Depoe Bay is a small town along the central Oregon coast. It is about 10 minutes South of Lincoln City and about 2.5 hours from Portland. Depoe Bay is known to be a great place to watch whale migration during the migration season. There is a small whale watching center along the main street of the town. Depoe Bay also houses the smallest harbour in the entire world!
We left Portland around 10AM in the morning and headed towards Depoe Bay. It was a very foggy morning in the Portland area but we decided to go anyway. Instead of taking Highway 26 to the coast first, we decided to take the smaller route through McMinnville to get to Lincoln City first. It was extremely foggy all the way to Lincoln City. However, once we got to Lincoln City, the fog disappeared and it was sunny weather. We were really enjoying the sunny weather along the coast.
We then headed South to Depoe Bay to get to the whale watching center. There was a lot of parking space along the street for people to park the car. The watch watching center was not big, but there were about 15 people there with 3 other volunteers going over how whales migrate. Everyone was holding a binocular trying to spot a whale. There were 2 buoys out there in the ocean. The first buoy was about 3 miles out and the second buoy about 5 miles out. We were able to see whale splashing water about 8 miles out, which was quite far.
There was a second floor at the whale watching center but not much was up there. It was probably meant to have more space for people to watch whales. The space downstairs was just for restroom.
After whale watching a bit, we took a walk outside and saw the smallest harbour in the world. The way for going in and out of the harbour was small and narrow with waves splashing along the rocky cliffside. There were several gift shops along the street as well but not many tourists in the shop unfortunately.
Depoe Bay is a popoular whale watching place, but we felt that there is little to do in the town. The shops along the street aren't too exciting either unfortunately. Hopefully one day the down will be more lively in the future.
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