In what seemed like no time at all we had driven over a tall bridge crossing the Columbia River and we were back in Oregon following the river northwest toward the coast. The stopping point for tonight was the seaside town of Astoria in the far northwest corner of the state. Astoria is an old fishing town that also had a bit of a movie boom in the late 80’s to early 90’s when a few movies were filmed in and around the town. After an hour or so we pulled into town and stopped for lunch at the maritime museum parking lot then parked downtown and walked around. Astoria was similar to a lot of the towns that we had stopped at although it does have the distinction of being the first American permanent settlement west of the Mississippi river. The town was gearing up for Halloween and the day we were there the shops were giving out candy to kids who were trick or treating. It was pretty neat to see little ghouls and ghosts walking around as we looked for postcards and other little trinkets from the town. Once we were done walking around we hopped back into Bubbles and headed to a KOA right outside of town for the night.
The next morning we woke up and headed back to Astoria. Growing up one of my favorite movies was The Goonies and luckily for us it was filmed right here in Astoria. Searching for Goonies locations in town isn’t really an issue, as a quick search on Google Maps will lead you right to the house that they lived in the movie. The house is on a narrow one-way street with a big no trespassing sign but I’m sure no one saw us sneak by for a quick picture. We then stopped by a coffee house, which sold some Goonies items before heading to the Astoria Column. The column is a 125-foot tower built in 1926 by Vincent Astor to commemorate his grandfather who founded the city of Astoria. We climbed the top taking pictures and watched kids on a field trip throw paper airplanes to see how far they could make them fly. It was quite the scene.
From the column it was time to hit the road. We were taking route 101, which in Oregon is a 2-lane road that hugs the coast going from seaside town to seaside town. Oddly enough the first town that we stopped at along the coast was the town of Seaside. After lunch in the van we stepped out to explore the town a bit. Seaside seemed to be a very summer centric town. As it was a drizzly day in late October not much was going on although a lot of the beachy tourist shops were still open. We walked up the main street, which led straight to the ocean and a statue of Lewis & Clark. Apparently Seaside was where they ended their quest to find the Pacific Ocean. Seeing that statue made the stop in Seaside worthwhile. From Seaside we passed through a few more small beach towns before stopping at Cannon Beach. Cannon Beach is probably the nicest and most well-known beach town in northwest Oregon. Most of the buildings in town have a New England feel to them, as they are clad in brown wood shingle siding. There is also a huge beach with a few boulders in the ocean that are at least a few stories tall. It’s a pretty impressive place to be. From Cannon Beach we headed south before stopping for the night.
The next morning we woke up and hit the road. Route 101 in central Oregon is truly spectacular. We couldn’t help but exclaim “whoa!” from every turn that the road took. The vista’s overlooking the water were just that amazing. The first stop for the day was at Devils Churn which was a tiny bay that got smaller as it went inland so the water had no where to go but to eventually rise up and splash in the air as it hit the last few rocks. We then hiked around a few tide pools before continuing south. Next stop for the day was at Heceta Head Lighthouse. The Heceta Head Lighthouse was built in 1894 and still has the record for the strongest light in all over Oregon. Its beam can shine out into the ocean for 21 miles. We hiked around the property, which included a pretty nice looking bed & breakfast in the old light keepers house. We also chatted up some of the guides on the property. It turned out that they were from Wisconsin and were just volunteers who come out to Oregon for the summers. Julie wants to become a volunteer at a lighthouse!
As we ventured further south the rains started up. It was getting into the rainy season in the Pacific Northwest so this wasn’t unusual. As it had been raining every night since we left Seattle we were starting to get a bit tired of it and decided to check into a hotel for the night. We arrived in Coos Bay, which was one of the larger towns on the coast in Oregon thinking getting a hotel room wouldn’t be an issue. Finding a hotel in Coos Bay wasn’t an issue but finding one that looked like it had been updated in the last 20 years was an issue. We drove to a couple properties before finding a Quality Inn online thinking “Those are generally nice”. However once we got there we found out that it was located in a dilapidated shopping center with no other guests. This usually isn’t a good sign. To complicate matters our cell phones were not cooperating making it difficult to get a signal to search online. Then out of nowhere Julie’s phone started to work and she exclaimed “I think I got one!”. And boy did she. As luck would have it she found Bandon Dunes Golf Resort just a few miles down the road. For those that don’t know (As we didn’t prior to going) Bandon Dunes is a world-class golf resort. The resort has 4 courses located directly on the ocean. We were really surprised to find this here, as we were seemingly pretty far from any major town. Nonetheless we checked in happy to have found a great place to stay. That night we walked over to one of the restaurants on the property having dinner at the bar and meeting Jon from San Diego who was on a birthday getaway. We had a great dinner and conversation with Jon who invited us to come visit when we made it down to San Diego.
After a great nights sleep we woke up and hit the road once again. Today would be our last day in Oregon before crossing the border to California. The first stop for the day was Horsfall Beach, which is part of the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. As we had such a good time at the dunes in Michigan we thought this would make a great stop too. We drove through the park to the beach, parked, walked over a set of dunes and down onto the beach. Not many people were there as it was a weekday morning but we did see a few people fishing and some with their dogs taking a walk. As it was a bit brisk we didn’t stay too long on the beach but instead ventured a bit further inland. The dunes in the recreation area were huge. They stretched at least 2 miles inland from the ocean and over 10 miles north to south. ATVing was the thing to do here and as this was the case they had a few “staging” areas set up off the road. These were big parking lots where you could drive your car/trailer in with your ATV then go riding over the dunes all day long. It was really neat to see. If it had been a bit warmer we probably would have just stayed there that night so that we could ride the dunes all day in a rental ATV.
From the dunes we hopped back into Bubbles making our way further south stopping at a lookout point every now and then. Soon enough we were in the last town in southwest Oregon about to cross into California. We had a great time driving route 101 in Oregon and were a bit sad to leave the state. We were though very excited to spend some time with the Redwoods in California!
Next up…. Mammoth Trees! The Northern California Redwoods
