Oregon Coast Self Guided Audio Driving Tour

What's Included

Meeting and pickup

Itinerary

• 1
  Sea Lion Caves

  Sea Lion Caves is the largest sea cave in the United States, and its home to, you guessed it dozens, sometimes hundreds of sea lions. If you're interested in seeing, hearing or smelling sea lions, this is the spot. If we head down the elevators into the caves you might want to plug your ears and nose. Note: The tour is over 200 miles long, with more than 170+ audio stories, and takes about 7-8 hours to complete. Buy once, use for one year! Ideal for extended visits and return trips over the next 12 months.

  10 minutes • Admission ticket not included
• 2
  Florence

  Florence is one of the larger communities on the Oregon Coast and, because of its proximity to the Oregon Dunes, it's a center for outdoor sports. If we are on a much longer driving itinerary, you might be interested to know that Florence is also roughly the halfway point between California and Washington.

  10 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 3
  Exploding Whale Memorial Park

  Florence is home of one of the most infamous incidents in the history of dynamite – an incident that eventually became one of the first viral videos on the Internet. Let’s flashback to November 12, 1970. A dead 45-foot long sperm whale washed up on the beach just west of here.

  10 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 4
  93825 US-101

  Up ahead is Carl G. Washburne Memorial State Park, named for a former commissioner of the Oregon Highway Department. This park features a wide beach, picnic areas, restrooms and a large campground.

  10 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 5
  Cape Perpetua

  The Cape Perpetua area is coming up featuring miles-long views, an ocean blowhole, a beautiful forest and a visitor center to learn more. But a grouping of worthy stops will come up quickly.

  10 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 6
  Thor's Well

  Safety officer here to deliver a word of caution. A water rescue is nearly impossible amid the churning waves, so take care. If the tide is very high, stay up on the paved trail and view everything from a distance.

  10 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 7
  Heceta Head Lighthouse

  the Heceta Head area, home to some great views and a beautiful 19th-century classic red-roofed lighthouse with a beam visible 21 miles out to sea.

  10 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 8
  Thor's Well

  Safety officer here to deliver a word of caution. A water rescue is nearly impossible amid the churning waves, so take care.

  10 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 9
  Yachats

  We’ll soon arrive in Yachats, and this is my definition of a perfect example of an Oregon Coast town. We’ll find a couple of great restaurants, coffee shops, bakeries, a brewpub featuring unique ingredients like spruce beer, an excellent fish market and a couple of shops for visitors.

  10 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 10
  Waldport

  There aren't any must-do stops but the town is pleasant of course, with a couple of restaurants to pick from. This is the location where the Alsea River empties into the Pacific Ocean and that means an interesting bridge is coming up.

  10 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 11
  Alsea Bay Bridge

  Throughout this tour I speak quite a bit about how Conde McCullough built many of the bridges along the Oregon Coast. Well alas, we are about to cross one that he did NOT design. This bridge, over Alsea Bay was opened in 1991 to replace the original bridge, and that original in fact was designed and built in 1936 by McCullough.

  10 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 12
  Brian Booth State Park

  Wouldn't it be cool to have a park named after you? We are closing in on Brian Booth State Park, named in 2013 after the first Oregon State Parks and Recreation Commission chairperson.

  10 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 13
  Newport

  There are several worthwhile stops to make in Newport if we have the time and feel ready to get out for a little exploring. The most highly recommended is to visit the Bayfront.

  10 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 14
  Yaquina Head

  The ocean side of the road is the Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area. Yes "Outstanding" is a part of the official name and is absolutely fitting. The Oregon Coast’s tallest lighthouse rises 93 feet above the cliffs.

  10 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 15
  Beverly Beach State Park

  Ahead on the inland side of the road, we’ll see the brown sign for Beverly Beach State Park. I realize we probably aren't driving along randomly looking for a campground, but I did want to give a shoutout to my favorite spots to camp on the coast.

  10 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 16
  Cape Foulweather

  As we drive the Otter Crest Loop, we pass Cape Foulweather, which is - well, depending on the day, also descriptively accurate. The first European to record seeing Cape Foulweather was British explorer Captain James Cook in March 1778.

  10 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 17
  Boiler Bay

  If you want a short jaunt, and it's low tide, you can search for a derelict boiler tank that remains from a steam powered schooner that met an unfortunate end back in 1910. The story is that an over pressurized blow torch exploded, engulfing the ship.

