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Spring has been a bit short on flowers and green to date with cold weather through most of April in the high desert.  If spring won’t come to you, you go to it.  So with that in mind we headed west, stopping in Corvallis for some fresh veggies at the farmers market and then on to the coast.  It seems like we’re still watching the snow melt and the farmers market in the valley was in full swing.

We arrived at the coast by mid afternoon, enough time for a hike to the end of the Cape.

I haven’t been back to Cape Lookout much since working there in the late 90’s.  We had a good hike, albeit muddy going for the last mile or so of the trail.  We made it to camp just in time for the rain that was forecasted  to come a bit later in the night.  We were still able to enjoy a nice fire without getting too soaked.  We also had a little friend come a visit as he was looking for some dinner in the shrubs that were blooming around camp.  He actually held still long enough for a few quick snaps in the fading evening light.

Amazingly this was the first night I’d camped at Cape Lookout.  A lot of the park is pretty similar to days gone by, but the loss of the fore dune that used to shelter the campground has continued and many more of the trees in the campground have died and been removed leaving many of the sites with a much more open feel.

The next morning we hit the beach and headed north.  After being on most of the beaches in Oregon I still think that the beach at Cape Lookout is one of, if not the best in Oregon.  Miles of sandy beach stretch out along the spit that separates Netarts Bay from the ocean.  With the park as the only access point and no development besides the campground you can quickly find a stretch of sand all to yourself.

We walked for an hour and a half and once we were away from the campground we didn’t pass another soul.  There were three people at the end of the spit, and we had the rest to ourselves.  It was a great minus tide giving us all kinds of sand to wander on.

As we returned there were literally more people flying in the sky than people on the beach on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

Check out time came around so we headed north to Cape Meares.

A quick lunch, a view of the lighthouse and a check in with the octopus tree to see that it was still alive and then it was already time to head home.  Where does the time go?