In November of 2021 my daughter Cameron turned 13 and I wanted to do something special for her. I offered to take her back to any of the 37 parks that we have visited in the past 3 years. On hearing this offer she was very excited and had an immediate answer, Olympic National Park. This was perfect, early winter in Olympic looked like a ton of fun and I quickly booked the trip.
Sadly two days before we left, the area around Forks, Washington (where we had planned to stay) had a lot of rainfall. So much rain in fact that ALL the roads into and out of the town were washed out. Bridges needed to be inspected and it would be days or more before anyone could get into or out of the town. Not to be deterred, I quickly made new plans to visit the central Oregon coast. I only had a night to plan the trip and I reached out to Nick Page, who was an amazing help in giving me some ideas of parks and places to visit.
We chose to stay in Newport, Oregon, it seemed to be a wonderful central location. It was a very cool west coast beach town. We found a great hotel right on the ocean, and the town is full of great local restaurants.
We only had four days in the area but managed to make the most out of our time. We spent every sunrise in the Seal Rock Recreation area. It’s a really cool rock feature and a great little beach. In the early morning we were almost always alone, or with maybe one other person. It’s a great peaceful place to watch the sunrise and see the first light hit the beach.
The best part of spending sunrises in Seal Rock was on the drive back stopping at the Hilltop Cafe and Bistro in Walport. This is a little gem and if you’re ever in the area and want a great breakfast I can’t recommend it enough.
On the second morning after sunrise and before breakfast we headed south to check out Thunder Hole. We had great conditions for photography and it was a ton of fun to hike out to this strange feature to experience it. However, the tide was coming in and we did not have a lot of time to spend there without risk of getting very wet OR very hurt.
The first night for sunset we headed to the Yaquina Head Lighthouse. Unfortunately, it was raining, storming, and windy to the point where on top of the bluffs it was difficult to stand up. We did get to see the lighthouse, and hiked down to the beach. It was amazing to watch the storm driven waves crash into the rocks. With the wind and rain it was hard to impossible to take any real photos. Cami on the other hand had a marvelous time playing in the tide pools and watching the waves crash in.
Two nights later we would return to this same area and spent the sunset walking on the beach by Starfish Cove. Here we saw one of the best sunsets we have seen in years. The entire sky turned red and the entire earth seemed to glow red. It was maybe not a once in a lifetime sunset but it was very close. Talking to some of the locals they commented that it was uncommonly stunning.
During the days we did explore a good amount of the area. We made our way to the Valley of the Giants and that was an amazing forest. We again had some luck with the weather and the clouds were inverted and created an eerie experience in the forest.
We tried to hike to the Devil’s Punchbowl but sadly whenever we had time the tide was very high and there was no safe way to get in. It is high on our list to try again for the next trip to the area.
Our other two sunsets were spent in Cape Kiwanda Beach. Maybe our favorite area, it’s a stunning beach looking out onto rock formations. The beach also has massive sandstone cliffs and dunes that you can climb to give you a spectacular view of the beach below. Watching waves crash into the rocks and the coastline for what seems like endless miles. We did climb to the top of the dunes and while we did enjoy the view we spent both sunsets closer to the water.
We had some luck that the tide was going out for sunset and we hiked out to the tide pools and spent the sunset there. During the blue hour on our last night the entire sky turned red, and was reflected in the water like a perfect mirror. Both days the beach was packed with people, it seems even in winter this is a popular location. Cape Kiwanda is one of 3 ‘Capes’ along the Oregon Coast. If you climb the dune you’ll be treated to amazing views of Nestuccca Bay to the south and Cape Lookout to the north. There are 3 rock formations in Oregon called “Haystack Rock” and the second most famous and largest one is found in Cape Kiwanda, it is one of the largest monoliths. Cape Kiwanda is also the home of the Pacific City Dory Boat fishing fleet. Dory boats are flat bottomed fishing boats created for launching from sandy beaches like the one in Cape Kiwanda.
Overall it was a great trip and a place I would love to return to.
