The Oregon Coast

Nike, Haley, and I took a day trip to the Oregon Coast today. After traveling west about 70 miles over the Coastal Range, we arrived at Cannon Beach. This beach is pretty famous for the huge "Haystack Rock" jutting out of the ocean just off the shore. I believe you can walk to it at low tide, but that wasn't the case while we were visiting. This was Haley's first time ever at a beach and she was pretty excited!
Traveling south on the Pacific Coast Highway (101), we passed through many rustic beach towns that seem more like New England towns than anything you would see on the Gulf or southern Atlantic. The highway travels up in elevation and then down into the beach towns providing many spectacular views.

We planned on eating lunch in Tillamook (home of the famous Tillamook Cheese), but it was more industrial than expected, so we kept on heading south to the large fishing village of Newport. This was about 120 miles south of Cannon Beach. Newport has tons of fishing boats in the bay and is the home to the Rogue Brewery, one of the best breweries in the PNW. We ate lunch and sampled some beer at the Rogue Public House and then went by the brewery before heading NE back to Portland.

Yaquina Bay Bridge in Newport

It was a beautiful day, probably one of the last nice weekends before the rainy season starts. We're looking forward to visiting again in the summer, although I think the water is always pretty chilly!