Have a Blast in Florence

The hamlet on the central coast is known for sand sports, serenity and, increasingly, its art

written by James Sinks

Fifty-five years ago, Oregon highway engineers puzzled over removing an 8-ton whale carcass that was rotting—and stinking, badly—on a beach near Florence on the central coast.

Their solution: a half-ton of dynamite.

They believed the TNT would pulverize the whale into tiny pieces that would be washed to sea, and eaten by shorebirds. Their miscalculation was captured in an epic TV news spot.

The blast sent a decaying geyser skyward, raining large pieces of rotting blubber and foul fluid onto onlookers as far as 800 feet away. While nobody was seriously hurt, a chunk of meat did smash the roof of an innocent Oldsmobile.

Today, the episode has become a thing of lore, and Florence leans into it. Around the world, you’ll find multiple rose cities and music cities, but only one—at least so far—exploding whale city.

While the detonation was in November—and there’s a cheeky annual homage with a moment of silence—year-round you’ll find T-shirts, some of the whale’s bones at the Siuslaw Pioneer Museum and even an Exploding Whale Memorial Park. (It’s not the actual blast site, however.)

The whale bits shower isn’t the only local claim to fame. The Rhododendron Festival comes the third weekend of May. Also, you can celebrate every day that city officials never enforced a poorly written 1977 ordinance that mistakenly banned sex everywhere in town. (Amended, it now just prohibits lewdness outdoors.)

A seldom-dry-in-spring seaport in the historical territory of the Siuslaw and Quuiich peoples, Florence initially thrived as a timber and fishery town. Now, it relies most heavily on tourists and retirees. Those ages 65 and older make up 43 percent of residents, more than double the statewide average.

Also, don’t expect demolition crews. When whales wash ashore in Oregon nowadays, they’re left to decompose and feed other coastal critters.

The folks at Florence’s www.xplodingwhale.com website say there’s wisdom to be gleaned from the 1970 mishap. Not only legendary, it showed the environment should be left to work naturally, they say. Also, importantly, “it’s a lesson in learning from our mistakes.”

Happily, there aren’t many bad choices when mapping an itinerary around Florence. Plan for adventure. And, just to be safe from one possible mistake, remember rain gear.

Day 1

WATERFALLS • GALLERIES • SEAFOOD

If your legs ask to stretch during the curvy drive on Highway 126 westward from Eugene, listen. Waterfalls are waiting.

Near the former milltown of Mapleton, Sweet Creek—named after a homesteading family—stairsteps down more than ten falls in a lush, forested-and-ferned canyon. Bonus one: The easy riverside trail includes fun metal catwalks built onto the canyon walls. Bonus two: Wildflowers in April and May.

Hike into Sweet Creek Falls near Mapleton. (photo: Thomas Moser/Eugene, Cascades & Coast)

Check signs as part of the 2-mile trail is detoured because of a washed out bridge, due to be replaced in early 2025. U.S. Recreation passes are required.

Need a post-hike pick-me-up? A perk in Mapleton is the Caffeination Station coffee shop, near a wigwam burner relic of the town’s industrial heyday. Also, Bigfoot may or may not shop at the kitschy Alphabit café and gift shop.

It’s another fifteen minutes to Florence. If flags are flying on the pier near Old Town, it means good things (and lunch) are happening at Novelli’s Crab & Seafood, a floating kitchen where the menu options were probably swimming a few hours prior.

Novelli’s Crab & Seafood on the docks in Florence. (photo: Melanie Griffin/Eugene, Cascades & Coast)

Housed in a former schoolhouse, the Siuslaw Pioneer Museum offers a quick local primer (and exploded whale bones). Incorporated in 1893, the city was either named after a 1875 shipwreck, or after a state senator at the time of statehood.

Florence is home to about 9,500 people. There’s a chance all of them are artists. In Old Town, along the Siuslaw riverfront and in the shadow of the U.S. Highway 101 bridge, you’ll find a gallery of galleries, a community theater and the home of the Florence Regional Arts Alliance, which is also a gallery and displays the handiwork of 128 local artisans.

Also in Old Town, there’s a directional pole that points to other cities called Florence in North America (so, no, not Florence, Italy) and a municipal dock where you can toss crab pots into the water.

Feeling shaggy or overly sober? At Old Town Barbershop on Bay Street, there’s both haircuts and booze tasting. You might want the haircut first, to avoid regrettable style choices. The pirate-themed spirits, such as Devil’s Own Rum, originate at Stillwagon Distillery, down Highway 101 in Charleston.

In 1976, when the Mapleton train depot was due to be demolished to widen Highway 126, the structure was instead sold and floated downriver to Florence. Today, it’s home to The Waterfront Depot restaurant, where you’ll absolutely want to park your caboose. The salmon piccata is sublime, and the only thing more intoxicating than the craft cocktails is the Siuslaw view.

Afterward, stroll to happy vibes, weekend live music and more art browsing at The Laughing Crab Gallery & Tasting Room.

As a guitar strummed and glasses clinked, owner and former Eugene resident Kim McLaughlin said coastal visitors often miss out on Florence because they’re beelining north to Yachats or south to Coos Bay. Their error. “It’s like a secret little town, in plain sight.”

Day 2

A BEACH MORNING • DUNES • LOCAL BITES

The beach beckons on coastal mornings, and Florence has miles of sand to choose from. If your choice takes you near the north jetty, a paved path atop offers views of fishing boats and seals navigating the channel. Seals seem to have an easier time.

