said

June 1 2021

The quick tad bit of research I did said to see the tidal pools at Haystack Rock we should get there about 1 hour before low tide. The chart the park gave us said low tide was at 12:11, so with a change of plans, we’re bad about that. The original idea was go back north for a few miles to visit some parks we passed up in Washington. Instead we headed south towards the seaside town of Cannon Beach which is where Haystack rock is located.

Since we were going to be early the first stop was Ecola State Park in the town of Seaside.

Ecola park and surround area is where the film The Goonies was filmed back in 1985.

Then the highlight of the day was Haystack rock. It’s a good thing we didn’t arrive much later as the parking is along the street or one small parking lot. One of the few street side parking spots was ours then we walked a few blocks to the beach and the wind was ripping and almost chilly coming off the water.

The tidal pools are located near Haystack Rock and there were several people there but we walked around anyway looking for anything that moved. We didn’t see much. They had a large section roped off so people wouldn’t disturb some apparently nesting birds on the big rock. Rightfully so, you could only walk on the sand and not climb on the rocks that created the pools. It was a look but don’t touch kinda of thing. I understand that there are less popular pools else where and if we ever get to come back I’ll be looking them up, I have seen pictures of fish and small octopus trapped in the pools at low tide.

Then is was time to turn north for the WA Parks. Cape Disappointment is a large state park with lots of bike/walking trails and not much to really see, but by then I was running out of steam so we headed home.

With the last stop of the day being Fort Columbia State Park. All the buildings were locked so we just did a quick drive through.

My thoughts on Washington State, their bridges suck, on most of the 2 lane roads the bridges are the old concrete kind that are very narrow and then have the curb that comes out almost to the white line. Kinda nerve wracking when meeting a semi or other large vehicle on one of the bridges.

We never did figure out how to make an online reservation at a Washington State Park. The WA State parks are $10 a day or $30 a year. Washington, like Oregon had the self pay Kiosk things where you could buy daily or yearly passes in the park. $5 a day in Oregon or $30 a year. Indiana should take a clue!!!! Indiana parks are WAY to expensive and the in-state vs out of state just discourage out of state visitors.

The End