Cape Kiwanda and the Oregon Coast – Tacoma Travel Photographer

I’m a sucker for road trips. I love getting away from my usual grind for just a few days or even a single day. I think we are all somewhat nomadic by nature, we aren’t meant to stare at the same things every day. We all need time away from familiarity to reacquaint ourselves with the world we live in. It’s something that centers you. And it’s fun too of course!

The first weekend of the new year (2016) my good bud Jorgen and I made plans for travel. We drove down the coast to Manzanita, OR from Tacoma at night so we could camp in my car and get out and shoot early. When we arrived in Manzanita it was a clear night but it was damn cold, we relaxed a bit and unwound from the drive before crashing for the night so we could catch crucial Zzzz’s. I took a photo of the stars and used a flashlight to light up Jorg and our campsite before we went to bed.

We rose early, around 5am and got ready to hit the road and get down to Pacific City. The main purpose of this trip was to get to shoot around Cape Kiwanda. Neither of us had been before so we were pretty pumped to get to explore. After scoring some coffee at a local espresso shack in Manzanita we got on the highway and made our way down the coast. We passed through Tillamook and the Cheese Factory and got to see the beautiful countryside just a little ways inland from the Pacific Ocean. The light was gorgeous as the Sun was slowly waking up. We made a pit stop in a small town and caught some of the first light on the Coast. The sky and the reflections in the water slowly absorbing into the sand was pretty breath taking, blues and pink tones stretched across the beach and dissipating into the surf.

Upon arrival in Pacific City we quickly made our way atop the dunes and got to exploring. The sheer magnitude of the dunes around the Cape is staggering. The biggest dune has to be well over 100′ above sea level and it has trees growing on top of it. Once we got onto the more rocky areas of the Cape we got a panoramic view of the Ocean and the beach and the massive seastack emerging from the Ocean before us. The colors out here were unreal, vibrant desert tones clashing with brilliant blues from the water. We spent a few hours checking out the location before getting back in the car and heading back North with stops in Cannon Beach and Astoria.

I’ve been coming to the Oregon coast since I was just a kid and it’s always held a very special place in my heart. I’ll keep coming back and I’ll keep exploring all of it’s wonders.