Road trip Oregon coast

[10x]

My wife and I are going on a road trip to Oregon in mid August.
We have the usual books to see light houses and nature items.
Anyone suggest something special to see along the coast from Florence north?

[jplove71]

If you had said south, I would have suggested you go see Redwood National Park. Nothing like being surrounded by 300+ foot tall Redwood trees.

[nynco]

Stop in Portland for a day and just eat at the food carts.

5star quality food in some of them for next to no price.

http://www.foodcartsportland.com/

I had one place that I got a yack burger and a rabbit burger. Next to it was cheese fondue in a cup for 5 bucks. A little further than that was the best snitzel I have had since Germany. Check out the site. There are so many great carts and they tend to stay put. Unlike Denver food trucks. You eat like a king in portland for pauper prices.

[Big Wall]

We literally just took this trip at the end of June first part of July. I grew up in Springfield and wanted to show my kids the area.

We stayed at the Waldport KOA in a cabin with a great view of Alsea bay for around $90 bucks a night for the 4 of us. You said you already knew about the light houses in the area, Yaquina Head, Yaquina Bay and The Haceta Head lighthouses. Definately take the tours of those. At the Haceta Head light house the Lighthouse keeper's house is a bed and breakfast now, but there are signs saying if they are open for public tours or not at the time you are there. It would be an awsome place to stay in January when the really bad storms come in.

Check out the Devil's Churn which is south of Waldport. There are two trails there. One takes you to the churn which is really cool and the one that goes south takes you to a small beach. While there pick up a 5 day Oregon Pacific Coast Passport at the ranger's office. It payed for itself by not having to pay for entry fees at several other places we stopped including the Yaquina Head lighthouse and the Haceta Head Lighthouse. The beach at the Haceta Head Lighthouse is one of my favorites because of the surrounding terrain.

The Sealion caves are just south of the Haceta Head lighthouse. It was a little expensive for what it is, but was still pretty cool.

Definately check out the Oregon Coast Aquarium and the Hatfield Marine Science center in Newport.

There is a place I think is called something like "The Undersea Gardens" in Newport. I went there when I was a kid and didn't think it was worth going pack to. It is basically like a house boat where you can walk down under sea level to see an aquarium that is built around the boat.

In Newport there is also the "Ripley's Believe It or Not" museum if that kind of thing floats your boat. I've never been there. My sister said it scared her son.

There is a 24 hour cafe in Newport that has really good fresh fish and chips. Across the bay from the Hatfield Center you can walk around the docks where the fishing boats dock. By the docks there is a restaurant called something like "Oregon fresh seafood". It was on the expensive side but the seafood was so fresh that they even told you which fishing vessel they got it from. In Yachats, south of Waldport there is a hole in the wall restaurant called "Luna" that is supposed to be excellent. It's on the East side of 101 and if you blink you will miss it. We missed it and didn't end up eating there. The owner has his own fishing boat so they are supposed to have great, cheap seafood. In Newport there is a restaurant called "Pig N Pancake" that had very good breakfasts.

At the Yaquina Head Light House take the trail down to the beach. At low tide you can find starfish, sea anemonies, the rocks are covered with shell fish and there are harbor seals basking on the rocks just a little way out in the ocean.

One day we went up to Portland to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI). If you have kids, almost every exhibit is hands on. They also have a diesel submarine that you can take a tour of. The sub was very cool but I thought that the museum was definately aimed more at kids. My kids loved it. We watched an IMAX movie there, but they have the kind of screen that curves out over you and distorts the picture. I like the IMAX screen at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science much better and would never knowingly go to that kind of screen again. If you go into Portland either have a map or know exactly how to get to where you are going. Portland is a madhouse.

Just a bit east of Portland there is Multnoma Falls. There are a few falls along this road that are quite nice. The hike to the top of Multnoma falls was very nice with great views out over the Columbia River. If it wasn't close to sea level my fat ass probably would have fallen over dead though.

Just a couple miles south of Florence is Sandland where you can take a dunebuggy ride along the ocean. We were going to do this but ended up playing on the beach in Newport instead.

Our favorite beaches were the area just below the Yaquina Head Lighthouse that I mentioned earlier. It has a cobble beach. The cobbles are made from lava rock, and in Newport there is their "Historic Beach", I can't remember the name of it. All the signs for it mention that it is their Historic Beach.

Definately remember rain jackets and pants. The temperature in CO while we were gone was in the mid 90's but on the coast the high we saw was 74 degrees. It gets cold with the wind and it rained at least some every day we were there.

On the way home I wanted to stop at the lava beds by Sisters, Or. The lava floes go for as far as the eye can see. We were there on July 1 and the road was still not reopened after being closed for the winter. Just south of Bend, OR. there is an extinct volcano you can hike up. It is just a short hike to the top of it.

On our drive out, and back, we stayed in a Teepee at the KOA in Mountain Home Idaho. It was around the half way point for us. It was a really nice little town.

In Oregon you can't pump your own gas so gas prices are higher by around 30-35 cents per gallon or more. So plan your gas stops so you avoid filling up in Oregon as much as possible. There was a Chevron, I think in Florence, on the west side of 101 that was significantly cheaper than other stations for some reason.

There is no sales tax in Or, but it seemed like they just raised their prices because of this. For example at Mcdonalds the dollar menue stuff here was 1.39 there.

Let me know if there is something you want to know that I haven't thought of.

[10x]

Thanks for the suggestions.

[Glock Shooter]

I lived in Eugene for a while, the Saturday Market http://www.eugenesaturdaymarket.org/ is a trip and half. If you're into unique items by local artisans or just want to see the freaky-deaky side of the universe it's not to be missed.

Some great places to eat in Eugene. 2 places that I'd recommend are Bruno's Chef's Kitchen http://www.brunoschefskitchen.com/ and Belly http://eatbelly.com/ . Belly has some very unique dishes it's my ex-wife's place if you eat there tell her hello [ROFL1]

[Holger Danske]

The Tillamook Cheese factory tour nice. The kids really had fun when we visited a few years ago.

[jerrymrc]

I am in Tigard right now and was just at the beach Thursday. Went to the races sat night in Cottage Grove and almost bagged a Eugene Liberal that in the middle of fricking nowhere drove her prius in between where we were shooting and the targets.

Ecola state park and the mentioned Tillimook cheese factory are must sees.

OMSI is cool. (they currently have the history of video games and before that you can play) on tap.

Unless you have an overriding desire to meet pan handlers, meth addicts and other nice people stay out of Portland. There is a reason why I came to Colorado after I got out of the military. Multnomah Falls is a must see and is on your way in on I84 just east of Portland..

I have a week left before I head back.

[blacklabel]

Go to Newport. You won't regret it.

The beach at night with a ton of fog is amazing. Definitely one of my favorite things to in this world.

The Rogue Brewery is also in Newport. Great chance to get a tour of a cool brewery as well as pretty good food. Speaking of food, I ate fish and chips in Newport every chance I got.

Damn, now I want to go back to Newport for a weekend.

[Big Wall]

I lived in Eugene for a while, the Saturday Market http://www.eugenesaturdaymarket.org/ is a trip and half. If you're into unique items by local artisans or just want to see the freaky-deaky side of the universe it's not to be missed.


Definately. I remember the saturday market back in the late 70's - early 80's.