OREGON: Central Coast

Well we headed up to the central Oregon coast, which is exactly what I pictured the Oregon coast as... costal forests, rocky cliffs, lighthouses, quiet beaches, little quaint towns. We totally loved it and kept so busy. We took a break from the big state parks and stayed at a little tucked-away, mossy campground with only 13 sites.
  We spent the three days in this area doing the following:

We stopped at Honeyman State Park on our way up, which was a neat lake with big sand dunes around to play in. We all had fun in the sand!

We spent a day at a really neat National forest area called Cape Perpetua with great little hikes, amazing high views of the coastline, unique ocean features, and a fun visitor center.

We saw Spouting Horn, where the waves would roll into this chasm and cause a geyser-like effect through a hole in the rock. Makenna and I had so much fun here while at high tide, the waves would rush into this chasm and water would shoot from this hole causing a geyser effect. We had to be patient but when it finally sprayed, we would cheer.

Saw lots of sea lions basking in the sun (though I refused to pay 50 bucks for our family to go into the Sea Lion caves- are you serious? Talk about a tourist trap- call me cheap. The ones we saw were from a distance, but free.)

Went to the Haceta Head Lighthouse and all got to climb to the top. Lighthouses are so fascinating.

Enjoyed our private beach near our campground. It was cooler, but so nice to have a whole beach to ourselves. We enjoyed going there after dinner.

Spent the 4th of July in a little town called Yachats with a sad little parade, food and live music all day, a farmer's market, and one heck of a fireworks show over the bay that we enjoyed from the beach. Perfect.

4TH OF JULY

Next Oregon Stop: Sunset Bay

From Crater Lake, we headed to the coast on the beautiful and lush Umpqua-Rogue Scenic Byway. We stopped and hiked to three stunning waterfalls: Clearwater Falls with all the moss, Watson Falls (tumbling 272 feet), and a breathtaking hike to Toketee Falls. Then we finally found our way to our campsite right off the beach. We were so excited to see the ocean! After we set up camp, we wanted to walk along the beach and told the girls not to get wet. How foolish are we? Of course they ended up in the water- those waves just lure you in. It was almost 9 in the evening with perfect lighting, warm sunlight, and no wind. We spent three days at Sunset Bay, which was one of our favorite spots on our trip. It was sheltered from the wind and was relatively quiet. We spend the next few days playing in the ocean, going to a botanical garden state park, watching sea lions, exploring tide pools, and bike-riding.

Our First Ocean Encounter
The girls couldn't help but end up in the water. We were all stoked to finally be at the ocean. Hadley loved the mud/sand. This was her first ocean encounter.

 

Other Nearby State Parks
We visited some other parks within a five-minute drive. The first was .Shore Acres State Park. This used to be a private residence with amazing gardens in the late 1800's that the state now maintains. The rose gardens were amazing! We had lunch with an amazing ocean view and a few sea lions playing in the waves. Then, Cape Arago was just down the road, which was a perfect representation of the Oregon Coast.

THE TIDEPOOLS