Road Trip Down the Oregon Coast

Highway 101 hugs the Oregon coast for nearly its whole length, and there isn’t a boring mile on it. We drove north to south over six days, stopping whenever something looked interesting, which was roughly every fifteen minutes.

Cannon Beach and Haystack Rock

We timed our first morning for low tide so we could walk out to the tide pools around Haystack Rock. Sea stars in orange and purple, green anemones, and a volunteer ranger who knew the name of every creature we pointed at.

The middle of the coast

Between Lincoln City and Florence the road climbs over headlands and drops back down to empty beaches. We stopped at a lighthouse, watched sea lions argue on the rocks, and ate chowder out of a bread bowl at a place with a hand-painted sign.

Every beach in Oregon is public. You can stop anywhere and walk down to the water.

The south coast

The last stretch, down toward Brookings, is the wildest. The cliffs get taller, the coves get smaller, and there are more trees than towns. We had it nearly to ourselves.

---

If you go:

• Pack layers. June on the coast can be 55°F and foggy in the morning and sunny by lunch.
• Check the tide tables before you plan your beach stops.
• Leave time. The drive takes six hours straight through, but you will want six days.