Monday, October 16, 2023

Nehalem Bay State Park

Today, I am driving from Vancouver to Manzanita, Oregon.  I will be Yurt camping for four days at Nehalem Bay State Park. I have camped here many times. I will post photos and comments when I return on next Thursday afternoon.  I expect rain, wind, fog, and cool weather.  Likely to see very few campers in this fine park.


Here is my post from January 2022 from Nehalem Bay:

This park is quite large with a long sandy beach, sand dunes, shore pine forest, bay views, and many hiking, biking, and horseback riding trails and roads.  The park is over 4 miles long.  

There are 310 campsites in this Park.  There were only 10 trailers/RV campers, no tent campers, and 3 yurt campers.  Thus, the Park was 95% empty of any campers this cold rainy winter day.  I enjoy the privacy, the quiet, the solitude.  

Fog, drizzling, misting, low clouds, cold, light rain ... 

Today, I plan to drive through Manzanita, Nehalem, Wheeler, Rockaway Beach and Garibaldi.  I will stop at many places in these areas.  

I walked around Barview Jetty County Park near Garibaldi.  Crews were working on the north jetty entrance to Tillamook Bay.  

I visited Manhattan Beach Wayside Oregon State Park.  

I walked on a wood boardwalk through a swamp old growth cedar forest near Rockaway Beach, and along the beach and bay.  

I ate at the Big Wave restaurant in Manzanita twice: halibut fish tacos for lunch, and pan-fried razor clams for dinner... both were excellent!    

Plenty of restaurants, gift shops, services, library, market, and cafes in Manzanita and Rockaway Beach were open.  Nice homes in Manzanita.  


What to Do at Night?

Sunrise at 8 am and sunset at 5 pm.  15 hours of Darkness.  [Photography at night?]

Reading books, cellphone Kindle, and writing on my ASUS laptop.  Reading comfortably at night in my yurt:

The Sound of the Sea: Seashells and the Fate of the Oceans.  By Cynthia Barnett.  W.W. Norton, 2021, 432 pages.  VSCL. 


Nehalem Bay and Manzanita Local Information            

 Nehalem Bay State Park     Images    Google Map

Nehalem Bay State Park Wikipedia

Manzanita City   Population 400.  Motels, restaurants, cafes, grocery, gas, supplies.  Images    

Explore Manzanita

Manzanita Visitor Center

Manzanita   Restaurants    "You can enjoy a farm-to-table experience at several local restaurants;A Mighty ThaiBig Wave CafeBread & Ocean, and Neahkahnie Bistro just to name a few. Each serves seasonal, regional items year-round.  The area also features more conventional food offerings, including pizza, Mexican cuisine, casual fine dining, pies, pastries, contemporary and old-fashioned candy, ice cream and seafood."

Travel Options

Have a Great Time at the Beach

Neahkahnie Mountain   Hiking trails to peak.

Neahkahnie Mountain  "This peak is an inspiring place, where the Tillamook tribe believed their most powerful god resided. In fact, the name Neahkahnie comes from their words Ne ("place of") and Ekahnie {Ekone] ("supreme deity")."  

Four Days in Grayland   By Michael P. Garofalo.   Camping and travel adventures in the Pacific Northwest. 

Nehalem Valley Historical Society Museum in Manzanita

Nehalem City   Population 400.   Cafes, grocery, gas, supplies.  Images 

Nehalem Restaurants

Nehalem River     116 miles long.  Images

Nehalem Bay Area Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Center in Wheeler 

Oswald West State Park Wikipedia

Oswald West State Park

Lower Columbia River: Astoria to Portland, Ilwaco to Vancouver

Long Beach Peninsula  

Wheeler   Population 400.     Images   Cafes, grocery, gas, supplies.

I have camped in a Yurt at Nehalem Bay State Park five times in the last two decades. 

Yurt Camping in the Coastal Northwest     By Michael P. Garofalo

Nehalem Spit Trail

Fishing, crabbing, walking beach dunes and shore, kite flying, river side exploring, mountain trails hiking, kayaking. 



Rockaway Beach   Population 1,400.      Images    Google Map

Rockaway Beach Travel  

Rockaway Beach Restaurants

Rockaway Beach Old Growth Cedar Preserve   Raised boardwalk trail, 1.1 mile, into old growth cedar forest.  Bog and forest. 

Rockaway Big Tree Boardwalk  Includes the largest cedar tree in Oregon. 

All Trails

Lake Lytle Images

Lake Lytle Pier

Bar View Jetty Beach Walk  

Rockaway Beach Travel    Travel II

Motels, restaurants, cafes, grocery, gas, supplies.


The following photographs were obtained from the Internet:


Rockaway Beach




Lake Lytle, Rockaway Beach





Manzanita Beach





Boardwalk in Old Growth Cedar Forest


Cliffs above Manzanita, Highway 101




Nehalem Bay







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