Oregon Coast drive - better to head south or north?
 

i am planning a trip to the portland area in late september. we are going to stay a few days in the mt. hood/gorge area, then drive down to willamette valley for a couple nights. my plan was to then drive out to the coast and spend a day or two driving back up to portland to fly out.

all the scenic driving tours talk about the drive starting at the northern end of oregon and then driving south. any reason why it wouldn't be just as nice to drive north? would be better for me logistically, but definitely open to rethinking my itinerary if it is much better to drive south...

any suggestions regarding the drive and/or a place to stay along the drive would be most appreciated!

cheers,
jenn

definitely go south if you can...much easier to pull on and off the highway at all the scenic stops along the way, which are to the west of 101. even in late september, there can be enough traffic on 101 that making a left turn to continue your trip could take a while.

Just did this, driving from Florence north to Washington State. Didn't really have any problems with the traffic, and this was in late July. But it's true that many of the driving guides are organized in the north to south direction, so if it makes no difference in your itinerary you might as well do it that way.

P.S. The biggest crowds we encountered were at the Tillamook Cheese Factory -- and that is to the right of the highway!!

good point about the ease of pulling off at scenic stops, nwwanderer... we stop to take a lot of pictures, so that might get annoying.

have to give it some thought - thanks!

I've driven both directions many times. I don't have a preference, and I've never had a problem parking when I want to.

Stopping at the Tillamook Cheese Factory used to be fun, but it has become a big pain in the neck. There are many other places to buy ice cream.

HTTY

For example, here is a better place to stop, imho, the Blue Heron:

http://www.blueheronoregon.com/visit.htm

yum...the blue heron looks fantastic! still trying to coordinate - i'm glad to hear that it might not be too bad going north because i tried to flop my itinerary, but the availability of places i wanted to stay didn't work out... so looking like we'll be heading north.

Blue Heron is nice, try their Brie cheese, you can wine taste there, also. We were just in Tillamook a couple of weeks ago at the Country Fair. Don't miss a visit to Cape Lookout State Park in this area. We are in Seaside and love the scenery in this area. Cannon Beach, Oswald West State Park, Manzanita, Gearhart, Fort Stevens and Astoria are all wonderful areas to explore. ***kim*** ((#))

Also, I can definitely recommend the Pacific Way Cafe and Bakery in Gearhart...others on this forum mentioned it to me, and I am so glad I went there!

just want to clarify, it's not parking that's the issue, it's pulling back on to the highway after stopping since if you're heading north, you have to turn left. i've had to wait quite a long time for breaks in traffic on a couple of northbound trips during the spring months, but i will admit to being a very cautious driver in terms of making left turns onto a busy highway where traffic is moving quickly so perhaps it was a bigger deal and more stressful to me than it would be to others.

I agree, go north to south for exactly the reasons that NWWanderer mentioned. Much easier:)

The Tillamook Cheese Factory is a zoo. It is an ok stop for a few minutes. Blue Heron I don't care for. At least at Tillamook you can watch the items being made, but at Blue Heron you get the feeling of being in a cheap tourist trap, IMO. I will spare you my DH's comments, lol. The best part of Blue Heron is the petting zoo out back, and that is pretty small even for a petting zoo.