View Full Version : Oregon coast - where to start planning
Hi all,
I did a search on various places to photograph in Oregon - stacks or dunes, etc - and I came away overwhelmed with options.
My wife and I are considering probably going up or down the coast over...probably 5 days or so in the next few months. I realize that's not very long. And I realize that most people would go to one area and stay there for 3 weeks, maybe. I would do that if I could. But we have only 6 day windows with which to work, and it'll take half a day to drive up there.
So...if you had the choice between maybe starting at point X and driving down the coast slowly for say, 4 days (and then driving home the 5th), or just going to one area and staying there, what would you do? My wife isn't an LF shooter so looking at specific _spots_ isn't really going to quite work. We'll want to move around a larger area for a few days. But the question is whether it's worth it to actually drive up/down the coast a bit.
thanks.
Eric Brody
12-Jun-2009, 21:33
I've lived in Oregon for 30 years and if I had 5 days on the coast, I would base myself at Coos Bay, and go south to Bandon, there are wonderful beaches and sea stacks, north to Eel Creek Dunes, and also visit Shore Acres State Park. This is the itinerary of a wonderful workshop I have done three times.
There are a large number of wonderful places. Perhaps others will make different and equally fine suggestions. You could start in Astoria and head south as well.
Be prepared for any type of weather, any time of year. I have had days of rain in August, sun in February, and endless mist in September.
Good luck.
Eric
At New Port there are sand dunes to work with:
http://www.pbase.com/dpurdy/newport_oregon
But if you go up to the Cannon beach area just of there, there are a few beach areas that are stunning. Personally I wouldn't go further North than Indian beach just north of Cannon Beach. There is a beach area in Southern Oregon that is called Shore Acres that might be interesting to you. I didn't get much out of it though many have.
Scott Knowles
13-Jun-2009, 06:37
Do a search here and you'll find a number of entries about the Oregon coast including books and Websites (also listed on the bottom of the individual entries for similar threads). You can't go wrong starting in Gold Beach or Brookings and going north or starting in Astoria and going south. There's lots to see and photograph (for both of you), it's a matter of picking the spots.
But that said, my favorite is Shore Acres, either at high tide at the southern end of the park or at low tide exploring the shoreline (especially the concave holes left by concretions in the sandstone cliffs). I also like Humbug State Park. But if you're going in July, consider having reservations in some of the more crowded spots.
Good luck.
eric black
13-Jun-2009, 07:08
There is a photographers guide book for the area by David Middleton and Rod Barbee that goes into places to be and what to see. Never met David, but I was Rods roommate on a 3-week trip to Patagonia and I cant speak enough to what a great guy he is and how knowlegeable he is wrt landscape photography-Ive seen the book and it looks like a good reference, plus you would be supporting a fellow photographer in its purchase.
If you decide to go on the southern reaches of the coast, Pistol River Beach and Meyers Beach (basically the same stretch od coast) has some nice stacks on wide sandy beaches. Make sure you drive to the top of Cape Sebastian. One is quite high up and looks down on the above beaches.
Because I am in Northern CA, I know more about the Southern OR Coast. Lone Ranch Beach just north of Brookings is a nice beach also.
Vaughn
Brian Ellis
13-Jun-2009, 08:51
I have the book Eric mentions, if you've never been to the coast before I think you'd find it very useful. There also have been quite a few threads here about the Oregon coast. Just use the search function and you'll find them easily. I don't see much point in repeating it all, everything that's been said in this thread so far has already been said in those threads.
I visit the coast about three times a year. I never get tired of it. And the nice thing is that you can see a lot just from the road. Unlike some states, Oregon has done a great job of maintaining public access to the coast. If your main interest is landscapes then IMHO the best part starts at Bandon Beach and extends down to Brookings in California. Cannon Beach in the northern part of the coast is nice but if you're primarily interested in landscape I think you'll find much more if you begin at Bandon Beach and work your way down. Or you could begin farther north say at Newport and head south. But personally I wouldn't start farther north than Newport if landscapes are your primary interest. With only four days I definitely would not start at Astoria. That's way to the north and IMHO you'd spend too much time driving and too little photographing.
