Thursday, July 3, 2014

Tillamook to Tumwater

We left the dairy cows, and lots of farmers cutting hay behind, and headed for the hills on Highway 6.

With the full intent of looking for curves, and avoiding Portland traffic, we took the Timber cutoff from Highway 6 headed for the bridge at Longview, Washington.

There was very little traffic. We never had anything in sight going our direction, but did have a fair number of empty logging trucks headed the other way. They were clearly not sightseeing...

There were lots of daises along the road as well as the ever present (at least in our travels this past month) purple foxglove.

At one point road signs and lights warned of a railroad crossing,

but the track left the clear impression that the crossing wasn't used often.
The town of Timber is supposed to have over 130 inhabitants. The only store front was closed up tight, but there was a handful of occupied homes in the area. The curves approaching town did a fine job of naturally limiting the speed through town.

There were a few tired barns along the way but they were well outnumbered by large, newer homes, especially as we got closer to Highway 30 and the river.

Once we started down the hill towards the bridge and the city of Longview, it was immediately apparent where the loaded log trucks were going. There were massive piles of logs on both sides of the river, and ships lined up loading logs, lumber, and wood chips.

The rest of the way north was on boring Interstate 5. Home for the next week will be the American Heritage RV Park where water/electric sites are nicer and less expensive that tent sites in Washington State Parks. 4 Bars of Verizon without the antenna or booster.

4 comments:

  1. Enjoyed the pics and narrative. Isn't it amazing that many tax supported State Parks cost more than private RV parks, nowadays?

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    1. It's interesting how different states set different pricing. State of Washington parks run about $10 higher per night than Oregon and charges for showers. Both are better than California!

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  2. I enjoyed your photos -- especially the railroad tracks. DH retired from the railroad so rusty, overgrown tracks are a novelty to me.

    Enjoy the hookups and the good rates. :)

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    1. Thanks, Sharon. Rust seems to draw me in. I want to know the stories it can tell.

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