Nothing along the Oregon coast prepares you for the carnival ambience of downtown Seaside (pop. 5,900), Oregon’s oldest seafront resort. Ben Holladay, who built the place in 1873, included a racetrack, zoo, and plush hotel to lure Portlanders to ride his rail line to the beach. Come during spring break, or on a weekend during July or August, and join the hordes wandering among the saltwater-taffy stands and video-game arcades along Broadway, or cruising the concrete boardwalk (called The Prom) along the beach.
Where Broadway meets the beach, a small traffic circle known locally as The Turnaround is marked by a statue and a sign proclaiming Seaside “The End of the Lewis and Clark Trail.” South of here, between Beach Drive and The Prom, is a replica of the Lewis and Clark salt cairn, where the explorers boiled seawater nonstop for seven weeks to produce enough salt to preserve meat for their return trip east.
For food, sample the clam chowder at Dooger’s (503/738-3773), at 505 Broadway.
A half mile north of downtown, housed in a wood-shingled old motor court on the banks of the Necanicum River, the HI Seaside Hostel (503/738-7911), at 930 Holladay Drive, has $19-a-night dorms, $46 private rooms, canoes and kayaks, an espresso bar—and nightly movies. There are dozens of inexpensive motels and a handful of B&Bs; for listings and other information, contact the Seaside Visitors Bureau (503/738-3097 or 888/306-2326), at 7 N. Roosevelt Drive.
This part of the Pacific Coast marks the beginning of our Oregon Trail route, which runs east across the country along a combination of US-6, US-20, and US-26.
