By Dave G. Houser and Jan Butchofsky-Houser
We
had been duly warned. "Never,"
said a photographer friend of ours from Portland, "plan a drive along the
Oregon Coast in the spring - unless you're a glutton for rain, wind or fog."
During
the weeks running up to our long-planned pre-season drive down the
363-mile-long stretch of rock, wave and forest edging Oregon's share of the
Pacific Coast, we'd contacted reservationists and Chamber of Commerce personnel
who reluctantly confessed to gloomy conditions at the time. So things did not look good. Still, for us, the lure of having
sinuous and sublimely scenic Highway 101 largely to ourselves made it worth the
risk of encountering foul weather.
It was a possibility further reinforced by the record high gas prices of
last April.
To
spare you any suspense we will tell you now that we enjoyed flawless,
picture-perfect conditions from the moment we launched our four-day journey in
Astoria until a final moment of romancing with nature on Whalehead Beach at
Samuel H. Boardman State Park near Brookings, just minutes from the California
border. The brilliant weather may
well have been a stroke of luck but we will be eternally grateful for the
opportunity to experience what we consider to be America's number one scenic drive
under fair skies and well ahead of the summer crowds.
Our
only regret is that we didn't allow enough time for the trip. There are simply so many things to see
and do along the Oregon Coast that you'll need a week or more to fit in just
the most essential features.
Consider for a moment that there are 79 state parks along the route,
plus nine historic lighthouses, the world's largest sea cave, North America's
largest expanse of coastal dunes and a string of charming towns bristling with
boutiques, galleries, museums and restaurants. This coast abounds, too, with recreational opportunities,
including fishing, clamming, whale watching, surfing, wind sailing, kayaking,
golf, dune buggying, cycling, kite flying, birding and beachcombing, to list
some of the most popular activities.
Clearly
we can't get our arms around all of this in a single article so we've condensed
our experiences from this and previous visits to highlight what we regard as
the top ten "must see" attractions of the coast - traveling North to South.
Astoria/Warrenton History
buffs will want to dwell a bit in Astoria. Oregon's northernmost coastal outpost was established in
1811 with the founding of Fort Astoria, making it the oldest American
settlement west of the Rockies.
Probably more important from an historical standpoint was the arrival in
1805 of the Lewis & Clark Expedition that spent the winter of 1805-1806
bivouacked at Fort Clatsop beside the Columbia River near present-day
Warrenton.
A
reproduction of the Fort Clatsop encampment was the focal point of the Lewis
& Clark National Historical Park until it was destroyed by fire in the fall
of 2005. Reconstruction of the
rustic log complex was well underway during our visit and should be completed
sometime during the summer.
There
are several other component features to the park, including nearby Fort
Stevens, which served to guard the mouth of the Columbia from the Civil War
through WWII. This is a great
place to stretch your legs while exploring decommissioned bunkers, coastal gun
batteries and the wreck of the 19th century British bark Peter
Iredale that came aground here in
1906. Or you can slip across the
four-mile-long Astoria-Megler Bridge spanning the Columbia River to Washington
for a visit to Cape Disappointment's inviting beaches, its 1856 lighthouse, and
newly expanded Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center.
The
steep hillside overlooking Astoria's bustling riverfront is dotted with nicely
restored 19th century Victorian mansions. You can tour one of the finest of them, the exquisite Queen
Anne-style Flavel House. It was
built in 1886 by George Flavel, an entrepreneur and long-time bar pilot, whose
job it was to guide ships through the treacherous mouth of the Columbia.
Astoria
has a long and colorful history dating to its earliest days as a fur trading
post through its heydays as a commercial port and as a center for salmon
fishing and canning. All of this
history and more is engagingly portrayed through exhibits and interactive
displays at the Columbia River Maritime Museum on Astoria's waterfront. Often cited as the best museum of its
kind on the Pacific Coast, CRMM is definitely worth a visit.
Cannon
Beach Named for a cannon that washed ashore from a shipwrecked
schooner in 1846, Cannon Beach is Oregon's answer to Carmel or La Jolla,
California. Its main drag, Hemlock
Street, is lined with high-toned shops, galleries and pricey inns and
restaurants. Million dollar homes - many of them richly sided and shingled in weathered redwood or cedar -
overlook a broad expanse of driftwood-strewn beach and massive Haystack Rock,
the world's third largest monolith.
Cannon Beach is a class act and merits some budget stretching should you
be lured to shop, dine or stay awhile.
Go
to Ecola State Park, on the town's northern edge, for a splendid view of Cannon
Beach with the surf pounding into Haystack Rock and spilling over a scenic
ensemble of lesser sea stacks and boulders.
Garibaldi With its scruffy harbor redolent with
odors of the day's catch, Garibaldi is the absolute opposite of fashionable
Cannon Beach - and that's why we like it so much.
