July 2011 Waldport, Oregon Coast Family Getaway!

Waldport is a fairly quiet town of about 2,000 on the Oregon Coast, about 20 minutes South of Newport. This is a stretch of coast that quickly gets "less busy" with people (as if Oregon beaches are ever that busy) and the towns are small, from Newport to Florence to the South. It is one of our favorite stretches of coast for this reason, and one of the prettiest. We stayed at the Ford House through Bayshore Rentals (rental management located just North of Waldport, we had stayed in another house last year). This one was 3 bedrooms, and looked right over the sands of the beach. It was a great deal at only $80 per night. You can imagine at this price that it was small, it we were even warned of that by Bayshore, but it was just great for our needs. Bedrooms were indeed very small, but the front room with kitchen was great, and there was a big window and deck overlooking the beach. It's not a luxury home, but after having stayed in several cabin-type setups this summer, we thought it was just great! Cable, DVD, a fully stocked kitchen with more than enough stuff for a family of 5 (no dishwasher was only thing you might miss, but not too much). The coastline is quiet and sandy, not much for rocks, but some driftwood for the kids to mess with. There is a Ray's market in town that is reasonable.



Sunset walk on the beach

Interior of the Ford House

View from the Ford house

The only downside I can think of was parking (a little tricky with a large vehicle, don't bring more than 1 car). Otherwise, we very much got what we hoped for.....a great location and great price. The home is located on a beach with other homes only.....so there were very few people out. Getting a feeling we like to get away from crowds? One other great thing about this particular coastline is that where we were, the sands sloped up into the beach, making it so waves are more predictable as the crashed on shore....meaning, the waves would not break and go on and on into the beach, but stop pretty quickly. This is a nice, safe beach for that reason.



Beach in front of the Ford House





View South from the beach in front of Ford house...notice the crowds!



Nearby there are several great places to see. Yachats is one of our favorite places on the Oregon Coast....an even smaller town than Waldport, but with an amazing rocky coastline that creates tide pools, waterspouts, and crashing waves to watch. There are many restaurants to choose from, some of them pretty spendy, and many of which that got packed fast on a Friday night. We settled on eating at the Blue Whale, an average looking place on the East of 101 (no view). We had eaten there once before, but it had been many years. We were nervous that it was not that busy when we got there, but by the time we left it was. We were happily surprised by the amount and quality of food for the family, and would visit again. Of note is the amount of fresh pies they have on hand, though we were too full to get any this time. Cost for the family of 5 was around $50. Not much in the way of "ambiance" but the kind of place you can take your kids and know you will find meal choices everyone likes.

Oh yeah! The kids were waiting for explosive waves!

Daddy showing the boys how to chuck a log into the surf

A good thought is to plan to go to the Yachats coastline when the tide is close to in, so the waves will really be spectacular. It's a little like Depot Bay's coastline, except there are lots of places you can walk right on the rocks. Ice cream at a local sweet shop finished that night.

Nearby attractions (a few miles south of Yachats) include Cape Perpetua, which includes Devil's Churn (go when the tide is in, again, for loud surf) and a drive up to the top of the Cape, where there is a rock shelter built during the Great Depression and lots of trails. The little hike to the shelter has some of the best views of the Pacific anywhere. There are more hiking options if you choose that. My biggest annoyance on this part of the trip was that the state park would not take debit cards, and when I had cash, had actually run OUT of permits.....so we went without and took our chances. Otherwise it would only be $5 for the day for access to some great sights.

Looking down from the top of the world just above Devil's Churn

Gorgeous views from the Rock Shelter

Cool Rock Shelter

View down from the Rock Shelter...Devil's churn is at the bottom

Great trails weave around lush forest

Just north of Waldport is Seal Rock, which has several nice sections of beach and rocky shores....if the tide is low, you can explore the rocks and many, many tidepools. There are places to park near the actual wayside that are not as busy, but they also have steeper trails to get down to the beach itself. It was fairly busy on a Saturday, but the kids liked climbing around and seeing everything there.

Seal Rock, one of the coolest beaches to explore

Seal Rock...tide pools galore

Elephant Rock at Seal Rock beach wayside

Rock climbing behind Elephant Rock

Our Ben was in heaven with all the opportunity to scale rock walls

Right behind Elephant Rock

The kids liked watching the surf at Yachats so much that we visited it again....the parking area on the North side of the river is great, because the rocks go out into the ocean further from the bay, so the waves are breaking almost right in front of you. The other side of the river is good too, just not as spectacular of waves.

Just a few miles south of Cape Perpetua is the Haceta Head lighthouse, one of the most photographed places in Oregon (and the US, I think). We did not go there this time, but it's worth it if you have not been. A short trail uphill to the lighthouse from a small beach, and you can get a tour and the history of it.

Overall we were very, very happy with our 3 day weekend getaway. Our goal this summer was "most bang for the buck" and where we stayed had that. Oh, I forgot to mention that we had two straight days of no clouds! If you are looking for a scenic, relaxing, quiet place to stay, Waldport is a great choice.