Sea Lion Caves Florence (the great sea cave)
— the cave the Pacific keeps.
Not only on a wall.
“A sea grotto in the basalt headland eleven miles north of Florence on US-101, opposite Heceta Head Lighthouse. Steller sea lions haul out on the rocks below and, in winter, inside the cave itself. The elevator drops more than two hundred feet through the cliff. The sound reaches you before the light does, a long low chord under the surf.
Sea Lion Caves Florence (the great sea cave), on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
The cave sits in a basalt headland on the Oregon coast eleven miles north of Florence, opposite Heceta Head Lighthouse on US Highway 101. It is the largest American sea cave by volume, roughly two acres of floor at low tide and around twelve stories tall at the dome. The chamber opens north, south, and to the sea, so light and weather move through it. The privately held site has been open to visitors since 1932, when the founders bored a stairway down through the cliff and later replaced it with an elevator.
Access is by a 208-foot elevator that drops from the gift shop down through the headland to a viewing gallery above the cave floor. Adult admission runs in the mid-teens; the site is open daily except Christmas. Strollers and motorised chairs fit the elevator and the gallery. Visitors stay behind a railing — the sea lions belong to the cave. Heceta Head Lighthouse sits a mile north along US-101 and pairs naturally with the stop, as do the Cape Perpetua viewpoints another twelve miles up the coast.
Steller sea lions, the largest of the eared seals, use the cave as a winter refuge from fall through spring; California sea lions appear on the outside rocks the rest of the year. Pups are born on the ledges in late spring. Gray whales pass twice a year, around December heading south and March heading north, visible from the headland turnouts. The cave's interior light is best on overcast afternoons, when the open arches diffuse the Pacific glare and the dome holds a long green half-light.