Seal Rock State Recreation Site — Attraction in Newport

Seal rock is one of my favorite beaches of all time. I remember coming here since I was a little kid. Some of my first ever photography shoots were shot here!

This beach has a nice large parking lot that’s almost never packed. It can get busy at times, but I’ve never come here and seen the entire parking lot full. There’s always somewhere to park.

It has a pretty nice bathroom building. Definitely a lot nicer than most places along the Oregon coast. Nice enough that we’ve actually used it to change clothes!

The hike down to the actual beach is stunning. The twisty trees, as I like to call them, surround you as you walk through them. The walk from the parking lot to the viewpoint takes about one or two minutes, it’s not very long at all. Once you get to the viewpoint you can see the whole beach and the huge rock. You can hike down to get to the beach. It’s a little bit steep, and getting onto the beach itself can be tricky with all of the loose rocks. Be careful not to twist your ankles!

You can then walk around the beach, check out the tide pools, and see all the beautiful big rocks! There’s so many great rocks here. I really like rocks if you couldn’t tell ha ha.

You can then walk around and climb up the rocks on the opposite side from the seal rock itself. Super pretty over there, but again, be careful not to hurt yourself.

You can take a separate trail from the parking lot to go view the other side of seal rock. It’s super epic and the view is awesome but you can’t walk down in there for obvious reasons. It does have a fence for safety.

I have used this location many times for photo shoots and video shoots, it’s not too busy so it works great for shoots. At sunset it is incredibly beautiful and the rocks and ocean make for a perfect background.

Being close to Newport and Waldport makes this place extremely convenient. You can get any kind of food you need as well as gas.

I definitely recommend this beach, but if you do decide to visit, make sure you leave it cleaner than...

Always love coming down here. Brought a neighbor to see this area as we were having a low negative tide. When this happens the tide is out so far than usual that the tide pools are out farther and more to see. People come to walk out as far as they can and bring buckets(if allowed)to gather muscles from the rocks. The people can walk real close and observe the specimens that live on them. A lot of people come and you have to park in the lot and take a short walk to the observation deck and along the side if the deck is a paved trail down to the beach. Besides being such a wonderful area the kids will be able to see more and run some of their energy off. People bring blankets and whatever else they might need for a nice time and just make sure to check tide charts so know when high tide is moving back in. When regular tides are continuing then there is a big rock that is somewhat level that seals sun on. Issue is you have to know where to look and helps if have binoculars to see them. The brown pelicans are back also and is fun to watch when they dive. On all the bigger rocks are the different species if birds that live and also nest there. Overall a very special destination and so much to see and a good teaching tool...

Seal Rock is one of my favorite places along the Oregon Coast, especially at low tide. It has a wonderful mix of beach, coastal forest, rocks safe for kids to climb on and jutting, rugged coastline to photograph.

It's a great spot for catching a sunset or having a picnic.

The only negative is that it can get crowded on hot days when valley traffic lines up over the Coast Range.

Sea lions shorebirds and other wildlife frequent the area. Remember to give them plenty of space, obey posted signs about bird nesting areas, and avoid the temptation to climb the rocks, which are more dangerous than they look and are sensitive wildlife habitats.

I'm using a scale comparing all of Oregon's state parks here. The worst I've ever visited would get 2 stars. Seal...