Enjoy a Whalen expedition
On the ocean side of the Three Capes Scenic Loop between Pacific City and Tillamook, lies an island that even people who are planning to visit must be vigilant not to miss. But once across the bridge that takes you to the Whalen Island Campground and Clay Myers State Natural Area, you’ll find a small heaven for campers, hikers, fisherman and kayakers.
Camp host Rosa Waechter grew up nearby and returned after almost 60 years because of the beauty and quiet found there, thanks in part to the distance from nearby towns and lack of wi-fi or cell towers.
“I have parents that bring their kids out here just to get them away from their devices,” she said. “The kids are usually upset at first that there is no service, but they end up having fun doing things like going out in the estuary and digging up clams.”
Next to the county-run campground, the Clay Myers State Natural Area, which became an Oregon State Park in 2000, is a coastal estuarine ecosystem bounded by the Sand Creek estuary that provides valuable habitat for salmon. The area includes mixed woodlands, grasslands, fresh and saltwater wetlands and a rare native dune sedgeland.
The natural area includes a 1.4-mile hiking loop that winds through shore pines, salal and occasional sand dunes and is a nice family-friendly stroll for all ages, but unfortunately isn’t recommended for wheelchairs or strollers. Leashed dogs are allowed.
“People come here for the first time and ask what there is there to do,” Waechter said. “There is so much! If you don’t want to just relax, there’s hiking, kayaking, fishing, clamming and bird-watching.”
If you show up under-prepared, the nearby Sandlake Grocery & Gas has some supplies, and Kayak Tillamook gives guided paddling trips into the estuary with all supplies provided.
“I always recommend either checking the tide before you go out to the inlet or going out with the local guides,” Waechter said. “When the tide turns, the water becomes shallow and swift.”
Whalen Island is across from the Sandocean spit, a snowy plover protection area, so walkers that make it along the estuary to the sandy shores at low tides should keep their eyes peeled for the birds.
“People also ask if they can get to the ocean from here, which is possible on the low tide,” Waechter said. “But I don’t really recommend it because the tide rises pretty quickly and then you're stuck, which actually happened not that long ago and the people had to walk for hours to get back.”
This is actually Waechter’s second stint as a camp host at Whalen Island, punctuated by a great loss.
“I retired in 2005 and my husband and I became full time RVers,” she said. “After a few years we found out there was a position here for park hosts. We loved it because hosting gives you a purpose, unlike traveling all the time. We were here from roughly 2009 to 2012, but then my husband became ill and we bought a house in Portland. It wasn’t very long before he passed away and, once I was on my own, I didn’t want to live in the house all by myself, so I asked my sister-in-law, Peggy Howard-Hintz, who is also a widow, if she wanted to come back here with me to camp host again and we’ve been here now for three seasons.”
Waechter, born and raised in tiny Hemlock, at the intersection of Sandlake Road and Highway 101, is a great conversationalist and loves sharing stories of what the area was like in the 1940s and ’50s.
“I went to school by the building where Bear Creek Artichokes is now,” she said. “Where the mechanic place is, that was one of the small creameries that was where Tillamook cheese was made before the big Tillamook Creamery building was built.”
The Sandlake Grange, which celebrated more than 150 years in 2016, was the center of their existence when she was growing up.
“My mom taught sewing at the grange and I remember going there for sewing classes. Until she passed away she had the grange-provided car insurance. We had teen dances and square dances but, because I was so young, I would mostly sleep on the bench while my parents danced. My mom even made them matching square-dancing outfits.”
Sitting and chatting with Waechter, unconnected from the cellular grid and watching a father and son fish with poles from the bridge, I was easily transported to an earlier time, and can see why she would return to this special place.
“There are still people living in the area that I know from growing up,” she said. “It’s similar enough to the way I was raised and I just feel so good here.”
For more information about the Clay Myers State Natural Area, go to stateparks.oregon.gov. For more information about the year-round camping at Whalen Island, go to www.co.tillamook.or.us.