As you were reading my last post in which I shared what I did with a 24 hour trip to Cannon Beach, you may have wondered where did breakfast go, as I only showed what I had for lunch and dinner on the beach. The answer to that is Camp 18 Restaurant is a coast must stop on the way to the Oregon Coast. Even before moving to Portland, when I first visited Oregon as a tourist and was taken to the Oregon Coast, it’s pretty become tradition that if we can, we stop for a meal on the way. Camp 18 Restaurant is located on US-26 between Portland and US-101, in Elsie. Almost every time, we stop here for breakfast or lunch and to appreciate the cat (no petting though, per request of the signs up). The classic American menu here serves breakfast until 2pm, but and also has a lunch and dinner section available after 11am. Camp 18 Restaurant is also a roadside attraction of history of the logging industry with a logging museum and loggers’ memorial. Note: the photos for this post are over multiple years of visits and may not reflect current Covid setup.

The name of Camp 18 Restaurant comes from its located at milepost 28 on Highway 26. In Oregon’s logging history, logging camps were usually numbered – and there you go. Camp 18 Restaurant has been offering family dining since 1986, but was a dream that started construction in the early ’70s by Gordon and Roberta Smith and logging friend the late Maurie Clark. Gordon, who with his own experience and knowledge of the logging industry (the story on the menu and Camp 18 website tells us he was called “Riggin Boss”), logged all the timber used in the 14,000 square foot log cabin himself and was hauled in, hand peeled, and draw knifed with help of his family and friends. Almost all the lumber used in this log cabin was cut in Goddon’s saw mill, set up on the property across Humbug Creek, that he had been running since 1966 and before the restaurant opened.