Visiting the Oregon Coast

Take the time out and spend some quality time on the Oregon Coast

This past summer (August 2006) my wife and I celebrated our 25th anniversary, and to celebrate, we decided to visit the coast.  Starting from our home in Grants Pass, we travelled down interstate 199 towards Crescent City and made the cutoff at Smith River over to the coastal city of Brookings.  Here is were we started our picturesque week along the coast ending in Astoria, some 290 miles to the north.

The coast is a great place to escape the summer heat for a few days or a week.  The famous US Highway 101 makes its way from coastal beaches to cities a few miles from the coast.  It takes you though lush evergreen forests, small fishing villages, picturesque coastal scenery, past rugged sea cliff panoramas with unbelievable views, vast sandy beaches and impressive sand dunes.  The Oregon coast has fully developed resort communities with every possible amenity to quiet coastal towns where the loudest sounds you'll hear are waves on the shoreline and seagulls overhead.

The friendly, laid-back people and the down-home environment makes the Oregon coast memorable.  We had many activities to choose from, but on this trip, our main focus was to take our time, stop when we saw something interesting, and visit as many coastal lighthouses as possible--and along the way spend part of a day at the Oregon Aquarium and see where that delicious cheese is made in Tillamook.