Skip down to the Pacific for beach play. (photo: Melanie Griffin/Eugene, Cascades & Coast)

Does sea breeze fuel artistic inspiration? Find out Saturdays at an open-to-anyone oil painting class at the Regional Arts Alliance. The $40 cost covers everything, including a canvas, but space is limited so reserve ahead. Your brush with greatness lasts from 9 a.m. until noon.

If you need fuel, espresso and pastries await next door at Sweet Magnolia Bakery & Cafe.

Lunch options abound in Old Town. At 1285 Restobar, find steamer clams, pizza and five-cheese truffle mac and cheese. At Homegrown Public House & Brewery, order salads, soups and sandwiches (and suds). Or for river views and nostalgia, dive into fish and chips at the southernmost location of venerable Mo’s Seafood & Chowder.

Old Town Florence’s 1285 Restobar features steamer clams and truffle mac and cheese. (photo: Melanie Griffin/Eugene, Cascades & Coast)

The otherworldly terrain of the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area stretches some 40 miles from Florence southward to near Coos Bay. How otherworldly? It inspired the Dune science fiction series by the late Frank Herbert, a onetime newspaper reporter in Salem.

The sweeping Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. (photo: Jacob Pace/Eugene, Cascades & Coast)

Like much of Oregon’s backcountry, the sandscape balances competing priorities. Popular for camping, sandboarding, hiking and high-speed off-roading, the dunes also are a nesting habitat of endangered snowy plover seabirds, so portions become off-limits between mid-March and September.

South of town, several outfitters, including Sand Dunes Frontier ATVs, rent four-wheelers if you’re properly licensed. Rather let somebody else drive? Book a bouncy tour at Sandland Adventures, where some dune buggies can reach 50 miles per hour.

Depending how wobbly you feel afterward, Sandland also has (much slower) go-karts and mini golf.

For a lower-adrenaline afternoon, cast for hungry bass in Tahkenitch Lake or trek a nearby 6-mile forest-and-dune loop with a milelong stretch of beach. Pro tip: If you do the loop counter-clockwise, any sandblasting tradewind gusts will be at your back instead of in your eyes.

For tiki flair and tropical fare, it’s like visiting a warmer beach at The Hukilau, open Wednesdays to Saturdays until 6:30 p.m. Descended from a popular food truck, the restaurant serves up Hawaiian specialties, cocktails and sushi, including a tempura shrimp Angry Dragon roll.

Check for shows at the Florence Events Center or The Play-house in Old Town, or try your gaming luck and dance moves at Blue Bill’s bar at Three River Casino Resort, run by the Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians.

For a final stop, get acquainted with locals, cheap drinks, billiards and Jell-O shots at Jerry’s Place Bar & Grill. They’re not open late-late, but Florence late.

Day 3

SANDBOARDING • LIGHTHOUSE • ICE CREAM

Sometimes life poses questions with only one correct answer. At the Little Brown Hen Cafe, when asked whether you’d like beignets, that answer is unequivocally yes.

Irresistibly cheery inside, the bistro has an expansive menu and breakfast cocktails, and the meats even include locally hunted elk. If you’re feeding a crowd, there’s the Mother Hen, a $50 morning sampler platter. The avocado toast was also pretty great. It’s cash only.

Opened in the 1930s, Jessie M. Honeyman Memorial State Park was once listed among the nation’s best state parks by Life Magazine. It’s still a winner, with yurts, a Civilian Conservation Corps-built daylodge and swimmer-friendly fresh-water lakes.

Slide a stand-up paddleboard into horseshoe-shaped Cleawox Lake, with trees on one side and dunes on the other, and revel in the serenity.

Rather stay dry but still board? Florence is home to the country’s first dedicated dune boarding hill, Sand Master Park, behind Fred Meyer. Rentals are available.

Dune surfing, or sandboarding, in Florence is one of many agenda items for a weekend in this coastal town.

Horse lovers can saddle up just north of Florence, where C&M Stables offers trail rides of ninety minutes and longer onto the beach. If you want even more time with animals, it’s only a few miles to the barking menagerie at Sea Lion Caves.

The lighthouse at Heceta Head, named after a Spanish naval officer who sailed past in 1775, is one of Oregon’s most photographed spots—and a great place to snap is a High-way 101 cliffside viewpoint. That also happens to be a good vantage to spot migrating whales, which are on the move come springtime.

You can walk up to the 56-foot-high lighthouse from a parking lot below, or from the north side of Heceta Head via Hobbit Trail, which also descends to a beach through rhododendrons and gnarled tunnels of branches.

The historic Heceta Head Lighthouse first opened in 1894 and has a Fresnel lens. (photo: Thomas Moser/Eugene, Cascades & Coast)

As you head north toward Yachats, the terrain becomes rockier, and the shoreline is sprinkled with tide pools, if you want to see stars and make friends of anemones (but no touchy). Find several at the Strawberry Hill Wayside at Neptune State Scenic Viewpoint.

On the way back to Florence, visit a natural oddity at Darlingonia State Wayside, where carnivorous pitcher plants lure bugs—and then snack on them.

You may soon find yourself lured by bubblegum pink paint to BJ’s Ice Cream, a delicious Oregon mainstay launched in Florence in 1978 by Brian and Jodie Cole (the name comes from their initials). They now have nine locations statewide.

It’s a fitting weekend finale because there are no wrong answers, or dynamite. Just fifty-eight flavors of goodness, fudge and taffy.

Like visiting Florence, the only mistake would be not going.