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Tillamook County
Cape Lookout Trail
A 5-mile round trip out a forested headland that juts two miles into the sea, among the best whale-watching walks on the coast.
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For the active traveler
Big coast in the morning, slow restore by dark.
The Oregon Coast rewards a rhythm of effort and recovery in the same day.
Design This TripThe coast rewards a big-effort, slow-restore rhythm: a headland hike out Cape Lookout or the Ecola clifftops in the morning, a dune-buggy run or sandboarding session in the afternoon, then a cedar-scented spa to land it. Trails flex from old-growth forest walks to airy cliff overlooks, so any fitness level fits.
Effort and recovery, same day
Build in a gray-whale sail out of Depoe Bay, tide pooling at Cape Perpetua, and a forest-bathing walk to the Giant Spruce, and the day carries you from the heart-rate spike to the wind-down. Base at Headlands in Pacific City for an oceanfront spa within steps of the trailheads and the dune.
We sequence the weather and tide windows, book the guides who know where to be when the surf turns, and keep a spa table waiting for the evening you push hardest.
What’s inside
- Headland hikes at Cape Lookout or Ecola
- Dune buggies and sandboarding out of Florence
- A gray-whale sail and Cape Perpetua tide pools
- Forest-bathing to a 500-year-old spruce
- Oceanfront spa to land the big days
A sample rhythm
- 01
Headland
A cape or clifftop hike matched to the day's energy.
- 02
Sand or sea
A dune-buggy run or a gray-whale sail in the afternoon.
- 03
Shore
Tide pools where the surf is friendliest that day.
- 04
Restore
Forest-bathing and an oceanfront spa table.
The The Oregon Coastwe’d build in
The pieces that fit this trip.
On foot
Headland trails and old-growth forest.
From a forested cape with an old-growth trail to clifftop overlooks and a state park headland, paced to any fitness level.
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Cannon Beach
Ecola State Park to Indian Beach
A clifftop section of the Oregon Coast Trail through Sitka spruce, linking the Ecola overlook to secluded Indian Beach.
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Yachats
Cape Perpetua to Giant Spruce
A gentle forest walk to a 500-year-old Sitka spruce, with the option to climb to the highest coastal overlook.
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Manzanita
Oswald West State Park & Cape Falcon
Old-growth rainforest trails to the Cape Falcon viewpoint and down to the surf cove at Short Sand Beach.
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Manzanita
Neahkahnie Mountain
A climb to 1,600 feet for one of the highest viewpoints on the Oregon Coast Trail, looking down the surf line toward Manzanita.
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Lincoln City
God's Thumb at The Knoll
A grassy headland trail to a thumb-shaped promontory above the surf, one of the central coast's most rewarding short hikes.
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Tide pools, crabbing, and the dunes.
The one-of-a-kind coast days: kneeling at a tide pool, pulling crab pots in a bay, and cresting a 400-foot dune by sandboard or buggy.
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Yachats
Tide pooling at Cape Perpetua
Among the richest rocky intertidal on the coast, sea stars, anemones, and urchins in the protected pools at low tide.
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Newport & Garibaldi
Crabbing & clamming on the bays
Drop pots for Dungeness crab off a bay dock or dig the flats for razor clams, with guides and gear arranged in your name.
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Florence
Sandland Adventures
Guided dune-buggy tours and rentals on the Oregon Dunes, the signature thrill of the central coast's sand country.
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Florence
Sand Master Park
The first sandboarding park in the country, with lessons and board rentals on sculpted dunes above Florence.
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Pacific City
Cape Kiwanda dory beach
Watch the flat-bottomed dory fleet launch straight off the sand below the great dune, a fishing tradition found nowhere else.
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Tillamook County
Three Capes Scenic Drive
A backroad loop linking Cape Meares, Cape Lookout, and Cape Kiwanda, the coast's most concentrated string of headlands.
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Gray whales, jet boats, and the bays.
Depoe Bay calls itself the whale-watching capital of the coast, and the Rogue River jet boats run deep into the wilderness. We book the best of both.
Gray whales pass in large numbers in late December and again in spring; a resident pod summers off Depoe Bay.
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Depoe Bay
Tradewinds Charters
A family-run operator since 1938 out of the world's smallest navigable harbor, running whale-watching and ocean fishing trips.
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Depoe Bay
Whale Research EcoExcursions (Carrie Newell)
Whale-watching led by a marine biologist on a small Zodiac, getting close to the resident summer gray whales off Depoe Bay.
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Gold Beach
Jerry's Rogue Jets
The classic Rogue River jet-boat excursion, running up to 104 miles into the federally designated Wild and Scenic wilderness.
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Newport
Marine Discovery Tours
A 65-foot vessel out of Newport's Yaquina Bay for sea-life and whale cruises, with bay ecology and crabbing demonstrations.
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Depoe Bay
Whale's Tail Charters
Small-group whale-watching out of Depoe Bay's tiny harbor, a low-density way to reach the resident summer gray whales.
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Newport
Newport Belle Sternwheeler
A moored sternwheeler on the Newport bayfront, a quiet way to take in Yaquina Bay and the working harbor from the water.
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Haystack Rock, headlands, and a blowhole.
This is a shoreline of monoliths and basalt capes. These are the iconic stops we route guests through, timed to the light and the tide.
Coastal viewpoints are most dramatic around sunset; check tide tables before walking out to sea stacks or tide pools.
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Cannon Beach
Cannon Beach & Haystack Rock
The coast's signature image, a 235-foot sea stack ringed by tide pools and nesting puffins on a broad, walkable beach.
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Cannon Beach
Ecola State Park
Forested headland trails and the famous overlook down the coastline toward Haystack Rock and the Tillamook Rock Lighthouse.
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Newport
Yaquina Head Lighthouse
Oregon's tallest lighthouse on a basalt point, with one of the coast's richest rocky tide-pool areas just below.
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Otter Rock
Devils Punchbowl
A churning bowl of seawater in a collapsed sea cave near Otter Rock, dramatic at high tide and a tide-pool flat at low.
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Yachats
Cape Perpetua Scenic Area
The highest viewpoint accessible by car on the coast, above Thor's Well and the Spouting Horn surf features at Yachats.
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Florence to Coos Bay
Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area
Forty miles of towering coastal sand dunes, the largest expanse in North America, rising to 500 feet above the sea.
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Coastal spas and forest-edge calm.
The Oregon Coast is built for the slow restore: cedar-scented spas, soaking pools, and the long quiet of fog and surf.
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Pacific City
The Spa at Headlands
A full-service oceanfront spa at Headlands Lodge, with locally inspired treatments and a relaxation room over the surf.
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Gleneden Beach
The Spa at Salishan
A forest-set spa within the resort, pairing treatments with an indoor pool, sauna, and the quiet of 250 wooded acres.
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Newberg
The Spa at The Allison
A 15,000-square-foot wine-country spa an hour inland, a celebrated restore to bookend the coast portion of a trip.
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Cannon Beach
The Spa at Stephanie Inn
In-room and in-suite spa treatments at the adults-only oceanfront inn, restorative bodywork steps from Haystack Rock.
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Cannon Beach
Sea Sphere Wellness
Boutique massage and bodywork in the heart of Cannon Beach, an easy add-on to a fireside oceanfront stay.
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Yachats
Salt-air storm watching
Quiet Yachats is the coast's contemplative corner, fireside rooms and big winter surf for the slowest kind of restore.
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More ways to experience The Oregon Coast.
Adventure & wellness
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