Oregon’s Coast

Brookings, OR

We stayed in Brookings, OR for a few nights. Below are activities near Brookings or day trips we took from Brookings. We did drive into California from Brookings a few times to see the Redwoods. Those posts are in my California section.

Redwood Nature Trail (near Brookings)

It was amazing. There is no way to describe the size of the trees. And these were smaller Redwoods than we saw on other Redwood trails later in our trip. It was a beautiful hike with tons of ferns. It felt otherworldly.

Beaches

I was really nervous about the beaches. I had seen a lot of warnings about ‘sneaker waves’ while researching the west coast. So we didn’t spend much time at beaches. Plus it was quite chilly. My kids on the other hand, would have stayed at a beach all day looking for sea shells and playing in the sand. 

Shell Island (Cape Arago, OR)

We were on the mainland, but we could see Shell Island in the distance and there were tons of sea lions on it. It was close enough to see them, but they looked small. We had no trouble hearing them though! They were barking so loud that we could hear them before we even got out of the car.

Sea Lion Caves (by Florence, OR)

We got to go down 180 feet in an elevator into a sea cave. The cavern had a high ceiling. It was so stinky! It was fun to see the sea lions up close though (with bars guarding them on their rocks & us from them). Outside, once we were back up on land, there were more sea lions down on the shore to look at from above. 

Heading Back to Portland from Florence, OR

We started back to Portland when we got to Florence. The Sweet Creek Falls & Beaver Creek Falls were both near Mapleton, OR on the way. Mapleton is about 20 minutes from Florence, OR.

Sweet Creek Falls Trail (near Mapleton, OR)

This hike was amazing. There were small but pretty waterfalls along the whole hike and a bigger two tiered one at the end. It was so green and beautiful. It was 1.8 miles. 

Beaver Creek Falls Trail (near Mapleton, OR)

We accidentally started this hike on a short cut to the main waterfall. We saw the waterfall and then decided not to do the rest of the hike so we could get on the road to Portland.

These two hikes near Mapleton I’m not 100% sure which photos are of which trail. The majority are of Sweet Creek Falls Trail, but I’m not sure where it ends and the Beaver Creek Falls one begins.

Astoria, OR

We took a day trip to Astoria, OR from Portland. It was about 2 hours each way. There were huge ships on the Columbia River there.

Columbia River Maritime Museum (Astoria, OR)

It had some interesting information and displays and we got to go on a floating lighthouse ship to explore it.

Astoria-Megler Bridge (Astoria, OR)

We crossed the longest continuous truss bridge in North America (4.1 miles). I’m not sure if that’s still the longest, but we read it was at the time. It crossed over to Washington. 

Cape Disappointment (Washington-after crossing the Astoria-Megler Bridge)

It was a disappointment. lol. There was so much fog we couldn’t see anything from the lookout. Then the lighthouse was so old and run down and we couldn’t get anywhere close to it. The WWII fort (Fort Canby)  was tiny but interesting to see. Then we went back to Oregon on the Astoria-Megler Bridge.

Fort Stevens State Park (Near Astoria, Oregon)

We went to find a shipwreck on a beach I had read about called the Peter Iredale shipwreck (1906).  We got right up close to it on the beach for a picture. There were big sand dunes we had to go over to get to the beach too. Then we went to Battery Russell, which was built in 1904. That was cool to see.