We drove into the Tillamook forest to escape for a night and engulf ourselves with nature. We were disappointed by the thought that just two days/one night might not be enough, but we almost immediately realized the quantity did not matter as much as the quality. So there we were, two ladies with a case of Rainer lying in the sun by a turquoise swimming hole with a rock ledge jump listening to the birds and the water flowing downstream beside us.

Until sundown, I photographed the scenery and jumped on and off the ledge into the water; while I am not scared of heights I definitely had to crush the fear that I would smash into a rock and die. Crystal cheered me on, collected rocks and gushed over the patterns of the water.

We went back to our campsite to start a fire and as we drifted apart to find kindling, Crystal comes running over to show me she discovered a mutually desired oasis for our tent. We immediately pick up the tent, without disassembling by the way, and carry it to a different campsite in a tree encompassed nook. We run back and fourth through the poison ivy lined pathways to transport our gear laughing about how ridiculous we must look.

We start a fire, we cook our food, we drink our beer, we smoke our green, we stare at the stars, and we attempt to pee in the woods throughout the night surrounded by poison ivy. The raw morning sunshine awoke us the next day.

We absorbed its rays, lying on the rocks by the swimming hole all morning as much as our skin would let us. We decided we may as well hit up the coast while we were just 20 minutes away. We took a hike in Cape Meares State Park westward through the woods to the ocean.

The end of the trail is near, we begin to hear the softness of the waves crash down louder and louder. As we exit the forest and enter the last bit of the trail along side some wild flowers, we come to a ledge with a rope we must climb down in order to put our feet in the sand.

Our long awaited vision of the ocean had completely faded and our eyes became nearly blinded by the vast emptiness and the luminous white-out that surrounded us. It felt like we had hiked to “the end”…in more ways than one. You couldn’t see more than 50ft in front of you. How strangely eerie to be in the presence of something so colossal, deep and mysterious yet unable to comprehend how tall the waves actually are. A truly unique ocean experience.