An ideal summer trip to Seaside includes long walks on the beach, sand between your toes, and a stick of driftwood that fits perfectly in your mouth and floats well enough to make your tail wag for days. Okay, so this is what most dogs would say if they spoke English.
Summertime usually brings lots of weekend house guests to our home here at the beach. Often, and much to my delight, those guests include some of our favorite four-legged friends. With so much room to roam here on the open beaches in Seaside, it’s no wonder that a pooch from the city would be ready to ditch the fenced-in dog park at a moment’s notice in favor of a road trip to the beach.
Long summer days, extensive stretches of sandy beach and bits of driftwood in all shapes and sizes make the perfect ingredients for fun frolics and games of fetch with Fido on a summer day in Seaside. My dog Jaxon loves nothing more than to repeatedly rescue the stick that is obviously drowning in the shallow waves.
The Oregon Beach Bill established public ownership of the beaches along the coast, making them free and open for all to use and enjoy. I have it under good authority that lots of four-legged beach-goers really appreciate this aspect of Seaside.
Editor’s Note: Thanks to Oregon Governor Oswald West, all beaches in Oregon were designated public land in 1913. The Oregon Beach Bill, a landmark piece of legislation passed in 1967, ensured continued “free and uninterrupted use of the beaches.” While leash laws do apply in town, dogs on the beach may run off-leash as long they are under immediate voice control of their owners. You can read more about 100 years of public beach access and its remarkable history at the Oregon State Parks’ Celebrate the Shore website.
