From adaptive beach wheelchairs and paved trails to sensory-friendly exhibits and playgrounds, the Central Oregon Coast is working to make travel and recreation more inclusive. With thoughtful accommodations like sand-friendly mobility devices and color enhancing glasses, these locations are designed for everyone’s enjoyment.
Whether you’re exploring tide pools, visiting a lighthouse, or simply taking in the stunning coastal views, these recommendations from community members who experience disability highlight some of the most inclusive and accessible places along the Central Oregon Coast, from north to south.
Lincoln City
Lincoln City Community Center
If you experience color blindness, your first stop in Lincoln City should be the Lincoln City Community Center. Through a partnership with Lincoln City Parks and Recreation, the center offers nine pairs of EnChroma glasses free for public use. EnChroma glasses enhance color vision for those with color blindness. A color blindness test at the Community Center helps determine which pair will work best for you. Once you have the right pair, you can take them around town to explore the coastal scenery in full color.
Taft Waterfront Park
Taft Waterfront Park provides an inclusive beach experience, with a Mobi-mat leading from the pavement to the water’s edge, making it easier for everyone to navigate the loose sand and driftwood.
At the beach entrance, two large lockers house fat-tire beach wheelchairs, available for free during daylight hours. Simply scan the QR code on the locker using the Movatic app to reserve a chair. You can also securely store your mobility device in the locker while using the beach wheelchair. These specially designed chairs glide smoothly over loose sand but require assistance from a second person for pushing. In the winter, when Mobi Mats are removed to protect them from King Tides, the beach wheelchairs remain available for use.
Siletz Bay Park
For a peaceful picnic spot after a day at Taft Waterfront Park, drive just a few minutes down the road to visit Siletz Bay Park. This small park features three circular tables, including one with accessible seating for wheelchair users. A gazebo with wheelchair-friendly benches overlooks the bay, where seals often sunbathe among the crashing waves.
Siletz Bay National Wildlife Refuge
Head out to Siletz Bay National Wildlife Refuge and take the Alder Island Nature Trail. Made of mostly compact gravel, this trail follows along the Siletz River and passes through habitats of salt marsh, mudflats, sloughs, and conifer-hardwood forests—with tons of potential for wildlife viewing.
Schooner Creek Discovery Park
Inspired by the natural landscape of Siletz Bay, Schooner Creek Discovery Park is Lincoln City’s first inclusive playground. It has nonverbal communication boards, mobility-friendly surfacing with contrasting colors accessible to individuals with low vision, and wheelchair accessible seating. The park also offers an array of devices and paths allowing individuals of all abilities to access various slides and climbing stations.
Newport
Yaquina Head Lighthouse
For the most accessible outdoor tide pool on the Oregon Coast, head to Yaquina Head. From the parking lot, you’ll find a paved accessible path leading down to the beach. If you’re hoping to see some sea stars and anemones, be sure to check your tide tables! If you arrive during a minus tide, you’ll be able to take the accessible path around some tide pools. Any tide under -1 foot would be best.
Oregon Coast Aquarium
The Oregon Coast Aquarium makes creatures and critters living on Oregon’s rugged coastline accessible to all. The exhibits emulate different coastal environments, moving from sandy shores and sea floors to turbulent waters and rocky intertidal zones, in addition to deep ocean, mammal, and bird exhibits.
A highlight of the aquarium is the wheelchair accessible touch tanks that bring Oregon’s tidepooling experience up close. The tank height allows wheelchair users to see and reach into the tanks.
The paths around both the indoor and outdoor exhibits are wide enough to accommodate mobility devices. If it is difficult to use your own device on the loose gravel paths between the outdoor exhibits, wheelchairs and electric scooters are available for rent at admissions.
Hatfield Visitor Center
Hatfield Visitor Center allows visitors to gain hands-on experiences with natural phenomena occurring on the Oregon Coast, including an erosion model, tsunami tank, and shape shifting sand box.
Hatfield Visitor Center also has touch tanks that mimic tidepools, eliminating the barrier of navigating tricky intertidal zones in the wild. Here, EnChroma glasses are available for loan, allowing visitors with colorblindness to see the full spectrum of colorful anemones and sea stars. The Visitor Center also has two adult and one youth-sized wheelchair.
Yachats
Smelt Sands State Recreation Site
Smelt Sands State Recreation Site is part of the scenic 804 Trail, which runs along the coast and offers some of the most dramatic ocean views in the area. The wide, paved paths through Smelt Sands can accommodate a variety of mobility devices, including walkers and both motorized and non-motorized wheelchairs. From these accessible paths, visitors can enjoy unobstructed views of waves crashing against rugged rock formations—and sometimes even catch sight of sea foam swirling along the shoreline. Several benches line the overlook, with ample space for wheelchair users to sit comfortably and enjoy the view.
Florence
Heceta Head Lighthouse
There are multiple ways to explore the scenic grounds around Heceta Head Lighthouse. Parking is conveniently located in front of the beach, with an accessible sidewalk between the parking lot and the beach providing an excellent vantage point for wave-watching. The sandy section of the beach is short and often contains ocean debris due to shifting tides.
A half-mile trail leads up to the lighthouse, featuring sections of dirt, pavement, and packed gravel, and some areas have a graded incline.
If you’d like to go tidepooling on the Oregon Coast, Heceta Head Lighthouse has one of the more accessible natural tidepools, with areas of flat sand between larger rocks. For the best chance at viewing tidal critters, be sure to visit during a minus tide—any tide under -1 foot would be best.
Heceta Beach County Park
Heceta Beach County Park boasts several accessibility features that make it enjoyable year-round. The beach is relatively flat, with packed sand and minimal debris, allowing Mobi-mats to remain in place longer than on some other coastal beaches.
This location also has the option to reserve a David’s Chair (a motorized beach wheelchair) and head out to explore the beach. While all parking spots are relatively close to the entrance, there are only two designated accessible parking spaces.
Accessibility on the Central Oregon Coast
The Central Oregon Coast is making great strides in accessibility, ensuring that people of all abilities can experience its breathtaking landscapes and coastal adventures. With ongoing efforts to improve accessibility, the Central Oregon Coast invites all visitors to discover and enjoy its natural beauty—barrier-free.
For a more in-depth look at accessible travel along the entire Oregon Coast, check out the Oregon Coast travelability guide and the Oregon Coast Visitors Association’s Accessible Adventures Guide.