Itinerary: The Oregon Coast

Summer is quickly approaching and our upcoming trip has me reminiscing one of our all-time favorites… The Oregon Coast. Oregon completely changed the way we travel.

Our kids were very young the year we traveled to Oregon. They had just turned 1 and 2. Pre-kids my husband and I were avid beach bums. We traveled the Caribbean extensively. We couldn’t wait to take our kids to the Caribbean beaches we loved so much. When planning this trip we were just coming back from a Florida Keys trip with our oldest (who was 6 months at the time we were in the Keys) and as much as we love the tropical south beaches… it was HOT. And while we had a great time and he loved the sand – we decided we wanted coastal for this trip, but mild coastal. Insert: The Oregon Coast.

Traveling out of a simple airport is always important for us with young kids. Living in Dallas/Fort Worth there are (basically) 2 options. DFW international or Dallas Love Field. Love Field is a much smaller, easier to navigate airport than DFW. We travel out of there as often as we can. Flights from Dallas to Portland, Oregon are CHEAP. (Not to be confused with Portland, Maine)

So, our Oregon trip was born! We flew into Portland, rented a car, and drove straight west to the coast. We stayed in an adorable AirBNB in Rockaway Beach, OR (Find a similar one here). Our house wasn’t directly on the coast, but we were able to take a short walk across the street to the beach. It was incredible. Our first time to cross the street and walk through the vegetation to the beach… we were in love! Twin Rocks were right there in front of us! And beautiful mountains to our right and the most wonderful, crisp, cool coastal air… we spent hours there letting the boys play.

The great thing about the Oregon coast is there is so much to do! You can hop in the car and drive north for more jaw-dropping scenes and coastline, drive south for rugged cliffs and tide pools, or inland to the Columbia River.

We did just that! When the kids got tired and needed a rest we got in the car and picked a direction. Our trip went something like this:

Day 1: Stayed near AirBNB, played at beach
Day 2: Drove North to Haystack Rock, Hug Point State Park & Oswald West State Park
Day 3: Drove inland to Portland, Columbia River Gorge, Multnomah Falls & Panorama Point
Day 4: Drove South to Cape Lookout SP, Devil’s Punchbowl, Otter Rock, & Yachats State Recreation Area
Day 5: Drove inland to Silver Falls State Park
Day 6: Back to favorite spot on the coast

Must sees (click links to learn more):
-Twin Rocks – Rockaway Beach, OR
–Haystack Rock – Cannon Beach
–Hug Point State Park
–Oswald West State Park
–Cape Lookout State Park
–Tillamook Factory
–Devil’s Punchbowl State Natural Area
–Beverly Beach State Park: Otter Rock
–Silver Falls State Park
–Panorama Point
–Columbia River Gorge
–Multnomah Falls
–Yachats State Recreation Area

Near Rockaway Beach is also the Tillamook Factory where you can get delicious ice cream and dairy products. Our kids loved their tour and the ice cream, of course!

We can’t say enough amazing things about Oregon. It rivaled the Caribbean in more ways than I can count. The views. The vegetation. The mountains. The tide pools and beautiful coast. The rivers and waterfalls. Our kids absolutely loved every second, and we did too. They napped in the car while we drove and took in the scenery. We ended up driving all the way to Washington on one of the days and we would’ve gone farther but we needed to wake the boys up.

So, our upcoming summer trip includes the Washington coast! And much more of the PNW. We forever fell in love with the mountains on this particular trip.

A few necessities for this one with kids:
-Ergo Baby Carriers
-Layers
-Change of clothes – it’s cooler and wet so kids tend to go through more clothes than a tropical beach (your kids WILL want to get wet)
-Towels
-Know and be aware of the tide schedules and changing tides
-Also know and be aware of sneaker waves: very common in this part of the country (Learn more here)