Summer Road Trip in Prius along Redwoods and Oregon Coast

This was our first long road trip along Oregon coast Hwy 1. I did research some blog post and yelp reviews before planning this road trip and greatly benefited from what other people experienced and recommended. Hence, I am sharing my experiences and few tips here. Overall this was an extraordinary trip for us, we enjoyed every leg of it. If you think California coast is beautiful, just multiply by 4 when it comes to Oregon coast. Simply awesome !!
We drove 200 miles on average per day, we camped in redwoods and KOA, we stayed in motels, hotels, lodges, we enjoyed attractions along the way and we met friends and colleagues. what more can you expect!
Here is the Day by Day report:

Trip Statistics:

• 9 Days/8 Nights
• 2 camping (Jedediah Smith Camp ground / KOA Lincoln City)
• 6 Hotel/Motel stay (Fort Brag CA / Florence OR / Tigard OR / Roseburg OR / Medford OR / Redding CA)
• Miles driven: 1655 miles
• Gasoline: $136.40 
• Prius Mileage: ~47mpg

Day 1 – Started from San Jose

Stop 1:  Golden Gate Bridge Vista Point

Drove  Hwy 1 coastal via Point Rees

Stop 2:  Tamales Bay Oyster company.

Folks drive here to buy fresh oysters and grill them right there,  a dozen of fresh oysters for $15 and use the picnic area for grilling and enjoying fresh oyster. We did not have any plan to eat oysters, the picnic area was for “customer only” so we headed next….

Stop 3: Few miles ahead

we found a nice picnic area on the shore, saw one family enjoying the waves, so we parked there, got our picnic mat and had our lunch.

Stop 4: Gleason Beach  at Sanoma Coast

We briefly stooped at Gleason beach for few photo ops..few miles from here we drove thru the farm fields and Organic Valley Ranch. Kids were excited to see the source of Costco Organic milk (organic valley). We headed our way to Fort Brag. On the way we crossed few small towns.

Stop 5: Pine Beach Inn Motel in Fort Brag

Our motel was on Hwy 1 immediately after entering the city of Fort Brag. Old motel  in need of renovation, but a lot of positives such as private access to beach and big size rooms with microwave and refrigerator. After changing, we walked around a narrow trail to the beach which was just awesome.  Water was extremely cold, rocks on the shore facing huge waves.

We spent about an hour on the beach and then headed for the dinner. There is a Thai restaurant operated by the Inn itself, but we decided to go to near by round table pizza, that was the end of Day 1

Day 2 – started from Fort Brag at 10:30 am

Stop 1: Drive thru Tree at Leggett CA

This is one of a kind  2400 years old Chandelier Tree (Diameter 21 ft, Height 315 ft) you drive your car through. There is a $5 entrance fee to the Park and a gift shop to grab a souvenir and ice creme.

We passed thru Confusion Hill, we briefly stopped there but decided to pass on the train ride that they offer. We kept going as we have to drive 238 miles on our Day 2 We drove via city of Fortuna and Eureka.

Stop 2: Elk on the Beach

Kids were sleeping in the car when we took a quick turn to see the flock of relaxing Elks (hundreds of them) on the beach.  After a brief stop, we headed towards Klamath. There are tons of dairy farms on both sides of the highway. We passed through an attraction called “Trees of Mystery” but skipped it as we were getting late for our campground.

Stop 3: Jedediah Smith State Park

We arrived at our reserved campsite by 5:30 PM. We were pleasantly surprised to see the location and serenity of our campsite # 001 It was one of the best shaded spots with tall redwood trees and huge space for 2 tents and 2 car parking spots, both private and open.  We have not done much camping, but it was definitely the best we have done so far. 

Putting the tent was a breeze. We started grilling corn while kids were playing in and out of tent. We cooked dal rice and chiken (can you believe) and after eating and cleaning up (you cant have any food item in open, this is bear country) , we walked to the river thru lighted stairways. FYI, the group camp sites and some other numbered 51 + are close to the river. Very serene, kids played for a while with rocks on the river banks. By 9:30 pm, we headed back to our camp, family played UNO in the tent and slept.  Day 2 was memorable. We will remember this camping for long time.

