Our most recent destination along the southern coast of Oregon was the small town of Yachats. I took my two teenaged daughters and my mother there for three days last September and rented a vacation house managed by Vacasa.
When I say that Yachats is a small town, I mean it’s really small. According to City-Data.com, the population in 2019 was 784 and I suspect that might include some of the fish!
Upon our arrival, we stopped first at Toppers Ice Cream and Candy. The kids and grandma got ice cream but I went for a latte and just like that, the long drive was forgotten and everyone was happy.
Although the town is quaint and charming, the real magic of Yachats are the beaches and the many amazing points of natural interest, which I will get to; but our trip just happened to coincide with a big storm, so we didn’t get to experience as much of that magic as I would have liked.
After we had our delicious ice cream (or latte), we spent quite a bit of time in a shop called Roadrunner Rocks. It is filled with crystals and polished rocks and all of us found something or other we liked. There were these big, colorful crystals that could stand on their own and the only reason I didn’t buy one is because I couldn’t decide which one I liked best!
We went across the street to C&K Market to look around and get some extra groceries and then looked in Mari’s Books and More. The bookshop has both new and used books and, of course, I found one I just had to have!
By that time our stomachs were starting to grumble, but we couldn’t agree on what to have for dinner. Grandma wanted something healthy, and the nicer restaurants seemed a little expensive so we temporarily tabled the discussion and headed to our home away from home.
On the way to the rental house we got distracted by Ocean Road, just off highway 101. We parked on the side of the street and took some wooden stairs down to the long, narrow, sandy beach. The craggy rocks are home to numerous tide pools and there is a small blow hole which kept shooting water high into the air. It was much too cold to go into the water, but we took our shoes off and walked in the sand (and the edge of the water in my case), looking around and taking lots of pictures. I love the ocean and just can’t stand it when I can’t get in. I had to at least get my feet wet!
Once we finally got to the rental house, we all had a look around and decided we really did want to get something to eat, so I googled nearby restaurants and we found Best Thai Cuisines about 40 minutes south, in the city of Florence. We ordered five different dishes, figuring we could eat leftovers the next day, which we did because the portions were pretty big. We were all really hungry and the food we ordered: chicken satay, green mango salad, sweet and sour pork, yellow coconut curry, and pineapple fried rice tasted delicious. It was dark and had started to rain in earnest by the time we got back to our rental house, but we were sated and ready to sample the hot tub.
The house was great; huge for just the four of us and it had that hot tub out back. Despite the stormy weather, we went thrifting in Florence, hooked our Wii up to the big screen tv upstairs and had a Just Dance competition, soaked in the hot tub, and played board games on the coffee table in the living room. We had a great time just hanging out and being somewhere other than home during the covid lockdown.
My mom is such a trooper. We did spend some time out on the rocks trying to spy a sunset, but the storm was causing gray skies and the only pretty pink was mom’s hat!
The sun came out on our last day and we were able to hike down the Hobbit Trail. There are many beautiful and interesting places to explore near Yachats, but it had been raining a lot so our time was limited and I was bound and determined to find some sand dollars. (My friend told me I could easily find them at the beach at the trail’s end). The Hobbit Trail is just south of Yachats on highway 101 and the entrance can be found with a GPS. People just park on the side of the highway. A sign marks the beginning of the trail and you can choose to hike up to the Heceta Head Lighthouse (a little longer hike), or down to a beautiful, mostly-secluded beach.
The trail down to the beach is only about a mile round trip and is easy enough for young children, while being enchanting and reminiscent of folklore and fantasy tales (hence the name).
Interestingly, along the trail to the beach people have stacked up stones and some of the plentiful crab shells from the beach. Check out mom’s face when she noticed them!
Some other points of interest in and around Yachats are Cape Perpetua, Thor’s Well, Devils Churn and Cook’s Chasm. The entire area is just breathtaking. We will be going back to do some camping and hiking, so keep an eye out for more posts about the southern Oregon coast!
Wow that’s soooo cool.. LOL as a Lord of the rings fan it would be a great place to take the kids !
I’ve been to many beaches on both coasts as well as in many different countries, none as nice as what you described.
Thanks Mike! It’s pretty memorable.