In an old coastal town like Newport you expect a salty bayfront and quaint hotels. But by strolling a three-mile loop you’ll also find that Newport has a surprisingly quiet beach, sand dunes, lots of wildlife and a haunted lighthouse.
The walking tour starts at Nye Beach, perhaps Oregon’s oldest coastal getaway. Now an upscale warren of shake-sided shops, this district is still surrounded by so many hotels that Newport can claim to have more oceanfront hotel rooms than any other city north of San Francisco.
If this were 1886 you would have arrived in Nye Beach by taking the Oregon Pacific Railroad from Corvallis to Yaquina Bay. The tracks stopped four miles short of Newport because Portland businessmen, alarmed that Newport might rival Portland as a port, had bought up bayfront property to block the line.
Railroad developer Colonel T. Egenton Hogg countered by building his own port, Yaquina City. From there you would have taken a ferry across the bay and then a horse-drawn coach to the resorts at Nye Beach.
If this were 1911 you might have arrived in a Model T Ford. After driving around the Turnaround beside Nye Beach you might have stayed in the Cliff House Hotel atop the adjacent bluff. That quaint, four-story building is still there, renovated as the boutique Sylvia Beach Hotel, with rooms themed for authors from Shakespeare to Ken Kesey.
These days you can find Nye Beach by driving to the traffic light in the middle of Newport, where Highway 20 from Corvallis joins Hwy 101. At that intersection, follow a Nye Beach pointer west on Olive Street half a mile. Then turn right on Coast Street for four blocks and turn left through a Nye Beach arch to the Turnaround overlooking the beach. The parking lot here is usually full, so expect to park a few blocks away.
After exploring the shops at Nye Beach, head for the sand. Walk left along the wide, flat beach for 1.3 miles to Yaquina Bay’s North Jetty. Along the way you’ll see fewer people and a lot more sea gulls. Sometimes thousands rest here after scavenging at the bay’s docks.
The big rocks of the jetty have backed up sand dunes where you can watch harbor traffic — fishing boats heading back with their catch, sea lions heading out with the tide and cormorants diving for fish.
Looking inland you’ll see an old lighthouse building and an observation tower. Hike toward them through the dunes to find a trail up to the parking lot of a small state park by the lighthouse.
The 1871 Yaquina Bay Lighthouse was one of Oregon’s earliest coastal beacons, and is the only one without a separate tower. After just three years the light went dark because construction of a taller lighthouse three miles away made it superfluous. For years the derelict building inspired ghost stories. Now it can be visited for free in summer from 11 am to 4 pm. Winter hours are noon to 4 pm, Wednesday through Sunday.
From the lighthouse, walk along the park’s entrance road toward town. This route ducks underneath the colossal Yaquina Bay Bridge, built with elegant arches in 1936 by Conde McCullough, the gifted state engineer who oversaw completion of Hwy 101 in Oregon.
The sidewalk passes a Coast Guard station and descends to Bay Boulevard. Walking this bayfront street is a kaleidoscopic olfactory experience, with the briny stench of active fish processing plants on the right and the deep-fried tang of brew pubs on the left. Shops with upscale art and tourist kitsch culminate in Ripley’s Believe It Or Not, a tourist trap with tire-scrap gorillas out front and wax Sasquatches inside. On the bay side of this attraction, follow the sound of “Arf! Arf!” to a pier where a hundred sea lions attempt to sleep on a half-sunken dock, but constantly battle newcomers attempting to slither up into the herd.
A boardwalk promenade continues half a mile alongside a bayfront marina. But for the recommended loop, turn uphill near the Ripley’s attraction at a sign for Hurbert Street. Follow this steep side street up and across Hwy 101. Then continue straight until you reach Coast Street, where you turn right to complete the three-mile loop back to Nye Beach.
Articles like this usually tell you where you should eat lunch. I’m not going to do that, because on your three-mile loop through Newport, you will have passed 30 eateries, ranging from coffee shops to chowder joints, sushi bars, taco trucks and tap houses. Take your pick.
Newport is old, with a salty underbelly and surprising pockets of wild nature. But at heart, Newport has always been a tourist town. You’re supposed to go home happy, not hungry.