After a long period of being snow bound and recovering from illness and injuries Lori and I decided it was time for a road trip. Our destination was to find the lost city of Bayocean. Lori had never been to the Tillamock spit, the location of the “city that fell into the sea.” I had not visited there in almost 20 years so a visit was long over due. On the way down to Tillamock on Hwy 6 we stopped at the old Smith homestead, now a state park, to check out the water level in the Wilson River. After arriving in Tillamock we made our first attempt to find the parking lot for the Tillamock spit and ended up at Cap Meares. We should have had an option to get to the spit from here but the road was closed. Google maps did not have this bit of information on it which would have been helpful. So we had to backtrack to find another route.
Having returned almost to Tillamock we found Bayocean road and found that all the signed had been removed that once point to the park. On finally getting to the parking lot we headed out on the spit road to find where the town of Bayocean once was. They have put up a sign marking the spot of the old town and where some of the building were. We crossed over from the bay side to the ocean side and head down the beach. It was a good day for a beach walk with little wind and not rain. We went past what was left of the forested dune that the hotel once sat on 250 ft above the ocean. A short ways past this spot we took a trail back over to the bay side and started back.
For me what made the whole trip worth while was when we took a trail back to the beach part way in the forested dune area. Here we found a view spot where we could see how wide and how forested this area was. Even had some large old growth trees. You would have never imagine this area could be eaten away by the sea and that houses, hotels and more would fall into it.
After our search for Bayocean and on our way heading home we stopped off at pelican brewery for a bite to eat and a visit to Tillamock Cheese. In all my years I had never visited Tillamock Cheese that is a very popular tourist attraction. So now I have been.
