Adventures on the Oregon Coast
Ever since we moved to the PNW, it has been hard not being able to go back home for every holiday. Given this, we decided to try and make a new tradition for Thanksgiving where we try to explore more of our area. This year we chose to make the trip down to the Oregon coast, since we had been told multiple times about how gorgeous it was. Spoiler alert, it was honestly so stunning!
We started our adventure on Thanksgiving day by first heading to Cape Disappointment State Park at the southeastern part of Washington. With a name like Cape Disappointment, my curiosity had me wondering how disappointing it could be. We arrived and were taken back with the beauty of the Pacific Ocean. We had been to Hawaii in the year prior and witnessed the ocean then, but this was different. The waves were crashing, the air smelt salty, and we knew we had made the right decision. Before venturing too far, we sat down at one of the picnic tables and got to enjoy our “Thanksgiving” dinner, a Chicken and Dumpling freeze dried meal and cranberries!
Prior to our trips, we usually research to find any trails we would like to hike. We were towards the end of our 52 hike challenge, so we knew we wanted to try and pack in as many as we could on this trip. Our first one was the Cape Disappointment Trail. It is roughly a 1.9 mile round trip easy trail, but the views you are able to get are incredible. We were able to hike by the Lewis & Clark Interpretive center. After that, we walked down to Deadman’s Cove, which may have been our favorite of the whole hike. We arrived around the time of the sun setting so the colors were honestly stunning!
After we completed our hike, we continued on to our final destination, Garibaldi. We decided to stay at the Garibaldi House Inn as it was a great home base for everything we had planned. Since it was Thanksgiving, not many places were open to eat, so we finished the day off by watching the Thanksgiving Charlie Brown and with another freeze dried meal from Mountain House, Chicken Teriyaki. We also tried the Apple Crisp one for our dessert. This was our first real experience with the freeze dried meals, and we have enjoyed the flavors that we chose for this trip.
The next day, we ventured to Cannon Beach. It was a drizzly day, which honestly made the sights even more fun! We got to explore the Haystack Rock and got to see how chaotic the waves could be on the coast.
After exploring the beach for a little while, we ended up at the Wayfarer Restaurant & Lodge for lunch. We were still able to see the beach from our table which was nice. Our food was nice and warm. We tried the Oyster Sandwich and the BLATT (bacon, lettuce, avocado, turkey, tomato). The oyster sandwich was odd. Not sure if we would do that again, but it was at least something to eat.
We also stopped at this cute little coffee shop, the Sleepy Monk, for a warm beverage and some dessert. The coffee shop is right on the main strip and not too far away from the beach.
Once we had some food in our bellies, we headed out for another hike. Our next hike was the Indian Beach Trail in the Ecola State Park. Some may recognize this area from the movie, The Goonies. The rain did not put a damper on our day. On the contrary, it made for some amazing looking waves and a nice gloomy day! The beach had some cool mossy areas and was full of water critters.
Before heading back to the lodge, we stopped for some pizza at Pizza a’fetta. We tried their Princess Margarita pizza which was perfect after a full day of hikes.
Originally this trip was meant to be mostly a Cannon Beach trip, but we decided to go do some more exploring. As such, we woke up early and started our adventures farther down the coast. We stopped in Tillamook at the Five Rivers Roasters for coffee and breakfast. We tried their breakfast burrito and breakfast croissant, which were both delicious. We also tried their Chai Tea Latte, which may be one of the best I have ever had!
We finally arrived at Thor’s Well in Yachats, Oregon, and it was definitely worth the drive. For those who have never heard of this amazing attraction, it is a sinkhole that appears to be bottomless that swallows the unbroken stream of seawater around it. It was truly amazing to see the water drain into it and then burst up into the air.
On our way back to our lodge, we decided to also stop at the Devil’s Punchbowl. It was so neat seeing all the surfers at a nearby beach and the punchbowl itself was incredible. Apparently, during some other parts of the year, you can actually go down into the punchbowl and explore it. Unfortunately, this was not the case while we were there.
We ended the night by eating at the Pelican Brewing Company in Cannon Beach. We tried one of their non-alcoholic beverages which was an Acai Sparkle Hops. It mainly just tasted like sparkling water. For our meal, we had the Spicy Korean Cauliflower to start, and then had the Tri-Tip Sandwich and Pulled Pork Sandwich for our main meal. Finishing up our meal, we chose to have the Chocolate Chip Cookie Brownie which had a scoop of ice cream on top!
We really enjoyed our time on the Oregon coast for the holiday. Even with a little bit of rain on one of the days, it did not deter us from being able to explore and enjoy ourselves. We were able to complete our 52 hike challenge while we were there and came home with so many memories. We are already wanting to go back and explore more of the beautiful state.
Check out our video we did of our adventures of this trip at our YouTube channel!
