Hey friends! We finally have our blog post from our March trip to the Oregon Coast! The last time we were there, we did a lot of exploring in the Cannon Beach area, so this time we headed much further south to scout some amazing wedding & elopement locations. Since it was still pretty cold for tent camping, we stayed at some very comfy yurts along the way (Oregon State Parks knows what's up, those yurts were amazing options for cold weather camping!)
We love the Oregon Coast so so very much, and every time we go it steals our hearts all over again. Pretty sure that as some point in our lives, we'll be living out of a little A-frame cabin by the sea (that's the dream, right?)
The first day we encountered some magic purely by accident, by stumbling on the most amazing little under-rated gem of a beach slightly south of Port Orford. It's an unmarked pull-off with a tiny trail that looks like it might just wander off into the weeds, but if you follow it for a few minutes, you come across what is easily one of the most gorgeous views on the whole coast. To your left, the view looks down the coast for miles & miles, and to your right is a sheltered bluff full of grasses, wildflowers, and not one, but two beaches. Directly ahead is an old 4x4 road which takes you up the side of the cliff for even bigger picture views. If you care to cross a rocky stretch of beach at low tide, you can see an incredible, huge sea cave hidden inside one of the sea stacks!
My favorite part about this spot was how quiet it was. We were there on a sunny Saturday afternoon and we had the whole place to ourselves, except for a few gulls & two fisherman far off in the distance. Out of all the places we visited, this was probably my favorite. It would be the perfect location for a wedding or an elopement where you didn't want strenuous hiking.
After spending the night at the very pleasant Harris Beach State Park (the only downside being that they lock the access road gate to the beach super early in the winter!), we headed down south to California to stroll amongst the Redwoods. We braved the very bumpy road that leads to Jedidiah Smith State Park to walk underneath the giants. There's really no way to capture the massive scale of these amazing trees, it's just something you have to experience in person. We wandered for a ways before coming to a gorgeous platform underneath a particularly huge giant that would make for the most gorgeous ceremony location.
After we wandered through the forest, we turned back north to do some exploring along the famous Samuel H Boardman Scenic Corridor! These trails are some of the most heavily photographed & trafficked in the whole coast, so we'll be trying our best to keep their exact location under the radar for explorers who don't mind putting in a little research & elbow grease to find them on their own. I will say this though: this whole section of coast was just mind-blowing. It's definitely a must-see for anyone road-tripping along Highway 101.
My other favorite spot we saw is just a few minutes north of Brookings. It is, hands down, the most amazing beach I've ever been to (in the continental US* because to be fair: Hawaii is its own level) It requires a bit of a hike to get to, but that meant we had the whole stretch of beach absolutely to ourselves, even on a sunny weekend evening. I got out our tripod and took a few photos of us to remember it by. It's a bit of a local secret and requires some research to find, so we won't be sharing it's exact location on here to try and respect the beautiful wilderness of the place, but we would be over the moon to share it with another couple who is as smitten with it as we were!
We trekked back, muddy & tired and very happy to our yurt to watch the sun go down over the most deliciously cotton-candy pink sky and listen to the waves crashing in.
Sadly, the next morning we had to pack up our car & head back home. We made tons of detours and stops along the way though! We watched the seabirds nesting at the top of Seal Rock, and drove through winding, coastal highways before ending up at Cape Lookout State Park. We hadn't planned on stopping there, but I'm so glad we did! It's a gorgeous wedding location itself with yurts, cabins, group picnic shelters, and speaking from personal experience, the most gorgeous sunset views you could ask for. We had a phenomenal trip, and we have an even longer list of elopement & wedding locations on the Oregon Coast now!
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