Day 3: Started from Jedediah Smith Park at 11:45

12 noon is camp checkout time. I got up at 7:45, prepared green tea for my self and cooked noodles for kids. Perfect place for meditation :-) Shower is  50 cents for 5 min, a dollar for 10 mins, bathroom was nice and clean.. took us a while to cleanup, get ready and dismantle the tent, finally cheked out at 11:45 and headed towards 101 N

After driving about 11 miles, we entered Oregon. Every ocean view was a WOW moment, with blue water hitting the huge rocks

Stop 1: Meyers Creek Beach. 

We briefly stopped and took some pictures and started driving…

Stop 2: Brief stop at a local attraction 

Here they have a rain forest with 20+ huge dinosaurs replicas. Entrance fee is $12 for adults and $8 for kids. We skipped the tour but took some pictures. We drove through Humbug State park and many small beach towns. All bridges on small rivers are painted green in Oregon., same style, looks like they were all built in the same time.  We drove thru coos bay and North Bend.

Stop 3: (Unwanted and unpleasant): 

One thing you have to be very careful in Oregon is to pay attention to quick change in the speed limit as small beach town approaches. The limit quickly goes down from 55 to 50 to 45 to 35 to 30 (to 20 at some places). Sometime just within few hundred feets. I obviously failed to pay attention to this quick change and you can guess what would have happened :-(

Stop 4: Jessie Honeyman Camp ground and dunnes: 

This was the highlight of the day 3. You don’t want to miss Oregon dunnes and specially the Honeyman day use area. You pay just $5 parking fee and get the best of sand dunnes and lake where you can sand board and do family boating in the lake. We enjoyed so much that kids were not ready to leave the area even if it was getting dark and windy. I decided not to drive ATV as we had to drive down to Florence to our motel.

Stop 5: Villa West Motel at City of Florence:

We arrived at motel at about 6:30pm, the motel location was least desirable ( at very busy intersection of 101 and Hwy 126) However the room was okay. Kids demanded pizza for dinner so we drove to Round table pizza (1.6 mile) and ordered a flat bread large. 

Day 4: Started from Florence City

Stop 1: Sea Lion Caves

This is an amazing cave formed by earthquake some 24 million years ago but discovered and developed in 1961. We asked our motel manager last night about the Sea Lion Caves and he gave his reviews and handed us over a $2 each coupon. Please make sure you ask hotel staff about discounted tickets for local attractions.  You enter through gift shop and take elevator which takes you 200 ft. below at the viewing area where you can see the actual quake split and hundreds of sea lions. When you take the elevator back to upper floor, there is another look out for sea lions on the right. This place is totally worth the money.

Stop 2: Heceta Head Lighthouse, Florence

There is a 0.5 mile mild hike to the lighthouse which goes thru keeper’s house. This light house is supposed to be the brightest in entire west coast as the light can be seen from 21 miles in the sea. The lighthouse itself was closed for public tour as it is being renovated, but we took a tour outside and park service representative was there to provide us more information.  The view of ocean is amazing from the lighthouse.  We spent about 45 minutes and started driving through the beach city of Yachats.

Stop 3: The elephant Thai Restaurant at the city of Newport

The beaches here are very windy and make it perfect for kite flying. We spotted many kite enthusiasts on the beaches. There are many kite shops in the city.  Just when family started debating what cuisine to try today, we saw a Thai place and settled on it immediately.

Stop 4: Yaquina Head Lighthouse

At Heceta Head Lighthouse, guide told us not to miss Yaquina lighthouse 5 miles ahead, so we were prepared to go there. There is a  $7 park entry fee here and you can directly drive to the lighthouse, but parking way up was full so we were detoured to the Information center parking place and advised to hike 0.3 miles. I am glad that parking was full, because this was one of the best hikes and it takes you to the beautiful pebble beach.

