Full Oregon Coast Loop: Cannon Beach to Lincoln City

The 235-foot sea stack at Cannon Beach hosts the largest colony of tufted puffins on the Oregon coast — the birds nest in the summit crevices from April through August, visible from the beach with binoculars. At low tide, the surrounding Marine Garden exposes purple and ochre sea stars, giant green anemones, and turban snails in the pools around the base. The Haystack Rock Awareness Program rangers set up spotting scopes on peak bird days.

The 5-mile Cape Falcon Trail from Oswald West climbs through old-growth Sitka spruce above Short Sands Beach to a headland above 200-foot cliffs — the view south encompasses Manzanita and Neahkahnie Mountain; north toward Tillamook Head is 15 miles of unbroken coastal bluff. The trail is relatively flat on the headland after the initial climb.

The best dinner in Manzanita in an old beach bungalow — the daily-changing menu uses whatever arrived fresh that morning: halibut, Dungeness crab, razor clams, and house-made pasta. The single small room fills fast; arrive early or reserve.

The Three Capes Loop begins at Cape Meares on its north end — the 1890 lighthouse (Oregon's shortest at 38 feet) stands on a headland 200 feet above the Pacific, and the Octopus Tree Sitka spruce adjacent to the lighthouse is an estimated 300-year-old specimen shaped by centuries of prevailing coastal wind into a multi-trunked candelabra form. The view south down the coast from the lighthouse encompasses Tillamook Bay and the Three Arch Rocks offshore.

The beach on the north side of Cape Lookout's headland is the Three Capes Loop's most secluded — a driftwood-strewn sand cove accessible by a short trail from the campground, with Tillamook Head visible to the north and the cape's basalt cliffs rising directly overhead. Gray whales feed in the near-shore kelp beds from November through January and pass the cape's tip during the March migration.

Pacific City's most beloved local dining room in a converted beach cottage on the main road through town — the kitchen produces honest Oregon coast cooking anchored by fresh Dungeness crab, local fish, and house-baked bread from an on-site bakery that has been the community gathering point since the 1990s. The clam chowder and the fresh halibut preparations are the menu constants; the low-key, unfussy atmosphere is the defining character of the Pacific City dining scene.

Oregon's glass float program plants handblown glass balls on Lincoln City's 7.5-mile beach between October and May — finding one is keeper-worthy, and the surrounding artists who make them sell direct from the Taft District galleries. The Taft neighborhood's original 1920s fishing-town commercial street is the most authentic block on the Lincoln City waterfront.

The world's smallest navigable harbor is also Oregon's most reliable whale-watching vantage point — the state maintains a formal whale watching station above the harbor mouth, and resident gray whales feed in the near-shore kelp beds year-round. The dramatic plume spouts in the rocky harbor are visible without binoculars; the spout plumes can exceed 15 feet. Peak watching in March and December.