Yaquina Head Galleries

Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area is located on the Oregon coast, just to the north of Newport. There is a fee to enter the area that is good for three days. With some passes (like the America the Beautiful pass), you can get in for free. Between the lighthouse, rocky coast, tide pools, harbor seals, and seabirds, Yaquina Head is my favorite place on the coast

	Scenery Yaquina Head provides a number of scenic opportunities, from its beautiful lighthouse, the bird colonies on large seastacks offshore, and a path that leads down the steep cliffs to the shore below, providing a closer look at the tide pools and the harbor seals on the offshore rocks.
	Harbor Seals Watching harbor seals is one of my favorite activities along the coast, and Yaquina Head is my favorite place to watch them. You can see up to several dozen of them lounging on the rocks offshore, and usually see a handful swimming around in the surf. Often some of these curious creatures will swim in fairly close.
	Tide Pools One of the main attractions at Yaquina Head are the tide pools that can be easily reached when the tide is out. The park added an accessible manmade tide pool area, but when I last visited it had mostly filled with sand and not provided the universal tide pool access that everyone hoped for. The natural tide pools require the ability to walk down the steps to the beach below, as well as the ability to maintain a good balance on the slippery rocks.
	Birds The seastacks and steep cliffs provide nesting grounds or shelter to a variety of seabirds, including Brandt’s cormorants, pigeon guillemots, common murres, and seagulls.