Stop 5: KOA Campground at Lincoln City

Our day 4 was supposed to and at the KOA campsite where we had a log cabin booked. Checking in was a breeze, you are handed over a long list of rules which seems annoying at first but they all started to make sense when you realize how kids friendly  KOA campsites are. We were pleasantly surprised by the look and feel of our cabin, kids had great time in a nice play area outside, and inside the cabin they enjoyed sleeping on the bunk bed.  You just have to use your sleeping bed or blanket, mattresses are provided in the cabin. This site accommodates tents, cabins, RVs and atmosphere here is very lively and kid friendly. There is a designated utensil cleaning station and laundry onsite. You don’t have to pay for the shower here.  Do not expect state campground privacy here. 

Day 5: Headed towards Tillamook

 We started Day 5 exactly at 11 am (KOA checkout time)  We took a longer route called Three Capes scenic drive  to Tillamook, driving via small farm towns. The huge trees from both side of the road hugging each other form a tunnel like view. On the way we had few brief stops at many lookouts, but we really did not do any hiking as these hikes are on average 3 and half miles to the beach)

Stop 1: Tillamook Cheese Factory

This was recommended by one of my colleage as a must stop in Tillamook. This factory is very visitor friendly, you can watch the cheese making and packaging process and enjoy the freshly made cheeses and ice cream.   We saw many things live in action including waffle cone making. Take a look at the picture. A fun place for family. The place was crowded, in fact we wanted to grab lunch from their cafeteria  but there was 45 minute wait time.  We started for Portland at 1:30 pm

Stop 2: Homestead at Tigard OR

We picked up this hotel because it was close to a couple of places we wanted to visit for sure in Portalnd, IBM lab in Beaverton and Portland downtown. Also, we wanted to have this stay with kitchenette as an option so that we can cook something if we don’t want to eat outside. The check-in was little disappointing as they gave us the room which was not ready. Later they shifted us to another room and next morning at checkout the manager was courteous to give us $16 discount for the inconveniences caused.

Stop 3: Downtown Portland (Jamison Square)

Our IBM colleague who  lives in downtown Portaland, invited us to our place and took us to the famous Jamison Square water fountain. This is a fun place for adults and kids. You can sit on the rock stairs keeping your feet wet in the fountain while kids play in the water. We took a long walk in the downtown area, dined at Laughing planet café and drove back to our hotel  by 11pm, end of Day 5.

Day 6: Portland & Beaverton  

Stop 1: IBM Lab in Beaverton

We visited our colleagues at IBM Lab, they took us for a tour of adjacent Nike headquarter.  We ate lunch in the Nike Cafeteria and took a long walk around their campus. I am jealous of folks working for Nike, they have an outstanding facility there; plenty of on-site day care centers for employee's children, a soccer field, jogging and walking track around a huge pond, multi-cuisine cafeteria. They always have celebrity sport person visiting their headquarters and employees get 50% discount on Nike products. Entire atmosphere was sporty of course.

Stop 2: Airtram Portland downtown

We had decided to take the airtram roundtrip ride before taking a U turn of our road trip, but as we arrived at the tram station, we struggled to find a parking spot. In Portland they have a vending machine for public parking where you purchase the ticket and display in your car dashboard. Unfortunately we did not have coins and machine was not taking my credit card for some reason. After few minutes of trying we gave up and decided to head back on I-5 South

Stop 3: Woodburn outlet mall on I-5 South

Shame on you if you travel to Oregon and did not do tax free shopping, we stopped at this outlet mall. We did buy some clothing and quickly head back on I-5, on the way picking up subs and filling the gas tank. It feels good at gas pump, if you own a Prius.

Stop 4: Econolodge at Roseburg OR

Our Day 6 ended at Econo lodge at Roseburg close to the wildlife safari  that we planned to visit the next day. This was one of the best budget motels we stayed during this trip. Be sure to ask for discounted safari tickets at the desk. They had $13 ticket for safari so $5 saving per ticket.