It's the quintessential example of a hard-working fishing port or, as one
local wag put it, "a quaint drinking village with a serious fishing problem."
Take
a stroll along the wharf where trawlers and seiners unload their catch at a
string of steaming processing plants that hum with activity to supply the
steady demand for fresh seafood.
You won't find it any better or fresher that at one of the rickety
restaurants along this wharf. If
you are into angling, Garibaldi is a good place to book a charter boat to go
fishing for salmon, tuna or bottom fish.
Tillamook Just a
few miles down the road you can surprise your taste buds with a totally
different treat - one the nation's leading brands of cheddar cheese. The verdant dairy farms that spread
inland from the town of Tillamook produce more than 75 million gallons of milk
annually, most of which goes into the production of Tillamook cheese.
The
company's huge ultra-modern factory sits right on Highway 101 and welcomes
visitors to take a free self-guided tour.
From a glass-enclosed balcony above the cheeseworks floor you see large
rooms full of stainless steel vats and conveyor lines loaded down with golden
chunks of cheddar run by smock-clad cheesewrights who, in this antiseptic
setting, resemble hospital personnel.
Continuous loop videos explain what's going on. Few cheddar-related questions will go
unanswered here. There's a tasting
room and gift shop, of course, and a deli/cafeteria that team up to make this
an informative and pleasant stop.
There's
another oversized and rather unusual attraction just south of town - the
Tillamook Air Museum - housed in a WWII blimp hangar that lays claim
(substantiated by the Guinness Book of World Records) to being the world's largest clear-span wooden
building. The 15-story high hangar
covers 7.5 acres and contains a collection of old warplanes and, no surprise, a
blimp.
Three
Capes Scenic Loop Highway 101 runs inland for a stretch
from Tillamook south to Neskowin but you can take in the dramatic coastal
scenery in between by heading west out of Tillamook on 3rd Street to
join a scenic loop that touches three prodigious promontories - Cape Meares,
Cape Lookout and Cape Kiwanda.
There's
a stubby 1890 lighthouse measuring just 38 feet tall that's open to visitors at
Cape Meares and at Cape Lookout (a favorite among hang gliders) there's a
wonderful five-mile round-trip trail to the end of the cape. If your timing is good you can watch
with amazement as the daring doreymen of Pacific City launch their high-bowed
boats from the beach, and through the surf, at Cape Kiwanda. If not the boatmen, the multi-colored
sandstone cliffs flanking the beach will have you grabbing for your camera.
Newport Situated
on Yaquina Bay, Newport is home to several of the Central Coast's most popular
attractions. But first, as you
rejoin Highway 101 and drive south from Neskowin keep an eye out for
kites. Lincoln City is located on
the 45th parallel where reliable winds and certain other
meteorological phenomena make for ideal kite-flying conditions. The oddly named D River Beach hosts
four international kite-flying competitions each year.
Just
before you reach the town of Newport watch for signs to Yaquina Head
Lighthouse. Built in 1873, this
93-foot-tall beauty is the tallest light on the Oregon Coast and overlooks the
Bureau of Land Management (BLM) maintained Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural
Area. This is indeed an
outstanding area to observe resting seabirds and is the best place we found
along the coast to go tidepooling.
These
intertidal rock pools are alive with sea anemones, sea urchins, multi-colored
sea stars, bright orange chitons, sea cucumbers, hermit crabs, mussels and sculpins. Rangers and/or student naturalists are
usually at hand to describe the various marine lifeforms to visitors.
While
these pools are easily accessible - some even by wheelchair - if you're at all
adverse to getting your feet wet go directly to the Oregon Coast Aquarium, just
beyond the graceful Yaquina Bay Bridge in Newport. Here, at the coast's most popular attraction, docents will
let you view and even handle many of the same intertidal critters you'll find
in the wild. At an outdoor exhibit
sea otters amuse the crowds by amusing themselves, or so it seems. Back inside there's an amazing acrylic
walkthrough exhibit dubbed "Passages of the Deep." This underwater tube reveals the fishes and other creatures
to be found in three different deep sea environments.
While
not as slick as OCA the adjacent Oregon State University (OSU) Mark O. Hatfield
Marine Science Center takes a more academic approach to its exhibits which
relate to such topics as preserving biodiversity and predicting climate change. A project of the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the OSU center also examines the threat of
Tsunamis from an underwater volcano just 275 miles off the Oregon Coast. Local interest in the subject has
picked up considerably in the wake of the deadly Asian tsunami of December 26,
2004.
Back
on the north side of the bridge - one of 11 elegant spans along the coast
designed in the 1930s by Oregonian Conde McCullough - head down the hill on
your right to Newport's Historic Bayfront. Here, the town's working waterfront rubs shoulders with
cutsie shops, bars, restaurants and tourist attractions. There's an authentic tackiness to the
place, something akin to Monterey's Cannery Row of 20 years ago. The bellowing you're likely to hear
emanates from a congregation of spoiled sea lions lounging on an abandoned
dock. Visitors gather to watch as
dominant bulls roar and lung menacingly at youngsters who attempt to usurp
their space.
