Oregon Coast – Day 3 Newport OR to Cape Blanco

by April Lemarr / November 28, 2019December 21, 2019

On our Oregon Coast road trip day three was another long day in the car. We left the yurt early and hit the road because I really wanted to stop at a tidepool. We had to make sure to get there and have time to see some of the tidepool sea creatures before the tide came in.

Tidepool Adventures

When we stopped at this tidepooling place which was just outside of Newport going south – there were tons of little sea creatures to see like the ones below.

Plus the boys found more than one spot to explore.

Tidepooling Oregon — We found these fun sea creatures while tidepooling in this location.

The boys did find some really fun places to play though!

Tidepool Oregon Beach — I swear kids have a radar when there is any little nook or cranny they can squeeze into.

I enjoyed looking at all the creatures and the boys being able to explore, but I was scared we were going to get caught down there because of the tide coming in. I’m sure we were fine, but just keep an eye out for this if you ever visit places like this.

Sea Lion Caves

When I was younger my grandparents would take me and my brothers to Florence all the time. They had a membership at Naaco West. It is now a Thousand Trails property.

A few times they took us to the Sea Lion Caves. I didn’t remember much except for the fact that I had been before. I wanted to stop on our way.

I honestly don’t remember much but it wasn’t what I thought it would be. I thought it was going to be a building on top of the cliff and then you walk down to see the sea lions…close up.

It wasn’t.

There was a fun gift shop and an area outside to walk and look through a telescope to see them.

As you can see there are a few different things you can do at this stop. Going down to the caves to see the Sea Lions does cost money, but the other things don’t.

But then there was an elevator you had to go down, down, down into the earth to see them close up. Okay, it didn’t really go down into the earth – more like sea level, but it felt like it. Haha.

Sea Lion Caves Oregon — Is this elevator ever going to stop….down, down, down it goes.

I’m not sure if you can tell by my “funny” comments that I’m scared of caves, as well as heights (this includes bridges). Whenever possible I force myself to face these fears. I do this because I’ve got a child that is looking at me. He knows that I’m scared, but he also sees that I work on these and do it anyway. I think it is important for me to push past these barriers that I have and for him to see that I do.

He definitely makes me a braver person and pushes me beyond my comfort zone.

I want him to know that it is okay to be scared and it is okay to not do something that is scary to him, but it is also okay not to do it if it looks dangerous.

I’m not too worried about him being scared of these things. He has already told me he wants to go cave exploring. Um okay. He has also told me that he likes the feeling you get when you’re scared and get butterflies right before something exciting happenings. I told him that would be an adrenaline rush. Sigh.

We went at the beginning of summer (May) so there were only a few sea lions in the cave, but if you go during the winter you can see hundreds. Even with the ones, we saw they were very loud – I can just imagine how much noise they can make when there are that many.

Sea Lion Caves OR — Sea lions lounging around.

Driving Through Old Stomping Grounds

After we were done with our sea lions caves stop we got back in the car. Eventually, we arrived in Florence, OR.

I really wanted to stop at the Historic Old Town because they have so many cute shops there. I remember that my grandparents would take us there at least once a year to explore it when we went to the beach with them.

I’ve got a real fondness for Florence because it holds so many awesome memories. We were free to explore for hours, then when we got tired the campgrounds we stayed at had a pool and a clubhouse.

We would almost always go to the Rhododendron parade they hold every year as kids.

Unfortunately, this time we only stopped to fill up the car and buy some Dutch Bros. I had to stop – if only for a few minutes.

Once we were done we were on our way again.

My GPS Won’t Work & Arriving at Cape Blanco

I’m not sure why, but I can never seem to get any GPS system to work. I borrowed my brother’s GPS and I had my phone but we were out of service – so we ended up driving about 10 or 15 miles past where we were supposed to turn. I eventually called the campground and they gave me directions.

Cape Blanco was a wooded campground and we were right by the bathrooms. So that was good even though we weren’t at the camp much.

We weren’t able to see the Cape Blanco Lighthouse on this trip, but we went to the Sea Lions Rock (a rock where sea lions just hang out). There are tons of them. Plus we went to the Shore Acres Gardens. This is free for you to walk through and worth taking the time to do. They do have a gift shop to help support the gardens.