Oregon road-trip

September 24 & 25 2022

Welcome back! I went on a road-trip to Oregon! I have been to Oregon a couple times and the nature just keeps surprising me. The roads in combination with the beautiful trees are just magical. And then if there is a lot of fog, it makes it all a little extra magical. Not only the nature is beautiful with all the many mountains you can visit, oh and don't forget about the coastline it is amazing! The coast in Oregon is so different from the coast in Washington or in California. The beaches are longer, there are randomly rocks sticking out of the water and the cliffs down to the water are breathtaking. We had only 2 days for the whole trip, so we didn't stay at each place for a very long time, but we still had a lot of fun and enjoyed all of it! Hope you're enjoying reading about our crazy 2 day trip in Oregon.

The Pacific North West (PNW) has some amazing nature and many national parks what is worth a visit! The PNW are the states, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and even Alaska. This time I’m talking about Oregon, because we did a road-trip down the Oregon Coast and Crater Lake National Park. We got lucky with the weather, we had a lot of sun and blue skies. But still we had parts where it was foggy and a little cooler. That doesn’t bother me at all, because like I mentioned before the fog makes the coast look even more beautiful.

Portland

We started and ended our road-trip in Portland. My friend lives there so we stayed the night at her place. We arrived on Friday night and left the next morning at 6.30 am. We drove a minivan, what was a cool experience, because I’ve never traveled with a minivan before. We decided to sleep in the car, so that was even more convenient that we had a minivan and we could just lay down our sleeping bags and call it a night.

Oregon Coast

We drove from the North side of Oregon to the South. The coast is long and all of it is so pretty. I won't talk about all of them, but I will talk about the most famous or impressing ones. Along the coast drive there are many turn outs where you can stop, watch the view and take pictures. If you see a pretty view just stop and take pictures, it's so worth it! I will list all the places we stopped on the bottom of this blog.

While on the road we saw a pretty sunrise and slowly you saw the landscapes changing from city to farm land to mountains to beach. Our first stop was Seaside, it’s a beach town with a street where you can find different small stores and the beach is very long and perfect to spend a warm sunny day on.

Cannon Beach

This beach was on top of my list for a long time. I heard so many people talking about this beach when I was in Portland that I really had to visit it. We arrived at Cannon Beach and the walk to the beach was already so pretty, because you could see the Cannon rock. Cannon beach is a very long and sandy beach with one big rock in the middle of the beach in the water. The beach is perfect to just walk around, go surfing or have a beach day on. This beach is quite populair so it could be busy too, but the beach is big so it won't be that you can't find a spot to sit.

Hugpoint State Recreation Site

We parked the car at the parking lot and we walked down to the beach, its not a long walk at all. Once again, the beach was so long and beautiful. We walked to the right side of the beach where you could find a little waterfall and a cave.

Thor's Well

IF YOU'RE DRIVING ALONG THE COAST, you SHOULD to stop here!! Thor's Well is beautifull! It is a hole in the side of a cliff where water comes out when the waves hit it. Okay now that I'm typing it is hard to explain, but please look at the pictures! It is a little bit of a walk down to the water, but not too bad. You can see Thor's Well from up top where the pull out is too. If you decide to walk down you can see it from closer up. I would recommend it for sure!

Oregon Dunes

This stop was a spontaneous one, what was decently worth it. We stopped there briefly, because we had other places to go. We took pictures and enjoyed the view. It was beautiful. You can park your car down the dune and walk up on it. From there you can go wherever. We even saw sand buggy's driving on the sand. So if you want to do something cool and unique you could rent a sand buggy and explore the Oregon Dunes. You can rent them at different places around the Oregon Dunes, we saw many billboards and signs when we were driving away from the dunes.

Nesika Beach

Because we were running out of time we stoped at Nesika Beach to watch the sunset. Oh my, the sunsets on the coast are my favorite! The colors get so pretty and in combination with the beach and the ocean! It's just the best.

Thunder Rock

This was just a pull out place where we stopped because the sky was all orange and in combination with the rocks sticking out of the water it looked really cool.

Secret Beach

Our original plan was to be at Secret Beach during sunset, but what you might can guess, is that we didn't make it. But I still want to talk about Secret Beach, because this beach is one of my favorite. I went here on a different road-trip where we drove from San Fransisco up north to Oregon and Secret Beach was our most Northern stop. This beach is a little hidden and you need to hike down to the beach. You will first end up at a big rock above the beach where you see the beach from up. If you want you can climb (it's not that hard) down to the beach and walk around there. There is even a cave where you can go in. This beach is so beautiful! There are caves and big rocks sticking out of the water.

Natural Bridges

This is another stop that we didn't do during our Oregon trip, but where I went the same time as Secret Beach. This place also has a special place in my heart. You park your car at a overlook where you can see the bridge from up high. The view is gorgeous! But I can give you a tip for an even better experience. You can actually hike down to the Natural Bridge and walk over it! The hike can be dangerous and is steep. So be careful if you do it. There are 2 ways you can go down. You can go around the left side, the hike starts from the dock where you have the viewpoint. Or you can go down the right side where you start the hike more down from the parking spot. When you hike down the right side there is a part what starts in the woods and then you have to stay more on the left side when you walk down through the woods. I am sorry if my directions aren't good, I don't really know how to describe it, but if you google and find another blog that talkes about Natural Bridges they will have the directions for the hike.

Crater lake

We made it to day 2! We slept in the car at a gasstation 30 minutes away from Crater Lake National Park. We drove during sunrise, what gave a cute view with cows with mountains in the background and an orange sky.

Crater Lake is a big lake on top of a mountain with the cleanest water from the world in it. You are allowed to swim in it and there is a little island in the middle of the lake where you can go in the summer with a guided boat tour. You can drive around the whole lake what will take 1 hour if you don't stop. If you stop it would take you 2/3 hours to drive all around. There are many places where you can pull over and watch the lake from many different sides. We were there in end September, there was no snow at all yet. That means that all the hikes were open. We even did a hike! We did the Cleetwood Cove hike. This is the only hike and place what allow you to reach the water! It's a 2.2 mile hike with a 700ft elevation. It's a steep hike but nothing too bad. We did the hike up and down in a little over 1 hour. The view you have during the hike is amazing and the water is blue and clear!

After Crater Lake National Park we drove back up to Portland. We wanted to stop at Tamolitch Falls, but we didn't had enough time so we needed to skip it. It's a 2.5 mile hike to the waterfall and 2.5 miles back. We heard that it was beautiful and the water is super blue. So if you have time I think it would definitely be worth going.

That was our road-trip in Oregon! Thank you for reading! :)

All the spots in one list:

Seaside

Cannon beach

Silver Point Interpretive overlook

Hugpoint State Recreation Site

Seal Rock

Thor's Well

Oregon Dunes

Nesika Beach

Thunder Rock

Secret Beach

Natural Bridges

Crater Lake National Park

Tamolitch Falls