All,
First, I do apologize if anyone felt like they had to repeat themselves. I did do a search, and I found a lot of good information. But I realized I was making plans for maybe 4 or 5 trips, or one for 2 months - there was just so much information on so many places. And I wasn't sure if trying to move down the coast over a few days was advisable...maybe I'd need 10-14 days to get much out of it. I don't know. It was a lot of information, that's all.
Having apologized for that, thank you so much, and this is more than enough. I will pick one or two of the suggestions that complement each other and just set my mind to that.
thanks.
China Beach in Boardman State Park. A short but semi-steep hike down to a fairly secluded cove with sea stacks. My resource for finding places is 100 Hikes of the Oregon Coast, by William Sullivan. Many of the "hikes" are actually pretty short.
Turner Reich
14-Jun-2009, 23:24
At New Port there are sand dunes to work with:
Where are the Newport OR dunes located, I've been there dozens of times and have not seen sand dunes.
Where are the Newport OR dunes located, I've been there dozens of times and have not seen sand dunes.
If you walk straight down to the beach from the center area of Newport, then either direction of walking along the beach you will soon come to sand dunes.
The center area of Newport beach is called Nye Beach, walking north takes you to an area called Agate Beach. Agate Beach is a huge section of dunes that change pretty significantly every day with the wind.
If from Nye Beach you walk South, you come right up on a section of Dunes that runs all the way to the Bridge.
I don't know how you could walk on the Beach at Newport and not find sand dunes unless you are thinking of much larger sand dunes. All the pictures of sand dunes I posted earlier in the thread were taken at Agate Beach.
Dennis
tom north
16-Jun-2009, 12:24
Kaiyen,
Good choice. First the weather. Be prepared for anything. It could be sunshine and clear or 40-50 mph winds and rain. Second, make reservations whever you stay. Especially when camping. Most Oregonians have the good places snapped up quickly. My favorite place to camp is at Cape Lookout. Great beach and good hiking in the costal mountains. The campsites are almost on the beach but are protected. Third, places to go. Hit the Otis Cafe at Otis junction on Hwy 18 outside Lincoln City for breakfast, fresh baked bread and homemade marionberry pie. I wouldn't waste any time at Cannon Beach unless your having a pint at Bill's Pub, too little time and not enough interesting stuff, however Ecola Park just to the North has a lot of old growth forest that is very cool. I recommend you move South to Cape Lookout, down to Devils Punchbowl and check out some of the smaller beaches along the coast. I recommend going to the Cape Perpetua visitor center and hiking the costal mountain trails in this area. The rocks at Bandon are great, however I consider the jewel of Oregon beaches is at Cape Blanco.
Best
Tom
Tom - interesting, as you've given some suggestions that are really different than others. Perhaps more useful in that regard (so it's certainly not a bad thing). So no Cannon Beach, eh? Hm.
thanks.
Just off of cannon beach are very interesting beaches. A few miles to the south. close enough to call it the cannon beach area and hit bill's pub for dinner. Arcadia and Hug Point both have lots to work with.
Dennis
Turner Reich
16-Jun-2009, 18:45
I don't know how you could walk on the Beach at Newport and not find sand dunes unless you are thinking of much larger sand dunes.
I was thinking of dunes like Oceano.
Brian Ellis
16-Jun-2009, 19:13
Where are the Newport OR dunes located, I've been there dozens of times and have not seen sand dunes.
AI'm not aware of any dunes in Newport. The dunes I'm familiar with are those in the Oregon Dunes National Recreation area and I believe they begin at Florence and extend south about 40 miles ending at Coos Bay. But maybe I'm like you and have just missed the Newport dunes, I've only been to Newport a few times. The best dunes for photography IMHO are the Umpqua dunes near the little town of Lakeside a few miles south of the William Tugman State Park. You get to the Umpqua dunes on the John Dellenback (sp?) trail which you can access from a U.S. Forest Service campground called Eel Creek I believe.
AI'm not aware of any dunes in Newport.
I don't know how to post a photo here but..
http://www.pbase.com/dpurdy/image/108426453
this picture is the beach at Newport. Those are sand dunes aren't they?
And this picture understates them. They go on for a long way and are often 6 feet high, or deep depending on how you look at it.
