Oregon Coast Day Tour from Portland —
Astoria, Goonies House & Cannon Beach.

Overview

Two hours west of Portland the land runs out. This is the mouth of the Columbia River, where a four-mile-wide estuary meets the open Pacific — a stretch of water sailors named the Graveyard of the Pacific, with more than two thousand wrecks on the bottom. On top of it sits Astoria, the oldest American settlement west of the Rockies, a hillside of clapboard houses and derelict canneries that Hollywood has been borrowing since the 1980s. Forty-five minutes south, the same coastline turns into Cannon Beach: cedar-shingled galleries, four miles of flat sand, and a 235-foot monolith standing in the surf.

This is a full day, deliberately. We leave Portland at eight, spend the morning in Astoria — the Goonies House, the hilltop views, Pier 39's 1875 cannery, the great steel bridge — then move down the peninsula to Fort Stevens for Battery Russell and the wreck of the Peter Iredale before lunch. The afternoon belongs to Ecola State Park, where Indian Beach played La Push in Twilight and the headland above it stood in for the Fratellis' hideout in The Goonies, and then to Cannon Beach and Haystack Rock, timed to the tide. Ten stops, four and a half hours of driving, and one guide who has done the loop enough to know when to talk and when not to.

Highlights

• Stand outside the Goonies House at 368 38th Street in Astoria — the 1896 Victorian where Mikey unrolled One-Eyed Willy's map in the 1985 film.
• Two Twilight and Goonies filming locations in one park: Indian Beach, which played First Beach at La Push, and the Ecola headland above the Fratellis' Lighthouse Lounge.
• Walk into Battery Russell at Fort Stevens, the only mainland US military installation shelled by an enemy in the Second World War — 17 Japanese shells, June 1942.
• The wreck of the Peter Iredale, a 285-foot British barque driven ashore in 1906 and still lying on the open beach where the tide fills it twice a day.
• Haystack Rock at Cannon Beach — 235 feet tall, a protected marine garden of tide pools, and a tufted puffin colony from April to early July. We time this stop to the tide table.
• Astoria's working waterfront: Pier 39's 1875 cannery, the free Hanthorn Cannery Museum, and the 4.1-mile Astoria–Megler Bridge, the longest continuous truss bridge in North America.

What to expect

1

The Goonies House ~15 min

368 38th St, Astoria, OR 97103 · 1896 Victorian · The Goonies (1985)

The day begins where a whole generation's idea of treasure hunting began. This white Victorian on a bluff above the Columbia River is the Walsh house from The Goonies — the attic where Mikey finds One-Eyed Willy's map, the porch, the driveway the kids pedal down as the Fratellis roar past. It is a private home and always has been, so we watch from the public street, keep our voices down, and leave the driveway alone; the current owners are fans who bought it to restore the exterior to its 1985 look. Fifteen minutes is enough for the photograph everyone came for, and for the small, strange feeling of standing inside a childhood memory.

2

Astoria Hilltop Viewpoint & Historic Downtown ~15 min

Astoria's hillside stairways above downtown · Columbia River estuary panorama

Astoria is stacked up a steep hillside, and the reward for climbing it is the view the films keep reusing: white and pastel clapboard houses dropping in rows toward the water, a church spire in the middle distance, and behind them the Columbia four miles wide with ocean-going freighters riding at anchor. We walk to one of the town's hedge-lined public stairways for the framed shot straight down to Commercial Street. Astoria was founded in 1811 as John Jacob Astor's fur-trading post — the oldest American settlement west of the Rocky Mountains — and from up here you can read the whole story at once: fur post, cannery town, port town, film town.

