For Labor Day 2025, I took a quick weekend trip in and out of Portland with the intention of visiting some friends, seeing Thor’s Well and more of the Oregon Coast, and going to the Tillamook Creamery. The Oregon Coast is one of my absolute favorite places to see the ocean and any trip to Portland seems to involve a day trip or two driving out to the coast.
Getting into PDX
Getting in was fairly uneventful. I cashed in some miles on Alaska Airlines and flew out of Austin after work on Friday. I rented a car at the airport and headed into downtown Portland. I booked a weekend at a Hilton downtown and took advantage of an annual benefit off of a credit card to put the price point of the room to be comprable to other areas of Portland.
First Day
I got up fairly early on Saturday and tried to get out to see Thor’s Well before noon. It was a three hour drive taking the scenic route down the 101 to get to see more of the coastline. The drive was a mish mash of forest and coutryside until I got to the coast and into Lincoln City.
Meandering down the coast, I pulled off into an overlook to look up a couple other spots along the way to Thor’s Well and plan out a few other stops. While there, I noticed a bunch of kayakers and spotted a few whales surfacing to breath. After watching them for a while, I headed back south.
The first stop I made to get out of the car and wander around was in Depoe Bay. There was a little viewing area that I got out in and marveled a bit at the rocky coast.
I moved further down the coast and jumped out at Devil’s Punchbowl State Natural Area. Here, I got out and walked around a bit taking some pictures from the overlook. After spending some time watching the ocean, I went ahead and moved on.
For the next stop, I got out and wandered around a bit at Seal Rock. There, I was able to get down to the beach and walked around for a while. I dug Seal Rock a lot and while I did not see any seals, there were a lot of gulls flying around.
After Seal Rock, I continued south and headed to Yachats to see Devil’s Churn and Thor’s Well.
I had been to Devil’s Churn previously on a trip down the Pacific Coast Highway, but had somehow missed seeing Thor’s Well. On my previous trip, it was a cold and rainy November, so I skipped going down and out onto the rocks. I did so this trip and scrambling across the rocks was a lot of fun.
I moved from there to Thor’s Well and went out on the rocks there as well. I finally got to the area around 1:30. It was a lot bigger than Devil’s Churn but not as impressive to me. I watched the Well for a while and was amused by the start fish clinging to sides of it toward the bottom of sea line.
I finished up by driving a different route back to Portland through Salem and drove a bit around the Oregon State University campus.
Second Day
I got up Sunday and met a friend at Bernstein’s Bagels for a morning bagel and tea. Bernstein’s was really good and they poppy seed, extra toasted, with butte was a great start to the day. We caught up for a while and then made plans to meet up again Monday morning before I took off.
I drove out to Camas, Washington across the Columbia and met up with some different friends. We all jumped into their car and headed out to Tillamook. I have driven past the Tillamook Creamery a few times now and each time thought I should stop to check it out but haven’t. This time, my friends expressed interest in going, so we planned out the day to see the creamery and maybe hit a few other spots along the coast.
We started in Tillamook by hitting up De Garde Brewing for a pair of wild, sour ales and some lunch. The burger from their food truck was really quite good and beers were super solid. After a few games of chess with my friends’ youngest, we moved on.
Getting to the creamery was fine. Being at the Creamery on a Sunday, on Labor Day weekend, was hella busy. I should have expected that, but had not thought it through. There were long lines for things and the factory did not seem to be really running in full-on production mode.
We still had a good time. We wandered through the self-guided tour and saw the exhibits. We were able to get some samples and braved the line to get some ice cream. I got the Oregon Dark Cherry and it was really good. We got a sampler and all of the flavors I got to try were good. After getting there and seeing the crowd, I was a bit worried about being there, but all in all, it was fine. I think hitting Tillamook during the week would be a better plan, but having coupled it with some more sightseeing, it was worth doing.
We left Tillamook and headed North. We pulled off in Netarts and took a quick peak at a scenic view. From there, we went to Oceanside and had another quick hop out of the car to get a view of the Pacific. One of my friends mentioned wanting to see the Peter Iredale wreckage at Fort Stevens, so we headed there.
At Fort Stevens, there was an elk on the side of the road as we drove off of the 101 and to the beach. There, we got to see the wreckage which was more exposed than it typically is, but not as exposed as it had been in recent weeks. That area of Oregon had been experiencing king tides, which are much bigger than the typical tides of the area. The king tides had dragged a lot of the sand covering the wreck out to sea.
The wreck is fairly large and had grounded in 1906. With about 120 years of exposure, it has been battered and rusted and is an orange-brown skeleton of a ship. It was pretty impressive and a few miles south of Astoria. I have been to Astoria maybe a half dozen times and unfortunately had never heard of the ship prior to this trip. This was absolutely a highlight of the trip and something I really liked.
We wrapped with a quick drive through Astoria and back into Camas and then onto Portland.
Last Day
I got up early again and went to Lovejoy Bakery to meet up with my friends. The tea and monkey bread were good and catching up one more time with my friends was a lot of fun. After, I headed back to the airport, dropping off the car, and breezing through security in what was record time for me.
Overall Thoughts
I really like Oregon, Portland, and the coastline. I am always impressed by the scenary of the Oregon Coast and it’s continual magnifigance is wholely unlike anywhere else that I have been. I tend to gravitate toward the ocean in general and the roughness of Oregon’s Coast is an absolute favorite of mine. I like the cold, harshness of the Pacific. It works well with the overcast grey skies and the sharp cold of the area.
I was happy to have been able to see friends and all in all, this was a fairly inexpensive trip. The ship was really cool to experience and Tillamook has tremendous ice cream. Thor’s Well, Devil’s Churn, and Devil’s Punchbowl are all worthwhile places to see. Unexpectidly seeing the whales surfacing was another thing I found really cool.
I did not get a chance to do a few things I would have liked to do on this trip, but that just leaves something for next time.
