After years of admiring the Alsea River as we drove alongside it, either to or fro the coast, we set out one day to finally explore this fairly short river (only about 48 miles), which runs along Highway 34, from the town of Alsea to the Pacific Ocean in Waldport. Since moving to Corvallis, we had been trying to find my most favorite happy place—a good place to spend the day at the river, floating, swimming, eating and relaxing.

We did a little research and identified several stopping points, boat launches, county parks, campgrounds, a hatchery and state parks. We were pleasantly surprised to find even more locations to stop and enjoy the river than were listed online. We expanded our perimeters a little bit to include the North and South Forks of the Alsea River and, of course, anything that tickled our fancy along the way. We discovered Alsea Falls, which was a good bit off the main road but a gorgeous drive that ended at Alsea Falls Recreational Site. We decided to go all in, pulling out the backpacks, slipping on our trail shoes and the like. We set off to find the Falls…...which were basically right beside the truck. Haha! Oh well, we enjoyed it very much, took some photos then headed back down the road for the next stop.

Highway 34 gets pretty curvy for a lot of the drive, so we were just cruising, not in any hurry to get from place to place. We enjoyed the scenery quite a lot and made lots of notes of things to look up for informational purposes when we got back to internet service. Some of those roads curve back onto themselves almost; a bit scary sharing them with logging trucks!

We identified our first floatable stop option at Missouri Bend Recreation Area. This place was really incredible, with big slabs of flat rock extending a good bit into the river, swimming holes close by, a vault toilet and easy access to the river from the parking lot. We stopped to enjoy this for a bit, letting Emma and Keely run wild, jumping from rock to rock, fishing out shiny treasures from the river’s bottom……….not gold sadly, just fishing hooks and lures.

We stopped at Campbell County Park for lunch which we set up on a picnic table to enjoy before stopping at a boat ramp where we found a couple bringing in their inflatable kayak, sad that the water was not deep enough to get them where they wanted to go. We found places that had lots of people and places with nobody. We drove through campgrounds that were packed and down a sneaky little forest road for a little while, hoping for backroad river access until I got freaked out that we would meet a logging truck and turned around to come back. We met a normal car on this way back and I screamed due to my ridiculous startle reflex and being all worked up about the mythical logging truck (insert eye rolls here). We stopped alongside the road at a couple of places that looked like they should have river access, though they did not despite my efforts to blaze new trails through unfriendly undergrowth.

Coming out of the valley, the Alsea River opens to a gorgeous estuary. Here there were lots of riverside homes with personal docks, absolutely beautiful. We stopped at a park to admire a big, old cedar tree then straight to the Pacific Ocean next, stopping at Driftwood Beach State Recreation Site to play ball with Keely before a quick stop at a friend’s place to say hello. After that, we grabbed takeout from our favorite restaurant in Newport, Clearwater, and drove up to Yaquina Bay Lighthouse to watch the sunset while we ate in the car. A fabulous way to end our river exploration day!

Now that the exploration was done, we headed out a week later to enjoy the river. It was to be over 100 degrees and we were not the only ones with the cool Alsea River on our minds. The first two places were full of people, despite our best efforts to get there early and stake out a place. The third spot we had in mind was gloriously empty! We dragged all of our gear—floating tubes, a two-person inflatable boat, cooler, chairs, bags of clothes, towels and Keely— to the most perfect place ever and set up our day camp. There was a cute little family upriver, who spent hours in the water with their small children catching crawdads to eat for dinner that night. We enjoyed the sound of children’s laughter and delighted screams as background noise. There were also a couple of swimmers downstream for a good bit of the day. Other than that, we had quite a big section of river all to ourselves. There was a large, flat rock alongside the bank where we set up camp. The slab went out into the water, surrounded by another ledge just below the water’s surface and still another ledge about three feet down. We could paddle just a bit upriver to some rapids then float down to our own personal swimming hole. It did get pretty deep in the middle, deep enough that we could not touch bottom, though the water was so clear we could see it. Magical paradise, I tell you!

Keely cannot be left on shore without supervision due to random schizoid behavior if someone else came near, so she spent most of her day on the water too, in the inflatable boat with me. She was not nearly as thrilled as we were, though, afraid to be down in the boat so perched on the side, hanging on for dear life as I paddled around, without an oar (note to self, buy an oar!). We did play ball with her throughout the day but there was no big clearing to run so playing ball meant lots of swimming, which she tolerates but does not completely love. Such a puppy.

Emma and I finally felt brave enough to get fully into the water and do some swimming. Emma pushed Gramma around on her floatie while I pushed Keely around in her little boat. The water was 52 degrees so you may be able to imagine it was pretty darn chilly. Gramma was adamant that she was not getting into that water despite Emma’s pleas. She preferred to be tied to the shore so she could float without worrying about floating away forever.

We enjoyed some lunch, met some interesting folks, took a ton of pictures and spent the day hanging out, just enjoying nature. One couple, on a motorcycle trip, stopped by so the lady could jump in the river to cool down. According to her business card, which I tucked into our towel bag, she is a medium, High Priestess, Daughter of Gaia and Mother of Us All, as well as a dog trainer to boot. She tried her best to cure Keely of schizoid behavior, despite us telling her it was not going to work, in the end doing what we do which is completely ignoring Keely while she scopes a person out. The lady then jumped in the water, talking a mile a minute the whole time, about her work as a medium, that she cures people but does not charge because her gift is God-given and she is honor bound to provide her service for free to those in need. Hey, more power to the lady—I can get on board with that kind of confidence. Another lady came down with two large labs while Emma and I were walking up the river, dodging aggressive crawdads, so that we could enjoy a longer float. Unfortunately for Gramma, she was in charge of Keely. They were both surprised by the visitors and Keely lost her mind. She was barking and freaking out, Gramma did not know whether to let Keely go meet them or not and Emma and I were too far upriver to be of assistance. Emma and I hopped on the tubes and rushed (floated languidly) down river to save the day. By the time we made it, Gramma had Keely calmed down somewhat and Keely sat with me, watching those big labs swimming and playing ball with a look of incredulity on her little puppy face. So that’s how it’s done, she seemed to be thinking.

After more swimming, floating and photo shoots, it was getting late so we decided to pack it up and go find some dinner. As Emma and I were coming out of our own personal lagoon, I lost my footing and frantically scrambled to grab something, anything, to avoid falling back into the cold water, not in any danger at all. Unfortunately it was Emma’s thigh that I grabbed, with my fingernails, to which she responded by pushing me off. Poor Emma, she did not have any idea why I was grabbing her. By the time I pulled myself back together, we were laughing so hard we nearly drowned. Fun times.

After hauling all the stuff back up the hill, deflating the floats and packing the truck, I was getting ready to close the back. Out of the corner of my eye I saw movement and turned to see Gramma, who for unknown reasons had appeared out of nowhere. My startle reflex kicked in and I screamed bloody murder in fear. The look on Gramma’s face was priceless and she said she almost peed her pants. Cue another hilarity fest. In fact, typing this right now, remembering it, I am laughing so hard I am crying. What a fabulous day!