This is part of our Oregon State Park challenge! Check out our progress here.

South Beach State Park is just south of Newport, about 2½ hours from our house. We got a normal yurt this time – no kitchen or bathroom, just a big, permanent tent with a lock. Our site was just across the road from the playground (!), and the kids made a couple of weekend friends while we were there.

The hiking here is nice and scenic. There’s a more rustic forest trail that connects to the paved coastal-dune trails, and several good geocaches are waiting to be found. We made sure to follow all the signs on the interpretive trail, and even watched a few of the videos that came up when we scanned the QR codes.

Since it’s just 5 minutes from the Oregon Coast Aquarium, this is a great base camp for exploring this part of the coast. Recommended.