Quick Tips:

I suggest you call the Nehalem Bay Area Chamber of Commerce for other recommendations on lodging in the area. They are very helpful and kind (503) 368-5100.

Lastly, bring warm clothes! The wind is strong and especially at night, it gets chilly on the coast. Rick and I were constantly pulling on sweatshirts and socks to keep warm.

Best Way To Get Around:

At Beachside (built to open in 2000), we were a short walk from the beach: we could hear the waves from our tent. The beach itself was wide, yellow and clean (we went for walks every day). The facilities were brand-new and clean, and when I wanted hot water, I could get it. (That''s a biggie as the beach sites get very chilly at night.) If you are not a tent-camper, you can also get RV-ready sites as well as Yurts, which are kind of glorified teepees with beds and kitchenettes, and actually quite comfortable and economic. Our site itself was clean and pretty. The foliage around us was green and deep. The location of this campground is convenient as well -- it''s near Waldport (we went to go see a movie one night), the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse, Point Perpetua and there is great freshwater fishing a bit inland.

The site includes indoor and outdoor exhibits. Inside, you can walk through a self-guided tour of explanatory wall-panels and huge dioramas, which describe all aspects of the long adventure. Maps detail their route, journal extracts document some of the first "official discoveries" of plant and animal life, and illustrations and artifacts give a fair idea of the life and times of Lewis and Clark. There is also a series of short films the visitor can watch, as well as a comprehensive bookshop.

Outside, there is a replica of their winter fort, which is furnished with items that try to closely duplicate their living conditions. Perhaps the best part of this memorial, though, are the volunteers who dress up in authentic costumes and hold timed seminars on all aspects of the life, from tanning hides to cooking to hunting to candle making. We sat for a seminar given by a man in Native American winter dress, who explained how much the Native Americans helped Lewis and Clark and their men survive the wilderness and the elements, as well as act as translators with other tribes. (The most famous guide being of course Sacajawea.) The talk was fascinating and really showed us the irony of such help: Sacajawea was helping these white men plot "unknown" terrain so that they may later come and push out and maltreat the Indians.

If you're in the area, have even a mild interest in history or have children with you, this is a worthwhile spot to visit. Call 503-861-2471 for more info and directions.

Nifty fact: Haystack Rock is the 3rd largest freestanding monolith in the world. At low tide you stand next to it and ponder how insignificant man can be when compared to the forces of nature.

The Yaquina Bay Lighthouse is no exception. Indeed, it is one of the oldest on the coast, dating back to the 1870's, and it is perhaps the most literal -- it is a normal house with a warning light stuck on top. Not what you usually think off (I usually think of a tall, silo-like structure with distinctive striping). Go inside and you can walk around. There are nice folks from a nonprofit organization who know all about the lighthouse and who will answer all your questions and maybe or maybe not ask you for a donation towards preservation. This lighthouse is interesting because it's one of a handful ever built in which the light keeper’s family all lived with him in the lighthouse. My favorite part of the house was walking up to the top, all the way up through two floors of regular living quarters to the small room in the attic where the light keeper would stay to make sure the light was lit and the lense shiny clean. I also proceeded up to see the lense, which employed new lense-brilliancy technology for the time.

This lighthouse is a great place to visit with kids, history buffs, or folks like me, who have a romantic notion of lighthouses and are interested in the reality.

As soon as you pay, a pleasant hostess directs you to the best viewing spot for the sea lions. The day we were there (July 1, 2000) the sea lions were all out on the rocks at the mouth of the cave, so we went up the well-kept staircases for a bird's eye view of the lions. We were quite high (see photo), but nonetheless we were still assaulted by the stench of the lions. It was amazing how powerful it was. Without the aide of binoculars the sea lions just looked like worms wriggling around on the coast, so we plunked our quarters into the spyglasses. These animals are funny and territorial, and you could see how the little ones were learning survival techniques through play with the older (and humongous) bulls. Of course Rick was scanning the water for a killer whale hoping to see an attack. None happened, but we were later told that one happened several years ago (children at the scene are still in therapy). In addition to the sea lions, there is much bird life at Sea Lion Caves. Most interesting to me were the black cormorants, which used to be trained by the Japanese to hunt and retrieve fish for them. There are informational signs about the wildlife and habits of the sea lions all along the way that are worth reading.

Finally we took the elevator down into the caves. This was definitely cool and instantly captured my imagination as the perfect place for pirates to hide their treasures. It is a natural sea cave, either the biggest or one of the biggest, in the world. Water flows in one side and continues out the other side, forming a kind of U-path through the cliff. It is easily high enough to hold a small pirate ship! The only drawbacks to this space are that it smells here too, and you cannot take any photos, as the flash will freak out the lions. This rule was completely respected while I was in the cave. They had a complete fossil of a sea lion skeleton, which proved sea lions had been coming to the cave for hundreds of years, as the placards all around explained.

On our way out of Wheeler, we stopped here to start our day. This is a small winery and does not have any out of state distribution. We tasted a few, and were most impressed with their dessert wines. We bought a bottle of Blackberry Wine, and will drink it with/after a spicy meal, either Thai or Indian, probably. The pourer was very helpful, she gave us a book, which listed all the Oregon wineries by region (this proved helpful later when we visited the Williammette Valley). They also have a very cool mural painted on a wall outside of the tasting room. It depicts a 60's psychedelic scene -- supposedly Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters had stopped by the winery many years back.

I recommend only if you enjoy tasting wines.