I've been on the Atlantic Coast, the Gulf Coast, the California Pacific Coast and the coasts of a number of other countries. But in my estimation there is nothing like the Oregon coast.

Leaving the night's camping under the stars beneath Mt. Hood we proceeded to Portland and up U.S. 30 to Astoria, OR. There we parked and had our first view of the Pacific.

We would eventually ride the entire Oregon Coast. We did that in one day and you could easily spend a full week just getting a basic look at it. Most of U.S. 101 (the coast highway) runs on cliffs high above the ocean. Here you see the general nature of the coastline.

While the highway occupies much of the cliffs of the coastline buildings also occupy the cliffs high above the ocean. Lighthouses still abound on the coast and one we were able to get close to was the Yaquina Head Lighthouse. Read more about the lighthouse. Marine birds also occupy Yaquina Head. They look like penguins but I'm not sure what they are ... other than plentiful!

We took a nice break at Yaquina Head and both Robert and I posed for the usual touristy photos. A bit of explanation about the outfit: the cute 'skull cap' hopes to suppress helmet hair (not very well) and the safety vest is for visibility while on the bike. It works. I was once travelling with it on and was listening to CB channel 19 and heard a trucker observe me and ask his buddy "what's that, some kind of ^$^&*@# school crossing guard?" He thought he was insulting me but it confirmed the fact that the vest draws attention.

Another lighthouse quest was the Heceta Head lighthouse which is thought by many to be one of the most beautiful on the coast. Unfortunately we were becoming "time challenged" and did not have time to stop and view it up close. See more about it here.

We continued all the way down the coast and at one point were able to go down on the beach and frolic in the ocean. Rather than try to discuss those times let me suggest you simply start here and click on 'next image' until you run out of Oregon photos.

We stayed this night in Florence, OR for one of our few motel stays of the trip.