If you're searching for rainy day Oregon coast and Mt Hood things to do, you've already made peace with the forecast, which is the right attitude. It rains here roughly October through May, sometimes in August for a day just to keep everyone honest. We didn't build our homes for sunshine. We built them for the afternoon when the windows are streaked and the wood stove is going and nobody wants to be anywhere else.
First, let the house do its job
Every one of our homes has a reason to stay in. The Weekender has a wood stove and a loft that was made for a book on a wet afternoon, with a hot tub on the deck for when the rain lets up. Wildwood Basecamp has a stove, a screened porch you can sit on in a downpour with the fire table going, and a Bunkhouse Lounge with ping pong, shuffleboard and darts that will absorb a group for hours. Puffin Lane has three covered porches, a cedar hot tub, and a yoga studio. Rain on a porch roof is one of the better sounds we know. Make coffee, put on a record, and give it an hour before deciding the day is lost.
On the coast: go out in it anyway
Winter storms are why a lot of people come to the coast in the first place. From Neskowin, drive south to the Cape Kiwanda overlook in Pacific City to watch waves hit the sandstone, then warm up at Pelican Brewing across the street. Between showers, low tide is still low tide; the ghost forest doesn't care about the weather and the tide pools at the base of Cascade Head are better in gray light. Lincoln City puts glass floats on the beach from October through May, which is a good excuse for a wet walk. The Weekender is a short walk from the sand, so you're never more than five minutes from dry socks.
From Manzanita, Laneda Avenue is a rainy day in itself. Cloud & Leaf is the bookstore, Bread and Ocean is the bakery, and the pub at the top of the street is where you go when the rain turns sideways. The Hoffman Center for the Arts has shows and classes worth checking. Short Sand Beach under the spruce canopy at Oswald West is sheltered enough that a walk down is pleasant in anything short of a gale, and the surfers are out regardless. The Tillamook Creamery, thirty minutes south, is loud and crowded and the grilled cheese is still good. Whale season peaks in late December and again in late March, and a gray day with a big swell is fine for spotting spouts from the Neahkahnie overlook on 101.
At Mt. Hood: rain down here is snow up there
This is the mountain's trick. A wet day at the cabin in Mt. Hood Village often means it's snowing at Timberline, twenty-five minutes up the road. Go up, walk through the lodge, sit by the fire in the Ram's Head with a drink, and drive back down into the rain feeling like you got away with something. Government Camp has the Mt. Hood Cultural Center and Museum, which is small and better than it needs to be, and Mt. Hood Brewing next door.
Lower down, the forest is honestly at its best wet. The Old Salmon River Trail is mostly under canopy and the moss looks lit from inside. Wildwood Recreation Site's boardwalk is a short, easy loop with an underwater viewing window on the creek, and it's more interesting in rain than in sun. Back at Wildwood Basecamp, the hot tub in the rain is the whole point, and the porch is dry.
In Eugene: the town works in the wet
Eugene is used to it. The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art and the Museum of Natural and Cultural History are both on campus and both worth a couple of hours. Fifth Street Public Market has coffee, food and a covered courtyard. Smith Family Bookstore is the used bookstore we lose time in. The breweries in the Whiteaker are five minutes apart, and the Saturday Market runs rain or shine through mid-November. The trail out the door of The Eugene House is paved and shaded, and the bakery at the end of it is a better rainy-morning plan than most.
What we bring
A real rain jacket, not a puffy. Boots that can get wet and a second pair of shoes for inside. Wool socks. A deck of cards. Something to cook that takes all afternoon. We keep a basket by the door in every home for wet things, and we'd rather it fill up than see anyone spend a weekend inside waiting for weather that isn't coming. More ideas for each area are in our guides.