Port Orford

In Port Orford, halfway between Bandon and Gold Beach, you’ll find everything you’re looking for. From spectacular seascapes and mountain hiking trails with panoramic vistas, to art galleries and an authentic Victorian mansion. With ocean, lake and river fishing, boating and kayaking, and absolutely perfect windsailing conditions. But here, there’s a difference. You don’t have to push your way through traffic jams or clogged sidewalks to enjoy it.

Small, friendly, quirky, with a relaxing energy in a naturally beautiful setting…Port Orford is filled with nice people, an unhurried atmosphere and no stop lights.

It has a very active artistic community, with eight art galleries owned and operated by working artists, including some genuinely world-class talents. Plus charming gift shops, a very comfortable movie theatre (with an amazing selection of goodies), and a series of cool restaurants including one overlooking the bay where the food actually lives up to the ocean view. You’ll also find great diner food, seafood, steaks and what locals believe is the best fish and chips and chowder on the coast.

The oldest platted town site on the Oregon coast, the most westerly city in the continental U.S., and the northern gateway to the America’s Wild Rivers Coast, Port Orford honors its rich history. Visit Battle Rock Historical Park, the site of a famous battle between Indians and the first whites trying to settle here – there’s a visitor information center at the park. Stop by the Port Orford Lifeboat Station Museum, which features a restored Coast Guard Station, shipwreck memorabilia, and many artifacts from the years when the Coast Guard Station was providing services to ships off one of America’s most dangerous headlands. And, just a few miles north of town is the Cape Blanco Lighthouse, the oldest and most westerly lighthouse in Oregon and, in the same park, the beautifully restored Victorian Hughes House Museum.

And don’t miss the port of Port Orford. It is the only natural, open-water port for 600 miles and only one of six “dolly” ports in the world. It’s an amazing site to see working fishing boats lifted into and out of the water every day.