Portland, Bend, Oregon Coast in March

[Sea To Sky Overland]

Hey everyone,

My wife and I have a trip planned in mid March. We are heading from Vancouver BC down to Portland to visit some friends. I've managed to rearrange the trip to include running down to Bend to CVT Tents to pick up my new roof top tent, then we are going to take about 5 days to work our way over to the coast, then up to Port Angelas WA, and over to Vancouver Island on the Black Ball ferry.

We have tentatively pegged Belknap Hot Springs, the Florence area, the Cape Lookout area, the South Bend WA area, and Victoria BC as our rough camp locations. These locations were picked purely on geographic distance, as they will result in approx. 2-3 hrs of driving per day. Anyone have any suggestions of good camping and/or lunch spots, better locations, or must see stuff along the way?

We are prepared for it to be reasonably wet and cold, but any advice, or suggestions for the trip would be much appreciated. We are moderately experienced campers, and recently backpacked the West Coast Trail, however this will be my first roof top tent experience

Cheers!

 

[overland_squirrel]

My avatar pic is in Florence and it is an awesome city to drive through. If you take the 38 from inland to the coast, there is a cool Elk sighting spot (I think it is Elk). It is really cool and you are nearly guaranteed to see them. Reedsport is where you pop out and that is neat as well. Depoe Bay is a cool little spot to spot as well.

Bend is my absolute favorite. Make sure to go to Boneyard Pub if you like beer. There are some amazing breweries in the are but that one is my favorite.

 

[Sea To Sky Overland]

Nice, so you would recommend the 5 to the 38, instead of the 126 to the coast?

 

[RainGoat]

mid March.
Vancouver BC down to Portland
to Bend to CVT Tents to pick up my new roof top tent
5 days to:
work our way over to the coast,
up to Port Angeles WA,
over to Vancouver Island on Black Ball ferry.

tentatively pegged
Belknap Hot Springs, the
Florence area, the
Cape Lookout area, the
South Bend WA area, and
Victoria BC as our rough camp locations. These locations were picked purely on geographic distance, as they will result in approx. 2-3 hrs of driving per day. Anyone have any suggestions of good camping and/or lunch spots, better locations, or must see stuff along the way?

Tons of neat stuff near Bend such as Lava Tube caves but possibly not accessible due to snow in March. McMenamins is an entertaining stop there for lodging. Definitely hit the Deschutes Brewery Alehouse as well.

OR Coast is always fantastic. Do search on OB because a bunch of us just gave alot of commentary on someone doing the Coast recently (added after this post though I now see you’ve found it).

Cape Lookout is a pretty good area. Excellent place to eat at Netarts just N. Not sure where you’re going to camp but if you’re open to State Parks, OR has some great ones that ate very reasonable and should have plenty of availability without prior notice this time of year.

South Bend, WA is not really a great stopping point. I would probably find someplace along the coast either before that or after that. The Quinalt area is a bit far up but has plenty of interesting spots. The area S of it down to South Bend is a bit economically depressed & surrounded by massive clear cuts.

I think your projected ferry crossing will heavily impact the camping spot the night before. There are some interesting camping spots on the ridge between Lake Crescent & the Strait.

Around Victoria we always end up having to camp at Goldstream Provincial Park so I’d be interested to hear if you find anything more interesting nearby.

Have fun!

 

[RainGoat]

Oregon Coast Trip
https://www.overlandbound.com/forums/index.php?threads/Oregon-Coast-Trip.21629/

 

[Sea To Sky Overland]

Tons of neat stuff near Bend such as Lava Tube caves but possibly not accessible due to snow in March. McMenamins is an entertaining stop there for lodging. Definitely hit the Deschutes Brewery Alehouse as well.

OR Coast is always fantastic. Do search on OB because a bunch of us just gave alot of commentary on someone doing the Coast recently (added after this post though I now see you’ve found it).

Cape Lookout is a pretty good area. Excellent place to eat at Netarts just N. Not sure where you’re going to camp but if you’re open to State Parks, OR has some great ones that ate very reasonable and should have plenty of availability without prior notice this time of year.

South Bend, WA is not really a great stopping point. I would probably find someplace along the coast either before that or after that. The Quinalt area is a bit far up but has plenty of interesting spots. The area S of it down to South Bend is a bit economically depressed & surrounded by massive clear cuts.

I think your projected ferry crossing will heavily impact the camping spot the night before. There are some interesting camping spots on the ridge between Lake Crescent & the Strait.

Around Victoria we always end up having to camp at Goldstream Provincial Park so I’d be interested to hear if you find anything more interesting nearby.

Have fun!

Thanks Goat, this is really helpful. Cheers!

 

[overland_squirrel]

Nice, so you would recommend the 5 to the 38, instead of the 126 to the coast?

I haven't done the 126 so I cannot say for sure...just know that the 38 was a beautiful drive. It looks a lot shorter to take the 126 from Bend so going down to the 38 would be quite a bit out of the way....I wouldn't say it is worth the extra mileage.

Check out Wanderlust Tours in Bend. I did a Lava Tube tour with them and it was great.

 

[K1mj]

The coastal sand dunes around Florence and Reedsport are not to be missed.