Lincoln City (Birthday Trip 2025)

For my birthday each year, to no one's surprise, I've taken to catching a bus to the coast. This year (2025) I picked Lincoln City. It's a surprisingly simple trip from Eugene. My plan was to catch the first bus to the coast, and return on the last bus back to the valley. That would provide for 7.5 hours in Lincoln City.

Plans change. I noticed that on the morning following my birthday there was to be a minus tide. On a previous visit I had made a mental note to try to get to the mouth of Siletz Bay at the southern end of Lincoln City in Taft during a good low tide. I wanted to try to find some agates, or other pretty rocks. 

So I'd be staying the night. I booked a room at Chinook Winds Casino Resort. Conveniently, the casino is also the bus transfer point in Lincoln City, with connections north into Tillamook County and south to Newport, as well as west to Salem. It has a large covered shelter with benches, and is less than five minutes from the beach for longer layovers.

The day would start early. The bus from Eugene to Salem departs at 5:10. (For my birthday present, Susie got up early and dropped me at the Eugene Amtrak Station). It was a weekday as well, so there were not many people on the bus. It's almost an hour and a half to Salem, followed by a nearly two-hour layover until the bus to the coast. 

The Eugene Amtrak Station is not open this early, but the Point bus to Salem has a bathroom. The station in Salem is open by the time the bus arrives at 6:35. The bus to Lincoln City didn't depart until 8:30. The Salem station is an historic building, and there is good seating inside and outside. Some historical signs tell the story of Salem's relationship with the railroad as it grew.

But with 115 minutes to kill, I had other plans.

Three-tenths of a mile from the station is The Sassy Onion. I had been by it numerous times, and wanted to try the restaurant some time. Susie and I did have breakfast there the previous weekend when we were in town for a Special Olympics Oregon event. Back to the on-line menu. I was planning on a large seafood dinner for my birthday, so I thought I'd try something a little lighter for my morning meal. By departure time I had narrowed my choices to the Hazelnut Banana Bread French Toast or the Peanut Butter & Jelly French Toast. Somewhere on I-5 on the bus, I made a final decision. It was a good decision.

Hazelnut Banana Bread French Toast from The Sassy Onion

After breakfast there was still an hour until my bus to the coast. The morning was beautiful and the State Capitol as well as other cool-looking state government buildings were just a couple blocks away. As I wandered, I made note of those of which I'd like to make large-format pinhole pictures on a future visit. There was a lot of construction in the area around the Capitol, including work on the dome of the building itself. Not even worth a picture.

Back at the station, I didn't have much of a wait before I boarded the bus west. The route from Salem to Lincoln City operates round trips three times daily. Fare is just six dollars each way, or a mere three for those over sixty. Like me. From the station, I was the only rider. Plenty of times, I've been alone on coastal buses. Several people boarded at the Salem Transit Center, some going to Lincoln City, some to Grande Ronde. Most were commuting to either Spirit Mountain Casino or Chinook Winds. The Confederated Tribes of the Grande Ronde pay for the operation of the route.

The bus arrived at the Chinook Winds stop a few minutes early, just before 10. I hadn't decided what I would do until checkin time at the hotel, officially 4 PM. On past visits, I was able to check in at three. I could catch a Lincoln City Loop bus south to Taft. Officially it's the Glass Studio/South IGA stop. I'd then walk out along Taft Waterfront Park and out onto the ocean beach and hike much of the 7.5 miles of sand north, back to the hotel. Or, I could do the reverse, and head straight to the beach a few minutes from the bus stop. 

I'm the impatient type, so I assembled a camera body and lens, before I got anywhere near sand, and was at the beach by 10:15. The tide was out. 

There are beach access points up and down Lincoln City. Lots of them. The beaches in Oregon are all public, but not all beach access is. You could walk north or south, anywhere in at the western edge of Lincoln City, and it would be but a few minutes before you could get to the beach. Not all beach access points are the same. At Chinook Winds, stairs lead down. A couple flights. Not bad at all. The same cannot be said about others. The pictured stairway to the beach is not the longest. Maybe not even the runner up.

