Tours & Attractions - Area Overview

The gorgeous Oregon Coast is a mix of basalt headlands, more than a dozen rivers flowing to the Pacific, a number of estuarine sanctuaries, and some of the world’s largest continuous sand dunes, backed by a cordillera of low-slung mountains that rose to heights of 2,000 to 5,500 feet above sea level between 20 and 50 million years ago.

About 25 million years ago, the Oregon Coast began to rise from the sea as sediment deposit, and ever since that geologic action, the Pacific Ocean floor has been sliding under the shoreline, causing it to rise a minute amount every year. Every 300 to 400 years a major earthquake along with a tsunami, or huge tidal wave, strikes the Oregon Coast, further shaping its landscape. The last recorded quake of this magnitude was in the early 1700s, but since that cataclysm there was a 10-foot wave that smashed into the Oregon Coast on March 27 and 28, 1964, as a result of an earthquake in Alaska.

In this extraordinary region, roughly equidistant from the equator and the North Pole, the weather is typified by wet winters and reasonably dry summers with mild temperatures year-round.

One meteorological event uncovered a few marvels on the Oregon Coast. In 1998 winter storms churned up sturdy tidal activity that abraded roughly 10 feet of sand from Moolack Beach near Newport, revealing semi-petrified stumps and root systems of a 4,000-year-old forest. The surprise surfacing of these remnants of ancient trees was not only a treat for geologists but also a telling metaphor for fans of the Beaver State’s 362-mile stretch of sand dunes, headlands, beaches, fishing villages, bays, streams, and inlets.

For visitors to the Oregon Coast, there is always more to discover: adventures just around the next windswept promontory, intriguing salty critters lurking in tide pools, or tasty hot clam chowder awaiting worn-out, hungry beachcombers. Travelers can leisurely cruise down U.S. 101 or use I-5 and one of nine routes over the coastal range to get to specific destinations. They can find that slice of shoreline just right for kite-flying or take a weeklong respite at one of the state’s many coastal campgrounds; they can tour the haunted lighthouses at Tillamook, Heceta Head, or Yaquina Bay; or watch from a storm-thrashed bluff near Bandon as gray whales head home to Alaska.

Thanks to Oregon governor Oswald West, who declared the state’s beaches public property in 1913 as a way of designating the beaches and headlands as transportation routes, and a legislature that confirmed that decision in the 1960s, the Oregon coastline is not wall-to-wall condos and posh resorts reserved for Club Med types. There are plenty of amenities, yet the abundance of salt air, sand dunes, and not-so-gentle breezes retains the area’s wildness.

To introduce you to this linear wonder of a tourist destination for all ages and income brackets, here’s a brief profile that will help you decide where to go and what to do, as well as deliver some history and cultural clues. We’ll start a verbal motorcade at the Astoria Bridge across the Columbia River from Washington and meander down US 101 past some incredible viewpoints, along sinuous stretches of shops, restaurants, museums, and novelty spots to Brookings at the gateway to California.

Tours & Attractions - Oregon Lighthouses

Oregon’s lighthouses are a direct link to our maritime past, and there are nine lighthouses along the coastline that were built close to estuaries or major headlands between 1870 and 1896 as dictated by the former U.S. Lighthouse Board. The U.S. Corps of Engineers built the lighthouses and maintenance of the lighthouses was given to the Coast Guard. In the 1960s, the Coast Guard installed automated beacons in the lighthouses and ownership of many of the lighthouses was handed over to state and federal agencies. This prompted a movement to protect and preserve these beautiful historic structures. All the lighthouses on the Oregon Coast are on the National Register of Historic Places and many are open for tours.

Tours & Attractions - Attractions

If you’re a history buff, like to find unique and out-of-the-way places, and enjoy a variety of things to see and do, then this chapter is for you! In this chapter we’ve listed a wide range of attractions including museums and historic monuments, lighthouses, casinos, cheese factories, micro-breweries, wineries, interpretive areas, and a few other odds and ends. We’ve organized these attractions by region of the Coast—North, Central, and South—and then by city from north to south.

While we’ve done our best to make sure times and admission prices are up to date, we recommend that you call ahead to verify times and prices for the attractions listed. Also, many of the attractions in this chapter have seasonal hours and have longer, more extended hours usually from May 1 through September 30.

If you still want to find out more things to see and do on the amazing Coast, be sure to check out fun ideas in our other chapters on Kidstuff, Annual Events and Festivals, The Great Outdoors, and Day Trips.

Tours & Attractions - Kidstuff

For kids, the more than 300-mile stretch of the Oregon Coast is one long playground with all sorts of fun stuff to do, from gazing up at huge concrete dinosaurs to peering down closely at the strange critters in a small puddle of a tide pool. There are lots of sand dunes to romp on, docks to try your skill at crabbing and fishing, and neat spots for hiking, biking, horseback riding, wading, and walking where pioneers, explorers, sailors, and Native Americans once trod. We’ve organized the activities by region and city from north to south. So bring along jeans or cutoffs for your own adventure, buckets and scoops for sandcastle building, toss in a couple of kites for flying on a breezy day, fishing gear for when the perch or flounders are biting, and, of course, rain gear for every day of the year. It’s pretty hard for a kid to have a bad day on the Oregon Coast.

Tours & Attractions - Day Trips

Nothing is more fun than taking off for a day or a weekend to a destination you’ve not visited before, and the fun of driving to a new place and stopping at different points along the way is just as much fun as arriving. While the scenery and activities on the Oregon Coast are hard to beat, you may want to try heading east and checking out some of Oregon’s world-class wineries; Portland, the largest city in Oregon; or the impressive cave formations at Oregon Caves National Monument located in the Siskiyou National Forest in southern Oregon.