We
mustn't fail here to give coastal Oregon's fabulous seafood its full due. With sources immediately at hand to
supply same-day fresh crab, clams, oysters, mussels, salmon, snapper, halibut
and ling cod to name a few, you can hardly go wrong at any of the restaurants
that crowd the Bayfront. Our
midday visit found us enjoying rich, tasty bowls of justifiably famous clam
chowder at Mo's. If there's a line
out front, try Mo's Annex across the street. A local acquaintance favors the chowder at Whale's Tail, but
then every restaurant in Newport claims to have the best clam chowder. For dinner we were guided to the Inn at
Otter Crest, seven miles north of town, where the seafood at the Flying
Dutchman proved savory in company with a spacious view over the Pacific.
At
some point during your stay in Newport, take time to visit historic Nye Beach,
off Highway 101 north of the bridge and Bayfront. Of interest here are a number of cultural venues including
performing arts and visual arts centers, shops, galleries and a scattering of
weathered cottages and inns dating back to Newport's earliest days as a summer
resort.
Heceta
Head Lighthouse & Sea Lion Caves On the drive
south from Newport you're soon enveloped in a wonderland of towering old-growth
forest that embraces surf-pounded sea cliffs. You'll pass through Cape Perpetua
Scenic Area, part of Siuslaw National Forest, and on to a must-see lighthouse
atop 1,000-foot high Heceta Head.
We've seen it several times but this 1893 light - said to be the most
photographed in the nation - remains our favorite among the nine Oregon
Beacons, owing to its impossibly beautiful setting. One must scramble up the
densely forested headland behind it to get the classic view but it is worth the
effort.
What
makes this lighthouse even more special is the lovely Queen Anne-style light
keeper's house (Heceta House) beautifully restored to serve as a bed &
breakfast inn. Both the light and
keeper's house offer guided tours.
The
privately owned and operated Sea Lion Caves -- said to be the world's largest sea cave - penetrate a sea
cliff wall within sight of the lighthouse. The cave is quite popular in spite of its "see the live
rattlesnake" roadside attraction atmosphere. Once you are past the gift shop and down the elevator to the
viewing platform you will find what can only be described as a jumbo-sized
grotto. Ocean waves cascade
through the entrance, birds fly in and out and barking sea lions crowd rocky ledges. It is dimly lit, noisy and smelly but,
as the brochure states, there's no other place like it.
Florence
& Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area An inviting little
enclave tucked along a bend in the Siuslaw River, Florence is frequently cited
as one of the top retirement towns in the nation. Unfortunately Californians are onto the place and real
estate prices are up there with the moon.
But then you don't have to move there to enjoy a stroll through the
historic district for some shopping or a bit to eat.
The
area's main attraction - mountains of sand -- take shape just south of town and
sprawl southward nearly 40 miles to Coos Bay. North America's largest concentration of coastal dunes is
federally protected and managed as part of the Oregon Dunes National Recreation
Area.
The
fun begins on South Jetty Road, little more than a mile south of Florence, where
dune buggies and all-terrain vehicles spin over the sands and sandboarders skim
down the slippery hills of silica.
Several small lakes, good for boating and swimming, nestle among the
dunes at Jessie M. Honeyman Memorial State Park, six miles south of Florence.
Bandon Bound
for an overnight stay in Bandon, we bypassed Coos Bay, largest town on the
coast (pop. 25,000), for a scrumptious lunch of fresh crab salad in Charleston,
a rustic little fishing village in the mold of Garibaldi.
Bandon
is a favorite of ours, mainly for its stunning beach and towering offshore
rocks. Embraced by a cool breeze
we strolled the soft sands for hours, photographing the massive sea stacks,
musing at flocks of sandpipers skittering along the shore and watching youngsters
testing the winds with colorful kites.
For us it was pure heaven and we lingered here until well after sunset.
Samuel
H. Boardman State Park Motoring reluctantly toward the
California border the next day, we yearned for an appropriate finale to our
journey. Boardman's Whalehead
Beach, one of several pocket beaches fringed with pampas grass that make up
this narrow 12-mile-long strip of a park between Gold Beach and Brookings,
proved such a place.
We
plopped down on the sand letting our eyes and minds wander in and out with
surfÉnow and then tracing the flight of a gull. No words were uttered and none were really needed to share a
last romantic glimpse of this glorious engagement of land and sea.
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Dave G. Houser and wife Jan Butchofsky-Houser are award-winning New Mexico-based travel
journalists and members of Society of American Travel Writers (SATW) and North
American Travel Journalists Association (NATJA). See www.houser.squarespace.com