Captain’s Blog July 1, 2011 (Day 56) Campers Cove CG, Tillamook Air Museum, Munson Creek Falls

Ron got up early and took a walk to the Ranger Station to see if we could get one more night at  the Cape Lookout CG. No luck, so I called Campers Cove as instructed by the ranger and guess what? (Full hook-ups) We got a campsite for the next two nights ! All my worrying for nothing. And Ron was right once again – as usual. Ron calls me the eternal pessimist and I guess he is right – just can’t get past that worry gene.

Campers Cove was only 12 miles down the road but still took us 30 minutes to get there because of the road conditions. CC is a small CG with very nice people running it. We got full hook-ups for $26.00 a night. Not bad for a holiday W/E. Not close to the ocean though and most likely why so cheap  and available.

After settling in we decided to take in the Tillamook Air Museum. We wanted to see it mostly because of the building the planes are housed in. It is a WWII Blimp hanger made completely of wood.

In 1942, the U.S. Navy began construction of 17 wooden hangars around the U.S. coastlines to house K-class blimps being used for anti-submarine coast patrol and convoy escort. Two were built at the Naval Air Station in Tillamook. They were commissioned in December 1942 and served the Oregon-Washington coastal area.

 

Construction of the two hangers was rushed to completion. Hanger B was the first to be built and took nine months while Hangar A (which was destroyed in a 1991 fire) was completed in only 27 days!

Stationed at NAS Tillamook was Squadron ZP-33 with a compliment of 8 K-ships. The K-ships were 252 feet long and filled with 425,000 cubic feet of helium. With a range of 2000 miles and an ability to stay aloft for 3 days, they were well suited for coastal patrol and convoy escort. NAS Tillamook was decommissioned in 1948.

Since 1994, the remaining hanger has been home to one of the finest collections of privately owned WWII flying aircraft in the nation.

 

We never knew there were so many different classes of Blimps.

                                        

 

The hangar is so big that they had a Balloon Festival in it and it held 20 fully inflated Hot Air Balloons.

This is amazing because the balloons are really BIG and there is still room at the top of the hangar.

 

After leaving the Air Museum we decided to take  a hike to Munson Creek Falls. It is the tallest water fall on the Oregon coastline.

 

 

The green colors of the leaves are spectacular. Like someone dropped a bucket of bright green paint on ever leaf.

 

The CG owners feed the local raccoons. There are usually three and Ron was told not to feed them. I’m thinking they shouldn’t be either.

On Saturday we plan to tour the Mears Lighthouse and visit the Tillamook Forest center to check out the story on the Tillamook Burn.