Oregon Coast

[brian reed]

Hey everyone,

I'm planning a trip to the Oregon Coast in the middle of August, and I know that most of the coast offers many photo ops. I was wondering if anyone knows of specific areas that shouldn't be missed while I'm there? Also the Oregon Dunes seem interesting to me, but I never hear much about them. Are they worth spending any time there? Where can I get info on times of the tides?

Thanks BR

www.brianreedphotography.com

[David Luttmann]

Brian,

You might want to contact Paul Butzi on spots to see. I believe he puts on workshops on the Washington & Oregon coast. You can find him in this forum.

Enjoy, there are some striking scenery there.

[Joe Lipka]

Been up and down more the coast quite a bit. The dunes are pretty cool and they stretch all the way from Florence to Coos Bay. I have some photos of the dunes on my web site on one of the project pages.

You should pick one or two sections of the coast and try to spend a bunch of time there, because you could wind up spending a bunch of time driving. Coos Bay is a pretty good spot to start with because it is close to the dunes, shore acres and a nice boatyard.

Spent a long weekend photographing between Waldport and Lincoln City. A pretty good section of coastline for variety of scenes.

Some of the natives that post on this site will come up with some good suggestions, too.

[Alan Davenport]

Bandon.

[matthew blais]

I was there just a couple weeks ago for six days. Started at Sunset Bay/Shore acres;
Moved north a bit to Beverly State Park then North to Cannon Beach.

South of Cannon I stopped and checked out Cape Kiwanda, which I found to be nice with some interesting rock formations. It's part of the "Three Capes" area,(I did not check out the other two).

Coos Bay has some interesting buildings, friendly people and only one internet cafe that I found. Kaffe 101 on the 101 south through Coos Bay, in case you need that. Have lunch at Gerry's cafe just a block from Kaffe 101, good food, nice people.

On the Bay side if you go east of the downtown area/101 there are some shaggy industrial buildings and dock areas. And of course Coos Bay is only 10 minutes from the Cape Arago/Sunset Bay/Shore Acres area.

I had rain four of six days but managed to work around it.

Have fun.

[Doug Dolde]

I recently drove down the coast. Made a detour out to the John Day Fossil Beds near Bend. I got better shots there than on the coast. But the coast is indeed wonderful.

You can see a few here:

http://www.painted-with-light.com/Oregon_Gallery_One.html

[Scott Knowles]

Hey everyone,

I'm planning a trip to the Oregon Coast in the middle of August, and I know that most of the coast offers many photo ops. I was wondering if anyone knows of specific areas that shouldn't be missed while I'm there? Also the Oregon Dunes seem interesting to me, but I never hear much about them. Are they worth spending any time there? Where can I get info on times of the tides?

Thanks

Some books to review about the Oregon Coast are:

The Photograhphers Guide to the Oregon Coast (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/088150534X/qid=1150552764/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-7570862-1896149?s=books&v=glance&n=283155)

Oregon Coast Access Guide (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0870714910/ref=pd_sim_b_1/102-7570862-1896149?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=283155)

Driving the Pacific Coast:Oregon and Washington (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0762724927/ref=pd_sim_b_4/102-7570862-1896149?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=283155)

Oregon Coast Insider Guide (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0762728434/ref=pd_sim_b_1/102-7570862-1896149?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=283155)

There's just a lot there along the coast and just east in the rural areas. If you start at Brookings it only gets better as you go north. Unfortunately it's also the tourist season so there's a lot of people, especially as you get closer to Newport and north (from Portland area). And motels/hotels get more expensive and harder to find vacancies.

Personally I'm familar with the Florence to Gold Beach area and really loved the area around Coos Bay, especially Sunset Bay - Cape Arago area. The Oregon Dune NRA is enjoyable (it can have some yardang in some years not found in the coastal temperate zones), but they also allow dune vehicles in some areas.

Unfortunately some of the interesting areas are inland from the coast, such as the Coquille River valley, the lower Rogue River (inland from Gold Beach to Agness and over the hill to the Coquille River), and Humbug Mountain.

Also, beware of poison oak, it's prevalent in the lower coastal area especially inland. Good luck.

[Brian Ellis]

I like Shore Acres for a combination of seascape vistas with surf, cliffs, etc. and also fascinating tide pools and rock formations along the north side. Another specific area is in Yachats. Go the Adobe Resort, park (it's a huge parking lot, I don't think they'll mind if you park there without staying there), and walk to the ocean around the right (north) side of the northern-most building. There you'll find a public trail that goes on for at least a mile along the shore, maybe more, to the north. You can find many interesting things along that trail. I prefer the evening but almost any time can be good. If you have the time the restaurant in the Adobe is great, much better than your usual motel restaurants. I don't know about the dunes, it would be useful to know of specific entrances since they go on for probably 50 miles or more and it's no fun to be constantly parking and hiking through the sand up to the top to see what's there.

[brian reed]

Thanks for all the respones everyone, I will be staying in the Florence area, so that seems to be the area most are recomending.

Thanks BR

[Paul Butzi]

Much of the coastline of OR is very photogenic.

For the sort of coastal photography that interests me (see http://www.butzi.net/newgalleries/pacific/pacific.htm) I find that the coastline from Bandon south is more suited to what I'm looking for. Bandon is a particular favorite, especially the south end of the Bandon beach (e.g. not Bullards Beach).

Running down the coast, you come to Gold Beach, a decent enough place to get lodging and work from. South from Gold Beach are a series of beaches all the way south to the OR/CA line. Many, perhaps most of them are good. My favorite is Meyer's creek, just north of Pistol River State Park.

I find it really helpful to coordinate with the tides. I use Tides and Currents Pro on my PC to generate tide tables for trip planning and to print tide tables to have in my pocket when on site.

[Bruce Watson]

I use Tides and Currents Pro on my PC to generate tide tables for trip planning and to print tide tables to have in my pocket when on site.
Excellent idea. Thanks for bringing it up. I'll have to check it out for use on the "other" coast.

[Scott Knowles]

Much of the coastline of OR is very photogenic.

I find it really helpful to coordinate with the tides. I use Tides and Currents Pro on my PC to generate tide tables for trip planning and to print tide tables to have in my pocket when on site.

You can also get the tides from NOAA's Tides Online (http://tidesonline.nos.noaa.gov/), and they have a station at Charleston Harbor, OR.