Manzanita, Oregon
Our first stop after the long flight across the country is in Manazanita, OR. I am afraid the first two days of this trip will be our best two days because this walkable little town is on the most beautiful beach that I have ever seen. At low tide, the beach seems to stretch unendingly. There are dogs playing and kite surfers performing. Even when you are sharing the beach with others it feels as if you are walking it alone because there is just so much space. Our beach walk upon arriving is perfectly timed for solitude.
The next morning we get up early to drive the 30 minutes north to Cannon Beach. There are signs on this hilly road that hugs the coast. They warn us when the road dips that we are entering a tsunami hazard zone and to seek higher land. When the hill is high enough they tell us that we are now in a safe zone. Up and down we go, either safe or not as we make our way towards a 235’ sea stack which is truly the biggest rock on a beach that I’ve ever seen.
We have been warned that this beach town is the opposite of solitary. When you have an unusually big rock in your town, you also have an opportunity to pull tourists in. We pass lots of campgrounds and cottages and small hotels along the way.
Low tide is when you are able to walk out to Haystack Rock and since it is very early on this day we are on the beach before most of the vacationers have even stood in their coffee lines. It’s slightly foggy which gives the beach an ethereal, quiet vibe. The few early beach walkers we encounter, like us, are drawn like a magnet to this giant rock towering over this town.
Our next stop is just south of town at Hug Point. Its name tells a story. When this was the only road along the coast, the big rock jutting out into the sea made for treacherous travel for stagecoaches as they had to hug the rock base at low tide in order to continue on their journey. How many of them over-estimated the time they had to venture on that little slip of dry land before the tide came rushing back in? We trace their steps, following the wheel ruts carved into the rock. After 5 minutes we turn around and realize that the tide has already covered the beach we had just walked on. Our shoes fill with water as we hurriedly make our way back to our car.
Cedar trees seem to go hand in hand with the Pacific Northwest and our next stop at Rockaway Big Tree Trailhead gives us the opportunity to experience these gentle giants. Walking the boardwalk through this forest that touches the sky is humbling. Their height, their diameter, their 800 year old story makes my lifetime seem like simply a grain of sand in the hourglass of time. We really are so very small.
Our midday meal is at a restaurant nearby called Pirate’s Cove. We sit next to a wall of windows and quietly watch the crab and oyster boats troll the big beautiful bay situated amongst the mountains.
We return to our room in Manzanita. It is in a makeshift bamboo forest. I lay in the hammock, watching the bamboo above me sway gently in the breeze and think about all these peaceful places we experienced in just one day.
We walk the beach one more time. It is dinnertime and because of that we have this enormous beach practically to ourselves. We only share it with figures that are so far away they look like little dots. When I need to remember what tranquility feels like, I will remember this day and how we found it in water and trees and rocks and sand.