Cape Meares, OR

Cape Meares is a Tillamook County coastal community where the Pacific meets Tillamook Bay, about fifteen minutes west of Tillamook on the north end of the Three Capes route. The neighborhood has roughly 160 homes, a mix of full-time and intermittent residents, and no commercial strip. Roads, wetlands, Lake Meares, the beach, and the cape itself do the orienting, with the Cape Meares National Wildlife Refuge and the state scenic viewpoint shaping the horizon.

The lighthouse, Octopus Tree, viewpoints, seabird cliffs, and whale-watch overlooks bring a steady stream of day visitors, while residents' daily work runs through the community association, volunteer fire station, county-maintained roads, and septic systems. The Cape Meares Community Association manages more than 106 acres of community forest, a beachfront wetland parcel, and the Barbara Bennett Community Center in the old Bayocean Schoolhouse. Cape Meares has a rare coastal balance: a residential neighborhood with no commercial center, held together by a lake, a lighthouse, a forest, and the people who maintain the road to all of it.