Different Way of Looking at Lincoln City: Extraordinary Oregon Coast Details

Published 11/26/22 at 7:39 PM
By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff

(Lincoln City, Oregon) – You could say about one central Oregon coast town: So much Lincoln City, so little time. The heavenly little hotspot is actually seven miles worth of pristine beaches and lovely strand, creating a magnet for all manner of fun and repose. There's bundles of attractions and distractions in the manmade realm of things, making Highway 101 a wonderland of things to do for all ages. Still, it's the sand that's the star of the show – good ol' gritty nature. (All photos Oregon Coast Beach Connection)

Ultimately, it comes down to that tideline to vegetation line, and if you look closer next time you'll see some startlingly new and engaging sights. The wonders are sometimes in the details, actually a whole new way to look at Lincoln City.

Such as the photograph above: the northern end of town, near the casino. Here, the tideline dips abruptly, causing the waves to come in crashing rather hard but then dissipate quickly. On top of it, find the place in the right atmospheric conditions and see the waves little tubes, which when lit from behind become a deep, entrancing blue.

Sometimes it's the closeup details that are the most striking on any beach. On the northern end of town, near the Roads End district, starkly blue, sunshine days in Lincoln City are not just about the sky on this brilliant day. The wet sand does its own remarkable visual tricks, as it becomes a glassy, mirror-like surface that reflects the sky. You sometimes feel a little disoriented as you walk this, feeling as if you may be walking out onto the clouds.

Lincoln City's Siletz Bay is always a visual charmer. But at night, given the right conditions, it's downright electrifying. In an almost very literal way. Various light sources make the sky, bay and sand look like they're pulsing with current.

Other parts of this comely Oregon coast bay can look like this.

Also at night, the bogs and mountain range just east of Lincoln City take a particularly eerie and ethereal look. A small stream cutting through the marshes reflects the moonlight in an intense manner, as fog in the distance clinches this memorable scene.

Again, looking down at the sand can yield the most pleasurable of surprises. Like the summer of 2011, when extremely high sand levels caused the D River to actually change direction. Normally, this timid little creek flows straight out to sea from a channel next to the main D River access. Not very powerful in the first place, it's much weaker during summer's dry season, and fat, fluffy sands that had piled over that year pushed the river's path around like – well, a beach bully.
Also at D River, long exposures just after dark, even as blue hour ends, can create magical, intense colors like this.

Just after the end of the day, Lincoln City can still have that arresting afterglow of the sunset, beyond a point that human eyes can see. The camera still sees it, though.

But to really look at Lincoln City differently, if you have a zoom lens, you can stand at the D River access and sort of creatively twist the way the town is laid out. From here, with something like 200 times magnification, the Roads End area appears next to a chunk of the shoreline that's near the D River – you're actually visually bypassing a large section of the beach, a few miles of it. It compresses the two areas together to make this rather oddball trick of the lens.

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