Dennis
msk2193
17-Jun-2009, 06:24
Kaiyen,
If you do Cannon Beach, try to walk to Haystack Rock around 5:30AM - 6AM when tide is at its lowest to photograph some very colorful sealife in the extremely shallow tidepools. The colors are spectacular. Bring a DSLR with flash!!
Gem Singer
17-Jun-2009, 07:07
Hey Mike, you forgot to mention. Be sure to take a Canon digicam.
Doesn't seem proper to use a Nikon DSLR at Cannon Beach.
(Before anyone starts flaming, my statement is meant to be a touch of humor between me and my friend Mike)
Brian Ellis
17-Jun-2009, 07:45
I don't know how to post a photo here but..
http://www.pbase.com/dpurdy/image/108426453
this picture is the beach at Newport. Those are sand dunes aren't they?
And this picture understates them. They go on for a long way and are often 6 feet high, or deep depending on how you look at it.
Dennis
Yes Dennis, those are sand dunes.
tom north
17-Jun-2009, 12:34
Kaiyen,
Just a suggestion. You have 5 days to explore over 300 miles of beach. Bill's Pub has the best beer in that part of the state. That's where I like to focus my camera after the light is gone at Cannon beach. By the way, if you like bridges, Newport has a beautiful bridge that crosses Yaquina Bay designed by Conde McCullough. The locals love to chat with photographers who set up tripods there to photograph the structure. You won't be chased away by security guards.
Best
Tom
Tom - thanks for the specific suggestions. Little things like that is where I'm at now in my planning.
To be clear, are you saying that 5 days is a lot or not enough to explore 300 miles of beach? I know "it depends" on how long I want to stay various places, how comfortable I am skipping certain places, etc, but I am curious what _you_ meant by that.
thanks to everyone, again, for this.
tom north
17-Jun-2009, 14:43
No amount of time is enough on the beach.
Tom
Steve Feldman
17-Jun-2009, 19:11
No one has mentioned the covered bridges in Oregon. About 50 in the sate. Many near the coast. My favorite is Yachats. Here's a website to see the bridge - http://www.covered-bridges.org/bridges/northfork.htm.
Here's the website for all of the bridges - http://www.covered-bridges.org/bridges.htm#.
Great fun to photograph or just to visit.
Wish I was going. Take me! :D
Eric Brody
18-Jun-2009, 07:29
Oregon has excellent beer, everywhere. If it's not available on tap, even the bottled ones are quite good. Rogue has a brewery in Newport. The Oregon Coast, thanks to Governor Tom McCall, is 300 miles of fabulous public beach, with hugely varied features from Astoria to Brookings. It would take a lifetime to explore even a part of it, hence my earlier suggestion to pick a spot, almost any will do, and work there. You'll go crazy trying to cover hundreds of miles and will likely be frustrated, unless you're a point and shoot type of large format photographer. Relax, go somewhere, have fun, have a beer at the end of the day.
Eric
Eric - unfortunately I don't drink, but I appreciate the suggestion. I'm not a point and shoot type of LF photographer, but I'm not exclusively an LF photographer, either. I'll have it along for some settings but not all. The book mentioned earlier in this thread, for instance, points out some places that will work well for LF, but other places that seem to clearly call for a much more versatile kit in an SLR form.
My wife and I see these trips, when we go somewhere for the first time, as a kind of "scouting" mission. We just want to get a feel for a place. Then we decide on our next trip (this helps us believe that we will in fact go again...) to concentrate on a specific area. So we will be going from Brookings north to Pacific City (and heading up to Cape Meares for some photography, but not staying quite that far up). But we realize we'll miss some stuff.
I will in fact be staying in Yachats for a night and therefore be around the area for an afternoon>evening and then the following morning. The bridges are one of the things we want to see if we can. thanks for the reminder.
