[Cape Perpetua, OR, Sun, Jan 18, 2026]

We started our second full day in Florence quite early. Florence had no Tesla superchargers, so we had to hightail it an hour north to Newport in morning. We grabbed coffees and a blueberry coffee cake at the Chalet Restaurant & Bakery while waiting for the car to charge. We timed it all so that we would be back down at Cape Perpetua about an hour before high tide. There are some water features along that part of the coast that were best when the tide is incoming.

The first water feature we checked out was Devil’s Churn. This deep chasm formed over thousands of years as the relentless power of the crashing waves expanded the fracture in the lava rock to over 80 feet wide. At high tide, waves can crash up to 200ft in the air. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any waves nearly as dramatic as that. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the short, paved path down to the chasm and marveled at pounding of the waves.

About a mile south, we stopped at Cook’s Chasm. This area is home to two water features – Thor’s well and Sprouting Horn.

Thor’s well is a large sinkhole that swallows the rushing waves around it. It is best viewed from the trail that leads down to the coastline from the parking lot.

We saw a group of people precariously perched on a rock ledge quite close to Thor’s well. It was definitely not safe as the incoming high waves could have easily knocked them over, and there was no easy way for them to retreat along the puddles and rocks. I was scared from where I was, another 30 feet back from where they were! Judge for yourself in this video.

Sprouting Horn was the best feature. The geyser-like fountain reliably spewed water out of its narrow opening once or twice every single minute!

Also nearby was a chasm very much like Devil’s Churn. The waves that crashed here reached much higher!

It was all absolutely mesmerizing. We could have spent hours here but alas, we had some more sightseeing to do!

From the Cook’s chasm area, we headed up the mountain to Cape Perpetua Lookout. It is the highest point accessible by car on the Oregon coast. We had amazing views of where we just were along the coast.

After enjoying the views, we hiked Amanda’s trail. It is dedicated to the memory of Amanda, a blind Coos woman who suffered injustices during the forced removal of the Coos tribe from their native lands along the coast to a reservation. The trail features a concrete statue of Amanda and a stone amphitheater that provides a space for reflection.

The traditional way to hike this trail is to start from Yachats, then climb for 3 miles to the Cape Perpetua Lookout before turning around. However, I’d read that the first part of the trail from Yachats is along highway 101 and not very scenic. In order to skip that, we started from the other end at Cape Perpetua and hiked downhill for about 2.5 miles until we reached Amanda’s statue, the amphitheater and the new suspension bridge that opened in 2022 after the old one was taken out by a mudslide in 2015.

We were hoping to use the restroom at the Cape Perpetua Visitor Center as we left the area. However, it’s closed for renovations through May 2026.

After a lot of driving and sightseeing, we were ready for a delicious dinner back in Florence! I had snagged a reservation at the Waterfront Depot, the same restaurant that had a 3-hour wait on Friday night! Once we entered the restaurant, I understood why the wait time was so long – the place is tiny! It’s in a historic building and it only had room for about 10 tables. I wished we had daylight so I could enjoy the view of the Siuslaw river from the big window in the back. The delicious food more than made up for that though. What a great way to end our last full day in Florence!