Beach Access 43A

The D River State Recreation State Recreation Site is the midway point, roughly, between Chinook Winds and the Taft Waterfront Park. It's also the point you must leave the beach to get across the river on the highway bridge. It's also a good place to pee. There are restrooms at several of the beach accesses in Lincoln City, but each requires leaving the beach, and unless you're looking to get your stair work in...

There are picnic tables, benches, restrooms, and a carpeted beach access on the north side of the river. More on that later. I took a load off and spent just a few minutes here. Long enough to make a few adjustments with my bag, and take its picture. (A common practice for me).

D River State Recreation Site

Back on the beach, things grew more interesting. I encountered some creatures along my way. These little blue things were scattered in places, sometimes so densely that I steered around them. Further research revealed they are velellas. Velella velella, precisely.

Velella velella

Further along I came upon a log, that as I neared, appeared to be throbbing. Yet closer, I could see the log was covered in some king of shelled creatures, writhing. Still photography couldn't really capture it to my satisfaction, but I tried. Later, I learned they are gooseneck barnacles. Creepy, cool, almost dirty.

Gooseneck Barnacles

The beaches, exposed by the low tide looked promising from a rockhounding perspective. By that I mean I could see patches of beach covered with rocks. Whether they were worth collecting (i.e., pretty), could bog me down for more time than I had to kill.

Lincoln City Beach

I was able to grab a handful of rocks that caught my eye. I'm something less than a novice, so I'm not sure what I found, just that they are pretty. At least to me in the moment.

Pretty Rocks from Lincoln City 

Every couple years there's a news story about some visitor to the beach who stood on a log. Opportunities abound to die at the coast. I have a healthy respect/borderline fear of the ocean. Watching this log get tossed around like a turd being flushed (sorry) only confirmed my attitude. Massive driftwood is both awe-inspiring, and photogenic.

The ocean beach ends as it turns inland and becomes Taft Waterfront Park. Across the narrow bay outlet, harbor seals bask with impunity in the warm sand. The public crabbing dock allows one to walk out for views of Siletz Bay and Salishan Spit across the water. A blue carpet leads across the soft dry sand leading to and from the beach area. These are laid out at select beach access points, but just during tourist season. 

The Lincoln City Loop bus runs about once an hour, give or take a few minutes more or less. The bus stop at the Ace Hardware store on Highway 101 is less than a half mile away. Lincoln County Transit doesn't have discounted fares, but does sell 40 ride tickets for $30. Despite residing in Eugene, I ride Lincoln Transit often enough to have invested in the book of tickets. That knocks a quarter off each ride. 

It was about a half hour bus ride back to Chinook Winds where I was able to check right in, a bit early. All that was left to do after getting settled in my oceanview room was dinner. Birthday dinner. I went to Chinook's Seafood Grill & Lounge where I ordered a seafood boil with Manilla clams, shrimp, bay scallops, Andouille sausage, corn & potatoes. 

Chinook Seafood Boil

The next day I struck out on foot down Highway 101 back to Taft Waterfront Park and the ocean beach there. The negative tide was at 7:30, almost an hour before the first bus at Chinook Winds. I didn't even take a camera, wanting to focus on collecting pretty rocks. I found a heaping handful of agates, slightly larger than a green pea, yet smaller than a marble. 

Checkout time was 11, and the bus south to Newport left 20 minutes after that. A few blocks from Newport City Hall which serves as the town's transit center, is Northwest Grooves, a record store. It was the perfect place to try to kill some of the 2-plus hour layover before the bus to Corvallis. It took about 45 minutes to drop $100 on a mix of new and used vinyl.

Lincoln County Transit and Benton Area Transit operate the Coast to Valley Express, with service between Newport and Corvallis/Albany. It worked out that Susie could leave work a bit early, and pick me up at the stop near Bi-Mart on 53rd.