Brays Point: Expansive View Near Middle of Oregon Coast Hiding in Plain Sight

Published 01/25/26 at 12:55 a .m.
By Oregon Coast Beach Connection Staff

(Yachats, Oregon) – One of the coastline's more engaging tracts of scenic highway exists in a kind of nowhere land, an oft-traveled yet off-the-beaten-path chunk of Highway 101 where the secrets are hiding in plain sight. Between Yachats and Florence, you're approaching the very middle ground of the Oregon coast and about to switch over to the south coast. Yet here, the central portion seems to linger longer, to stick around for one last visual jolt as cross over from the northern half to the southern half. (All photos Oregon Coast Beach Connection)

This part of northern Lane County weaves and bobs up and down, sometimes enclosing you in thick tree coverage and others letting the views explode. Along that stretch of some 20 miles or so there's a handful of pullouts – probably countable on one hand. One pops up fast and is really the only true pullout in the area with a full name.

Brays Point, the sign reads. No apostrophe - it's not "Bray's." No explanation who that's for. No description. It's just a pullout – but oh, what a knockout view.

It's all just a bit shy of MP 170, a mere few hundred feet south of the famed Bob Creek Wayside spot. Indeed, Brays Point is right above part of the Bob Creek access. And Brays Point may well be the only pullout viewpoint on the coast with a cave directly beneath it. Bob Creek Wayside Northern Delights

That's right: Brays Point has a secret, and one that's a tad Goonies-esque.

Speaking of films: this area is a little famous in that realm. Cable TV's prequel to Psycho was the series Bates Motel, which was set in a kind of mythical Oregon coast town. Incidental scenery shots of coastal highways and expansive vistas were actually filmed right around here. It was more quick-moving travel scenes where Norman and Norma, et al, were supposedly roaming this area. One pullout just south of here – near Ocean Beach Picnic Area – was a regular spot for filming cars winding down the road.

It could well be that Brays Point or areas closeby were included.

Either way, the main attraction here is the view. You're about 60 – 70 feet above the surf and cloistered little Bob Creek beach, giving you prime perspective on these incoming waves that batter little basalt structures below. Crane your neck a bit and see more of the rocky stuff at the bottom.

Then, seasonally you'll note it changes vastly. During summer, there's less of these slabs visible and yet the tide is a little farther out. That's because summer brings in sand and covers more up, but it also pushes the tide out – which, paradoxically – can reveal more rock features.

In winter, sand is scoured out and the rock structures look higher and the areas between them deeper.

Look to the north and you'll see Bob Creek spread out before you. Look south and the long tracts of Stonefield Beach are visible, with its soft and bright yellow sandstone cliffs rising and falling in the distance.

Yet below you, out of sight, there's a cave. You have to head to Bob Creek and then wander to its southern edge. There, directly below some of the highway barrier of Brays Point, is a cave that grows taller or shorter depending on season.

If it's winter - again - sand levels are lower, thus increasing the height of the cave and its interior. It's not a major cave: there's not a lot to it and it doesn't go back far. But getting to goof around inside an Oregon coast cave is always a kick in the pants, and it brings on thoughts of pirate's booty and maybe even that famous movie. Or maybe that epic ELP tune.

The cave, admittedly, seems to almost glisten at times. Wet rock in here acquires a kind of sheen, and for a split second you think you might've spotted rubies or such. But no. It's just a weird old cave.

Brays Point is about a mile north of Stonefield's access. Its GPS coordinates are 44.23920670290397, -124.11169865932658, and its address is listed as Florence, Oregon, even though it is a little over ten miles to Florence and within five miles of Yachats. Magical, Time-Tripping Stonefield 

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