Three Capes Scenic Loop, November 5, 2015, and back to the Portland area

The Three capes Scenic Loop was written up in the recent Tillamook CoasT Guide  having the most beautiful views of the Oregon Coast.  OK....Let's see.   So we headed out to see the sights and and see if the views really were truly the most beautiful views of the Oregon Coast.  I note that this is the Oregon Coast and there are some pretty dramatic views along the Big Sur Coast near where I grew up so Coastal views may not have the same Wow factor to me as to some other folks who have never seen dramatic coastal views.

We headed north out of Pacific City to our first stop at the lay Clay Myers  State Natural Area and explored Whalen Island.  Not bad, but I wouldn't call the views any better than what I've seen so far.  Miles and miles of beach and sand to walk on, and for Tara to explore. Easy walking for Joel.  No hills. :)

Continuing north, there were lots of views and pull outs along the way.   The next stop was Oceanside Beach State Recreation Site, with lots of nice white sandy beaches.  What was intriguing about this beach is that there is a a tunnel that goes through Maxwell Point and onto Tunnel Beach.

Myers Point and Oceanside Beach.  The little village reminded me of some of the villages in Europe.

The tunnel that goes through Myers Point to Tunnel Beach

 This is the exit on to Tunnel Beach

 Great views of three arches rocks from tunnel beach.

 Look closely at the trees on top.  The roots are totally exposed.  It looks like the trees are barely hanging on.

 Nice rock art near the entrance to the tunnel

 View of the rocks from Oceanside beach. Finally, a little sun!

We continued on to our next stop at Capes Meares.

 These views are more like the Big Sur Coast. Not too bad!

 The lighthouse at Cape Meares

 Another view of three arches rock

The Octopus Tree and Meares Cape. The tree has 16 trunks. No one knows why or what caused this.

So far the views have been beautiful, but I  can't say they are the most beautiful because there is more coast to see.

The next morning we planned to head out and do more exploring, but we discovered the batteries were not getting charged and were down to 9 volts....a big no no in the RV world. Batteries at full charge are usually at 13.5. Nine volts is way less than the 50% charge recommended.   Our 12 volt system powers the lights and heater and if the batteries get too low nothing works.   Joel called the dealer and was given a few things to check and nothing worked, so we hitched up and headed back to the dealer in Gladstone.  The main reason for sticking around the Portland/Oregon Coast was just in case something like this were to happen.

Fortunately, we were only a few hours drive from Gladstone and arrived at the dealer in time for them to check things out before they closed. The tech ran a few tests and determined the converter/charger had failed and needed to be replaced. I'm still not clear why it failed, but there was no question about replacing it  Also the heater had an addition issue; it was discovered that there was factory debris on the circuit board which was causing the heater to not work properly.

We had previously scheduled  an appointment to do a walk through some to address some  minor "fix-it" issues.  The dealer was able to address all the little problems while we were there, so we cancelled the appointment.  We spent two nights at the Airstream lot, just to make sure everything continued to work, which it did.  I must say at this point, I am ready to head south and find some dryer weather.  (I think I said that in my last post). It has rained everyday since we have been Oregon.

So, we hit the trail again, this time heading  towards Eugene to get a consultation from AM Solar and to catch up with Joel's brother and sister -in-law. Solar is in the future, but not right away, but we wanted to get an idea on what we might need and how much it will cost.  The jury is still out if we will have AM Solar complete the work or Joel will complete the work. $$$$$. Airstreams factory installed inverters and converter chargers are not that great, which is a disappointment as other components seem to be upper end

Next stop, as we meander down the coast, staying at a few State Parks, but the next non overnight stop will be Bandon. Let's see how the Bandon beaches compare to the Three Capes Scenic Loop:)