OREGON
Oregon Road Trip - Day 4
By today I was falling asleep in my car much, much faster. And I even got to sleep in a bit! I probably didn’t get out of the campsite until 10 AM.
My first stop I actually had to backtrack a bit by 15 minutes to Thor’s Well. It was raining pretty hard for the fifteen or so minutes I was there so it was a little hard to look at.
There’s spouting horn on the left hand side of the pull-off area, similar to Nakalele Blowhole.
Then Thor’s Well is I think on the right, or the center? But I’m not sure because I think the waves were large enough to cover it completely. I don’t think I see a sinkhole in any of my pictures of that area.
I considered backtracking all the way back to Heceta Head (the lighthouse I missed the previous day) but it was an additional 15 minutes back and I didn’t want to kill an entire 30 minutes just for a picture.
My campsite companion had mentioned a place called Devil’s Punchbowl on the Oregon coast so I decided to stop there on my way to Tillamook Creamery. It’s about 50 minutes to get there.
I thought it was really cool, it’s a sea cave where the ceiling collapsed in so you see the water flowing in and out from the top. It’s the same structure as Natural Bridge from the previous day on the Samuel H Boardman Scenic Corridor.
Sidenote but, what’s up with all the Devil stuff on the Oregon coast? There’s a bunch of place the Devil supposedly owns hahaha.
I was pretty hungry and excited to head to Tillamook, about an hour and a half drive. I did 0 of my own research about this place as it was a coworker recommendation so I was picturing a random ice cream place for some reason. Instead, it’s an enormous cheese operation with a food court, gift shop and museum. The parking lot is huge and it was pretty crowded inside.
I was so relieved to be able to get a cheeseburger and fries.
They gave out cheese samples on the second floor and had windows looking down on the factory floor, explaining the cheese making process.
All told this was a pretty cool spot and I probably hung out there about an hour.
I had put on my itinerary a 4.6 mile hike at Oswald West State Park. This was a replacement for Ecola State Park which was highly raved about but unfortunately was closed. However when I looked at the time and what there was to do in Astoria, I decided to skip the hike and go straight to my hotel.
I’m glad I did because I didn’t really think about how it was a random Tuesday in a sleepy coastal city in Oregon. All the restaurants and breweries closed around 8 PM.
So I drove to Astoria and checked into the Hotel Elliot. This is a really nice location and you can walk to many of the suggested breweries and restaurants from there. It also has complimentary breakfast and a rooftop lounge if you’re there during good weather. There isn’t really parking though. Thankfully for me that didn’t matter since I was only staying about 15 hours.
After exploring the hotel, showering and washing my hair, and catching up on my journal (so I could remember everything I did for this very blog!) I finally mustered the energy to walk around town and get some beer.
I linked my source in the itinery page but here was the list of breweries I wanted to check out:
- Buoy Beer sits right on the water and is one of the most well-known breweries in town. They have excellent beer and a surprisingly good clam chowder
- Fort George Brewery is nestled in the city’s historic district, and has great beer and and a tantalizing selection of wood fired pizzas.
- Astoria Brewing Company was the first microbrewery in town, and it has great beers and a pretty extensive food menu with daily specials.
- Reach Break Brewing has a nice outdoor patio, punctuated with a handful of food trucks.
- Hondo’s Brewpub: Quaint local feel with a dog theme.
Buoy Beer was closed that day so I had to skip, but I did walk by it along the boardwalk.
Instead I started with Astoria Brewing Company. I got a flight and chilled in the tasting room. The strawberry ale and blueberry beer really stood out to me, but I thought it was all delicious.
At this point I liked wandering around but I knew I’d need real food before drinking any more. I was on my way over to Reach Break when I came across Tora Sushi. Essentially I ate there on a whim, no recommendation. I don’t know if I’d actually recommend it.
The food was good but not as great as I’d imagine considering it’s so close to the ocean. I got a sake flight here, but it wasn’t an Oregon sake flight like I would’ve hoped for.
Then I looked at the hours of the remaining breweries and thought, “oh crap!” – it was 7:30 PM and Reach Break closed at 8 PM. So I paid my bill and hustled over to Reach Break Brewing. I asked the bartender if it was okay if I hung out a bit and he was actually totally chill.
There was one other patron there and the three of us ended up hanging out for an hour and a half. The bartender let me try a bunch of beers and I ended up taking six cans to go for the rest of my trip. It was a really cool experience getting to know these guys and how they ended up in Astoria.
The bartender also recommended I check out Bridge & Tunnel Bottleshop & Taproom. I didn’t have time myself but I would one hundred percent take his word that it’s a great place to visit as well.
At 9:30 I figured I’d get out of the bartender’s hair and head back to the hotel to drink one of my beers and watch TV.