3

Pier 39 & the Hanthorn Cannery Museum ~20 min

100 39th St, Astoria · Oldest cannery building on the lower Columbia, 1875 · Free museum

Pier 39 is Astoria's working past, still standing on pilings out over the river. The building with C.R.P.A. painted across the gable is the oldest cannery structure left on the lower Columbia — built in 1875, later run by the Columbia River Packers Association, later still by Bumble Bee Seafoods, whose sign is still bolted to the wall. The free Hanthorn Cannery Museum inside was founded by former cannery workers and keeps the machines, the labels, and the crew photographs — Chinese, Finnish, Scandinavian — that explain who actually built this town. Outside, the boardwalk runs past Rogue Ales' public house and a moored working tugboat, with sea lions barking somewhere under the deck.

4

Astoria Riverwalk & the Astoria–Megler Bridge ~15 min

6th Street viewing tower · 4.1-mile bridge, opened 1966 · Longest continuous truss bridge in North America

A short stop on the six-mile Astoria Riverwalk, at the two-storey wooden viewing tower at 6th Street — built where the Bumble Bee headquarters once stood. From the upper deck you look straight out at the Astoria–Megler Bridge: 4.1 miles of steel crossing the mouth of the Columbia into Washington, opened in 1966 and still the longest continuous truss bridge in North America, engineered to stand up to 150-mph gusts and a nine-mile-an-hour river. Late in the day the whole span goes to silhouette over the estuary and the old cannery pilings come out of the shallows like a row of teeth. If the vintage riverfront trolley is running, you will hear it before you see it.

5

Battery Russell, Fort Stevens State Park ~20 min

Coastal defence 1863–1947 · Shelled by Japanese submarine I-25, 21 June 1942

Concrete, moss and empty gun emplacements in a spruce forest. Fort Stevens guarded the mouth of the Columbia from the Civil War until 1947, and Battery Russell is the part you can walk straight into — stairwells, magazines, observation posts and gun wells, all open, all quiet. On the night of 21 June 1942 the Japanese submarine I-25 surfaced offshore and fired seventeen shells at this battery, making Fort Stevens the only mainland United States military installation shelled by an enemy during the Second World War. The shells fell harmlessly into sand and scrub; the confirmed casualties were a power line and a baseball backstop. Bring a phone light if you want to go into the darker passages.

6

Wreck of the Peter Iredale ~25 min

Clatsop Spit, Fort Stevens · Four-masted steel barque, 285 ft · Ran aground 25 October 1906

The most photographed shipwreck on the West Coast, and the easiest to reach — the ribs of the Peter Iredale sit right out on the open beach, where you can walk up and put a hand on them. She was a four-masted steel barque, 285 feet long, built in Maryport, England in 1890, and driven ashore here on 25 October 1906 by a sudden southeasterly gale on a high tide. Every crew member survived. What is left is a rust-red skeleton the tide fills and empties twice a day: at low water you can walk the full circle around her with the wreck doubled in the wet sand, and at high water the surf runs straight through the frames. The Graveyard of the Pacific, with a name and a date attached.

7

Indian Beach, Ecola State Park ~20 min · Twilight

Ecola State Park · "First Beach, La Push" in Twilight (2008) · Also Point Break

For anyone who read the books, this is the one. Indian Beach stood in for First Beach at La Push in the 2008 Twilight film — the driftwood shore where Bella walks with Jacob and first hears the Quileute legend that turns the whole story. The production had planned to shoot at the real La Push in Washington and moved here because it was closer to the rest of the Oregon schedule. It would earn the stop anyway: a small cove of dark sand held between two headlands, surf breaking over black basalt, Sitka spruce running right down to the tideline, and sea fog that arrives without warning. Surfers use it year-round; Point Break was shot here too. Bring a jacket — Indian Beach is reliably colder and windier than Cannon Beach ten minutes south.

