Exploring the Oregon/California Coast

On our second full day in the Redwoods area, we decided to explore the Oregon Coast. We drove north from Smith River California, and stopped at several viewpoints and beaches in the Samuel H Boardman scenic corridor. The weather started out foggy from the marine layer, but it quickly cleared up and we had a beautiful sunny day. Our first stop was the natural bridges overlook. This is one of the most scenic spots on the Oregon coast, with views of rock arches soaring over blue-green water.

Just up the road we took the short but steep path down to "Secret Beach." This is a beautiful sandy beach overlooking several big rock formations. We spent over an hour here, walking on the sand and climbing over rocks and generally enjoying the views and sunshine. Our last stop was at the Arch Rock overlook, which had a short loop trail overlooking some offshore sea stacks and islands, including one with a large arch.

Looking down to the natural bridges.

Making our way down to Secret Beach.

The views from Secret Beach.

Looking out from a little cove at Secret Beach.

Arch rock.

From here we drove back south to Brookings, where we stopped in Recycle Video Games and had lunch at Khun Thai. We finished out the day with some time on the beach and watching the sunset from our AirBnB.

Mario (left) and David (right).

Lunchtime!

The path next to our AirBnB led down to the beach.

David on a nice sunny day!

Sunset from our AirBnB.

No complaints about the views! :)

The next day, Saturday, we began the six hour drive to Portland. We had great views on the drive along the coast, and our first stop was the Umpqua River Lighthouse. This is a whale-watching spot, but unfortunately it was the wrong time of year for whales. We still enjoyed taking in the coastal views and the sunshine.

Continuing north, we stopped at Oregon dunes, specifically the Tahkenitch dunes. There are some trails that lead over the dunes down to the beach (about a mile each way)...but since we were in a rush we had to just wander around near the parking area for a bit and look at the dunes.

Next we stopped at a little restaurant for a healthy lunch in the town of Yachats at Beach Street Kitchen. This town was actually all around a very cute place and we wish we had more time to spend checking it out...maybe next time! From here, we continued on our way to Portland, stopping at another Recycle Video Games store in Newport, before turning inland and heading towards Corvallis to see the stadium, and then onward to Portland.

There were lots of big bridges on the Oregon coast.

We made a quick stop at the Umpqua River Lighthouse.

The Oregon Dunes.

Sunny, but still pretty cool on the coast!

We read that most all of the grass you see on the dunes is invasive from Europe 😞

A colorful and healthy lunch at Beach Street Kitchen!

There are little blackberry patches all over Oregon!

There were lots of views like this on the drive, where rivers met the sea and mountains.

Oregon State's Reser Stadium in Corvallis

We then drove the rest of the way to Portland - which we cover in our final Oregon road trip blog post.