We took a quick four day trip to see the Oregon Coast.  Here’s what we did.

While we were on the west coast following the historic Lewis and Clark Trail, we decided to do a little side trip down the coastline of Oregon. We spent one day near Seaside seeing Cape Disappointment and Fort Clatsop north of Seaside.  You can read about it here.

The short trip down the coast was truly beautiful so I decided to share some of my photos.

We spent the first day driving from Seaside to Coos Bay, Oregon on US 101, but I would suggest to anyone that they not try to drive that far in one day. The shoreline through here is absolutely stunning, and we wanted to stop many, many times.

We stopped in Tillamook to tour the Tillamook Cheese Factory. Let’s just say that I’m a big fan of their ice cream now.

Because we stopped a lot, we were late getting into Coos Bay, almost 10:00 PM.

This road US 101 is Oregon’s scenic coastal highway. It is made up of a drive that is most of the time on the coast and then sometimes into the interior. Sometimes the interior drives are a welcomed contrast to the coastal drive. Between Brandon and Port Orford is a very beautiful stretch that drives into the mountains.

A lot of the seaside towns are great little villages that warrant a stop. We did some impromptu shopping and found great little restaurants and dives.

We also drove through Lincoln City which is where the solar eclipse entered the United States on August 21. I’m glad though that we were not there for the eclipse because there were massive crowds in that little town on that day. Lincoln City is known for its antique shops.

This drive down US 101 stretches from Washington state all the way down to California, a 364-mile journey. It follows a very rocky shoreline with rocks extending into the Pacific Ocean.

These rocks are remnants of an ancient coastline.

There are little coastal villages, historic bridges, and beautiful vistas. I wish we had spent a week here instead of just three and a half days.

Loved the bridges.

There are lots of places to stop and take a walk down to the sea. Some are small paths through wooded areas. This one was over a mile long.

Depot City is known for its whale watching which is a spring or fall event, but we didn’t see a whale. There was a place where we could have stopped to go seal watching, but it was too late that day to do so. I’m afraid this was all the wildlife we saw.

Between Florence and Reedsport are the Oregon dunes.

All in all it is a wonderful drive. Just don’t try to do it round trip in three plus days.