Tillamook, OR (Top 5 Things to Do near Tillamook)

We had a fabulous trip to Oregon two months ago, and when we went we decided to spend a couple days in Tillamook Oregon. It was a great addition to our trip to northern Oregon, and it was such a beautiful area. It was a gorgeous drive to get there and I’m already trying to figure out when we can take our next trip to Tillamook (or even more dreamy – buy a beach house there!)

 Top 5 things to do near Tillamook, Oregon:

1)  Tillamook Cheese Factory

2) Cape Meares Lighthouse

3) Tide Pools north of Garibaldi

4) Go crabbing (or at least eat fresh crab)

5) Go to the beach – Cape Look Out State Park

 

We stayed one night in Tillamook, right on the beach in an adorable house that we got through Airbnb. On the way to the house we stopped in at the Tillamook Factory, more on that visit here. For dinner the night before we went to Pacific Restaurant, in Tillamook, it was really good but the service wasn’t the best – they were just super slow and didn’t check on us for water or anything.

Well the weather was a little rainy (go figure) so we visited the Tillamook air museum (besides the building being made completely of wood and being ginormous and the largest clear span wooden structure in the world, it was not heated and was freezing and there weren’t a lot of planes to see. The hanger used to be used for blimps.)

Then the weather cleared up for a bit and we visited Cape Meares Lighthouse. The views from the lighthouse and the walk to the lighthouse were gorgeous!  Some of the best views of the Pacific Ocean out there, with the steep cliff lined with pines and the waves crashing against.

We were going to go crabbing but with the bad weather we decided not to, so Nate bought some live crabs and oysters to steam for himself and he was completely in heaven.

We also took a quick walk down to the beach and enjoyed feeling the sand between our toes a little before a second trip to the Tillamook factory for more ice cream.  Read about the Tillamook factory here.

 

The weather cleared up for us enough that evening that we were able to drive to this amazing rocky beach area we had spotted before and wanted to take pictures at and we found some wonderful tide pools. They’re just north of Garibaldi and near the restaurant Pirate’s Cove. We spotted lots of little anemones, a couple star fish, and lots of little fish and it was so fun to explore them and the area!

 

 

The next morning we woke up lazily, took a walk down to the beach. Because you can’t stay at a beach house and not visit the actual beach. I just love taking off my shoes and putting my toes in the sand, even though it was a little too cold to go swimming. We took a short walk along the beach which was beautiful, but with the morning wind a little chilly.

And of course before heading back to the city we made one more stop at the Tillamook factory 😉