October 6-12, 2021

By Tim Briese

36.3 miles total hiking on various short to medium length hikes

I enjoy visiting the ocean, especially along the northern Pacific coast of the U.S., with its pounding surf, dramatic coastline, and cool marine air. The ocean is a fascinating place to me, combining an awesome vastness with a rhythmic peacefulness. It speaks to me of timelessness and eternity.

Over the past ten years or so my wife Teresa and I have made several trips to the Pacific Northwest and have explored various new sections of the coast complete from central Oregon to Vancouver Island. This time we went to explore the southern Oregon coast as well as the redwoods along the northern California coast.

We flew into Medford, OR and the next morning drove southwest to Crescent City, CA to explore the redwoods. First up, we hiked the Simpson-Reed Grove Trail in Jedediah Smith Redwood State Park. The massive redwoods were awe-inspiring and mystically impressive as we strolled through them. The coastal redwoods, which are distinct from the Sequoias found elsewhere in California, are the tallest trees in the world, many towering over 300 feet tall, and can have a diameter up to 25 feet and an age to around 1500 years old.

Later we drove the incredible Newton B. Drury scenic parkway through the heart of some redwood groves and did a couple more short hikes strolling among these giants. Teresa said that our walks through these woods really touched her soul.

Then we visited Klamath Beach and hiked along the Klamath River to the place where it flows into the ocean, and watched incredulously for a while many thousands of seagulls and pelicans and hundreds of seals, many of the seals in the river catching salmon.

thousands of birds on the spit of land between the klamath river, at the bottom, and the ocean

seals resting on the shore

the klamath river flowing into the ocean

a seal with a salmon it caught

After this we headed to Brookings, OR for the night.

sunset from the beachfront inn in brookings

The next day we headed north up the coastal highway 101 to explore the Samuel Boardman State Scenic Corridor, a very scenic twelve mile stretch of coastline between Brookings and Gold Beach, OR. We did hikes of various lengths to Farrelo Point, Whaleshead Beach, Indian Sands, Natural Bridges, and Arch Rock.

whaleshead beach

a view from the indian sands hike

natural bridges

the trail to the arch rock viewpoint

arch rock

That evening we returned to Brookings and I went for a nice walk on the beach by the motel at dusk.

a nice place for an evening walk

The next day we headed north through the Samuel Boardman SSC again and stopped to do an adventurous hike on a rough steep trail with dramatic views to Thunder Cove and down to Secret Beach.

a view on the hike

secret beach

We continued north through the Cape Sebastian State Scenic Corridor and stayed in Gold Beach that night.

a view from cape sebastian

We went on beach walks nearly every morning and evening where we stayed.

on our morning beach walk

That day we continued north on the 101 and stopped to explore Otter Point and the Cape Blanco Lighthouse.

another great view from one of the numerous viewpoints along hwy. 101

cape blanco lighthouse

a porcupine along the trail to the lighthouse

That afternoon we arrived in Bandon and checked into our motel early and then went for a hike on Face Rock Beach. This is an amazing place, with towering pinnacles and rock towers, and we found it so fascinating that we came back for a second hike later around sunset. This was one of the biggest highlights of the trip for us.

a portion of face rock beach

the namesake face rock, with the face on the right side seemingly gazing up into the sky

some of the incredible towers at face rock beach

more photos taken when we returned to the beach in the evening

The following morning we went north of Bandon and visited another highlight of the trip, Shore Acres State Park. There we saw uniquely eroded and scenic rocky headlands, where the highest wave splashes in Oregon occur during winter storms, and Simpson Reef, where thousands of sea lions lay about on rocky outcroppings and swam about in the adjacent ocean.

shore acres state park

We continued north through an area of extensive sand dunes and presently reached familiar territory that we had explored in 2018 north of Florence.

oregon dunes national recreation area

the heceta head lighthouse is on the other side of the bay

a distant storm over the ocean

That night we stayed at the wonderful Adobe Resort in Yachats where we stayed in 2018, a favorite of ours along the Oregon coast. The place has a spectacular setting, with waves crashing on the rocks below scarcely 100 feet away.

view of the ocean from the grounds of the adobe

a scene on our evening walk

We were mesmerized by the view out the window of our room and spent a lot of time sitting on chairs watching, with the window open to hear the sound of the ocean. I would stay at the Adobe again in a heartbeat.

the view from our window the next morning

That morning we visited spectacular Cape Perpetua south of Yachats, re-visiting the Devils Churn, Cook's Chasm, Spouting Horn, and other sights we had found fascinating in 2018.

cook's chasm and the spouting horn

That afternoon we proceeded up the coast to Lincoln City, stopping to visit various sights along the way. 

yaquina head lighthouse

view from yaquina head

That night we stayed at the nice beachfront Coho Lodge in Lincoln City on our final night of the trip, with more beach walks of course.

sunset from the coho

The next day we drove to Portland and boarded our flight home, completing our wonderful Oregon coast adventure.