8

Ecola Point ~20 min · The Goonies

Headland viewpoint · Tillamook Rock Lighthouse offshore · Goonies, Kindergarten Cop, Free Willy

Ecola Point is the view that sells the Oregon Coast: a headland two hundred feet above the water looking south along a run of sea stacks to Cannon Beach and Haystack Rock, with the Coast Range folding away blue behind it. Turn northwest and a mile offshore you will find Tillamook Rock Lighthouse — "Terrible Tilly", built in 1881 on a rock the winter sea washes clean over, abandoned in 1957, now a columbarium. Goonies fans will recognise the headland itself: Ecola State Park played the cliffs above the Fratellis' Lighthouse Lounge hideout. Kindergarten Cop and Free Willy were shot in the same park. Twenty minutes here, most of it spent not talking.

9

Downtown Cannon Beach & Hemlock Street ~45 min · Lunch

Hemlock Street galleries and cedar-shingle village · Bill's Tavern & Brewhouse, brewing since 1997

Lunch, and a wander through a town built almost entirely of weathered cedar shingle. Hemlock Street is a few walkable blocks of galleries, bakeries, candy shops and small restaurants, with no chain signage anywhere and a strict building code that keeps it that way. Bill's Tavern & Brewhouse — opened as the Imperial Grill in 1932 and brewing on site since 1997 — is the standing recommendation for fish and chips and a local pint; there are chowder houses, a seafood market and good coffee within the same few blocks if you would rather. Your guide will point you at what is good this season and then get out of the way. This stop is deliberately unscheduled.

10

Cannon Beach & Haystack Rock ~40 min · Main stop

235-ft sea stack · Oregon Marine Garden & Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge · Tufted puffins Apr–Jul

The last stop is the beach itself, four miles of it, flat and wide, with Haystack Rock standing 235 feet out of the sand. The rock is an Oregon Marine Garden and part of the Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge: at low tide the pools around its base fill with sea stars, anemones, chitons and crabs, and from April to early July tufted puffins nest on the upper slopes — one of the most accessible puffin colonies in North America. We read the tide table the morning of your tour and time this stop to it, because low water and high water are two completely different places. The Goonies ends on this beach, the pirate ship sailing out past the rock. You will see why they chose it.

What's included

Meeting & pickup

Pickup point — Most downtown Portland hotels, Airbnbs in the central city, or Portland International Airport (PDX). We'll confirm the exact time and location once your date is set.

Drop-off — Same as pickup, unless you'd like to be dropped off somewhere else within central Portland — just let us know.

Start time — Morning departure, typically 8:00 a.m. It is a 1-hour-45-minute drive out to Astoria, and the early start buys you a quiet Goonies House, an empty Peter Iredale, and a better tide window at Haystack Rock. Later departures on request when the tide table favours them.

Good to know

• Dress for the coast, not for Portland. The Oregon Coast runs 10–15°F cooler than the city with a steady onshore wind — a windproof shell and a warm layer make the difference between a good day and a short one, even in August.
• Shoes you don't mind getting sandy. Four of the ten stops put you on sand or wet basalt. Nothing on this tour is a hike, but flip-flops are the wrong tool for Battery Russell.
• Family-friendly. Children of all ages are welcome; child and booster seats can be arranged on request, no charge. The long drive legs are a reliable nap window.
• Not wheelchair accessible. The vehicle cannot carry a wheelchair, and several stops put you on sand, gravel or stairs. You should be able to manage short walks and get in and out of a passenger vehicle unaided. Tell us about any mobility needs before you book and we'll be straight with you about what works.
• The tide runs the day. We check the tide table the morning of your tour and may reorder the coastal stops to catch low water at Haystack Rock and the Peter Iredale. It is the single biggest difference between an average coast day and a memorable one.
• The Goonies House is somebody's home. Photos from the public street only — no driveway, no lawn, no shouting "Hey you guys". The neighbourhood has been generous for forty years; this is how it stays that way.

What's the cancellation policy?

Free cancellation up to 24 hours before the tour starts — full refund, no questions. Cancellations within 24 hours or no-shows are non-refundable. If we cancel due to weather, road conditions, or a coastal advisory on our side, you receive a full refund or a free reschedule.

Frequently asked questions