  10 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 18
  Fogarty Creek

  Fogarty Creek State Recreation Area is just ahead and in my opinion it is one of the best beaches in Oregon because it offers fantastic views, smashing waves, unique rock formations, spectacular tidal pools and best of all its great for fossicking. In this case our fossicking will be a hunt for agates.

  10 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 19
  Cascade Head

  This is part of the UNESCO Cascade Head Biosphere. It includes 102 thousand acres of rare and diverse ecosystems including the Salmon River, a two mile basalt headland covered in coastal prairies, forested uplands and a marine reserve stretching west into the waters of the Pacific. All proudly protected by the communities.

  10 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 20
  Neskowin

  As we come off Cascade Head, we're going to see the village of Neskowin. This is one of those places that has a ghost forest identified by scientists as devastated by a prior tsunami. At low tide, on the beach south of Hawk Creek, dozens of old tree stumps are still visible buried in the sand as a testament to the power of the earth.

  10 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 21
  Cape Kiwanda

  Up ahead is the main attraction in Pacific City, Cape Kiwanda and one of the three Oregon coast haystack rocks, This one being the 327 foot tall basalt outcrop called Chief Kiawanda Rock. Cape Kiwanda itself, is a sandstone promontory that juts out into the ocean.

  10 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 22
  Netarts

  The overlook ahead on the left called Anderson's viewpoint is a great spot to take a look at the coast and Netarts Bay.

  10 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 23
  Cape Meares

  There's a Y intersection ahead. To visit the secret Tunnel Beach, we will keep left and enter the seaside village of Oceanside.

  10 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 24
  Tillamook

  We are almost at the most popular visitor attraction on the Oregon Coast - the famous Tillamook Creamery. Beloved for generations, it's a great place to see cheesemakers hard at work preparing the bricks of cheddar headed to grocery stores all over the country. Visitors can sample several varieties of Tillamook Cheese, buy some hard-to-find flavors and aged varieties, and some gifts for anyone who didn't get to come along today.

  10 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 25
  Astoria Column

  If the weather is at all cooperative today, I suggest we should head up the hill to Astoria Column, one of the most popular places in Astoria because of its elevated location with superb views in every direction - including across the Columbia River to Washington.

  10 minutes • Admission ticket not included
• 26
  Garibaldi

  The village of Garibaldi is one of the Oregon Coast’s main fishing ports, and it’s a great place to pick up tuna, salmon or crab, especially if we are cooking some of our own meals on this trip. Even if we aren’t, canneries here preserve some of the fresh catches so that they can make it back home no matter how far we have to go.

  10 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 27
  Rockaway Beach

  Rockaway Beach is going to be in our windows soon. This seaside resort colony was founded about a century ago and named for the famous beach community in New York City.

  10 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 28
  Nehalem

  U.S. 101 makes a sharp turn at the intersection of 7th and H streets. It's well signed, and has a flashing light, so it should be pretty obvious where we need to make the turn. But guess what - I'll be sure to make sure we go the right way.

  10 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 29
  Manzanita

  You may remember me saying that Manzanita has a little more upscale eateries and stores and is a popular spot to own or rent a beach cottage.

  10 minutes • Admission ticket free
• 30
  Cannon Beach

  My official tour route goes through Cannon Beach, so if we've accidentally missed the exit, don't worry, there's another exit up ahead that we can use to get to Cannon Beach and Ecola State Park.

  10 minutes • Admission ticket free

Additional info

• Public transportation options are available nearby
• Suitable for all physical fitness levels
• How To Access: After booking, you’ll get an email and text with setup instructions and password (search “audio tour” in emails and texts). • Download the separate tour app by Action • Enter the password sent by email and text. • MUST download the tour while in strong wifi/cellular. • Works offline after download.
• How to start touring: Open Action’s separate audio tour guide app once onsite. • If there is just one tour, launch it. • If multiple tour versions exist, launch the one with your planned starting point and direction.
• Go to the starting point No one will meet you at the start. This tour is self-guided Enter the first story’s point and the audio will begin automatically Follow the audio cues to the next story, which will also play automatically. Enjoy hands-free exploring. If you face audio issues, contact support. Stick to the tour route & speed limit for the best experience.
• Travel worry-free: Use the tour app anytime, on any day, and over multiple days. Start and pause the tour whenever you like, taking breaks and exploring side excursions at your own pace. Skip anything you don’t care about or explore bonus content for everything that interests you

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