Eric Brody
18-Jun-2009, 19:48
Yachats is a wonderful place. My family has spent time there every summer for the last 25 years. Cape Perpetua is great, I saw a bobcat there once (not a subject for a LF camera), to the south, Devil's Elbow State Park has the iconic Heceta Head lighthouse, Strawberry Hill has tons (literally and figuratively) of seals (or sea lions, I can never tell the difference). Just north is Seal Rock State Park, a lovely place and right across the street from Seal Rock is Yuzen, which serves the best sushi on the coast. Every beach, and there are many, north and south, have different and interesting views and often very cool driftwood. On the way north from Brookings, do not miss Bandon and Shore Acres. The southern and central Oregon coast is one of my favorite places in the world.
Good luck.
Eric
Brian Ellis
20-Jun-2009, 10:16
Eric - unfortunately I don't drink, but I appreciate the suggestion. I'm not a point and shoot type of LF photographer, but I'm not exclusively an LF photographer, either. I'll have it along for some settings but not all. The book mentioned earlier in this thread, for instance, points out some places that will work well for LF, but other places that seem to clearly call for a much more versatile kit in an SLR form.
My wife and I see these trips, when we go somewhere for the first time, as a kind of "scouting" mission. We just want to get a feel for a place. Then we decide on our next trip (this helps us believe that we will in fact go again...) to concentrate on a specific area. So we will be going from Brookings north to Pacific City (and heading up to Cape Meares for some photography, but not staying quite that far up). But we realize we'll miss some stuff.
I will in fact be staying in Yachats for a night and therefore be around the area for an afternoon>evening and then the following morning. The bridges are one of the things we want to see if we can. thanks for the reminder.
When I go to the central part of the Coast we stay in Yachats, at the Adobe Resort. We stay there partly because they have a pet wing but it's a nice place to stay for any reason. Even if you don't stay there, you should try their restaurant. IMHO it's the best restaurant in that part of the coast and the Sunday brunch is spectacular if you happen to be there on a Sunday a.m. I don't do a lot of photography in Yachats as such but there's a walking path that goes for a mile or more to the north from the ocean side of the Adobe. I usually get there before sunrise and walk along that path, photographing the rocks, tide pools, waves, etc. At lower tide you can walk down onto the rocks.
When I go to the central part of the Coast we stay in Yachats, at the Adobe Resort. We stay there partly because they have a pet wing but it's a nice place to stay for any reason. Even if you don't stay there, you should try their restaurant. IMHO it's the best restaurant in that part of the coast and the Sunday brunch is spectacular if you happen to be there on a Sunday a.m. I don't do a lot of photography in Yachats as such but there's a walking path that goes for a mile or more to the north from the ocean side of the Adobe. I usually get there before sunrise and walk along that path, photographing the rocks, tide pools, waves, etc. At lower tide you can walk down onto the rocks.
Wow!!! Reading your post, I did a double take. I could have sworn I had written it. I never make a trip to the coast without a night or two at the Adobe and dinners in the restaurant. Yachats could easily fit in as the Southern part of a North Coast trip, or the Northern point of the South Coast, although quite a ways from Bandon. It's almost halfway between Newport and Florence Oregon. Curvy coast road.
RE: The previous post... I'll have to look for the Sushi place next time over.
Also, regarding Sand Dunes... If you ask locals how to get to the dunes, make sure they know you want dunes that are unmolested by the Sand Rail and Dune Buggy crowd. They are all over the dunes where allowed, and create some traffic problems where they are allowed. Usually, the locals presume questioners want the dune buggy areas.
Mapquest Link to Yachats.
http://www.mapquest.com/maps?city=Yachats&state=OR
Jan Pedersen
21-Jun-2009, 20:29
Brian, Thank you for the tip on the Adobe Resort, Will make that my destination on my next trip to the coast in a month or two.
looks like I'll be eating at the Adobe while in Yachats :-). I'm staying at a B&B there and most places other than Bandon.
There was an article in the recent Oregonian that says the low tides are going very low right now and exposing tide pools and rocks not normally exposed. Sounds interesting.
I've been keeping track of the tides this time of year. there is a low tide point around 5-6pm each day so we're going to try and see if that'll work for us at least some of the time. we're going to play some of it by ear, with key points that we want to hit but otherwise just enjoy the coast.
hi all,
thanks again for all the help. I just got back yesterday and had a great time. One thing I learned, though, was that it's really hard to shoot LF if one forgets film...oh well. Digital all the way :-). I really did enjoy the Bandon area, I have to admit.
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