Cape Perpetua Scenic Area Oregon

Journey to a Land of Water Wind and Fire

Part B: The Oregon Coast I g

On a Clear Day . . .

But despite all the raving about the surf, and the rocks, and the waves, and the Tidal Pools and the trees, Cape Perpetua Scenic area is best described in the AAA Oregon Tour book as: "the highest point on the Oregon Coast accessible by car."

In short, "It is the view, dummy. . .," that people come here for. And on the day we were there, it was quite a view. We were 800 feet above the sea level at that point, and maybe we didn't see the 70 miles of Coastline that you are supposed to see on a clear day, but I suspect we came pretty close. When I took the shot above, I was looking south from the top of the Cape.

Now, you don't have to drive up to the top of the Cape. For those who are avid outdoors people, there is a hiking trail to the top, the St. Perpetua Trail. It is 2.6 miles round trip. The first leg is UP, and the last leg is DOWN. But given our age, the type of trip we were on, the fact that this was our first day "on terra firma" after 2 solid days of rockin' on the rails, plus the fact that there were other places we wanted to see, we drove up parked in the lot at the top. Then we took the loop trail (The Whispering Spruce Trail) out to the overlook points.

After traversing a short way through a Sitka Spruce Forest, we came out upon the view shown at the top of this posting. We also paused to look at the area right below us, where we had been earlier and seen the surf.


On our way down, we found the one overlook where it is possible to look to the north, to the town of Yachats (pronounced, I understand, Ya-hots) and a little ways beyond.

It may have not been a completely clear day, but it was the clearest day of the 3 we spent on the coast. And we were certainly fortunate that it was the day we came to this spot on the coast.