9/8 Cape Meares Lighthouse

Today, I went for a drive to the cheese factory and then to the nearby lighthouse.  You can see these three rocks from the campground, but it was a very pleasant drive along the beach.   

Maybe I could live here?  This is Oceanside, Oregon, a very pretty place. 

Good motorhome parking at the Cape Meares state park by the lighthouse.  Now if only cars would not park in the RV spaces....   Grrrr!

Nice entrance sign for the lighthouse.

I have visited a lot of lighthouses on both coasts of the U.S. and this is the strangest one because you walk downhill to get to it. 

If I had longer arms, I could have touched the top of the lighthouse from the path.

It's a very short lighthouse because it is on a tall cliff.  The lens is a First Order Fresnel, which is the largest they come.  I learned that the order is measured by how wide the lens is in diameter--6' in this case.  The biggest lens I have seen, and I think the biggest in existence, is the Cape Canaveral lens, in the museum just south of Daytona Beach, and possibly the Cape Hatteras lighthouse, which at 270' is the tallest in the U.S.  (Can't remember the name of the lighthouse museum, but will look it up.)

No matter.  This short light can be seen 30 miles out to sea! 

Another beautiful view of the coast, looking northward.