Cape Meares Hike

Overview

This approach to the popular tourist sites at Cape Meares is for the more adventurous. In fact, it makes use of an official section of the Oregon Coast Trail that rises from the beach near the community of Cape Meares. The caveat is that this trail passes near the same slow-moving landslide that has, seemingly permanently, closed the road from Tillamook Bay to the Cape Meares Lighthouse. The trail has not been maintained, so it can be brushy and rough in places, and there are probably downed trees. However, it does provide more solitude, involves a somewhat shorter driving approach, and is more of a hike than the Cape Meares Lighthouse Hike, with which it connects. The hike is best begun one hour before the low tide point as the beach gets cut off at high tide. You will also need to do a couple of short road walks to complete the hike described below. Start from the beach at low tide. The upper beach is driftwood-strewn. You can look back and admire the sandy expanses up the Bayocean Spit and get views of Pyramid Rock off the point of Cape Meares. The beach is sandy at first heading south towards Cape Meares, then cobbly, then bouldery, and finally there’s a clamber over slick gray mudstone. This last part is difficult to negotiate at high tide. There are roots and old tree remnants sticking out of the eroded mudstone slope facing the beach. Past the gray mudstone, close to the end of the beach, you can see the arches and caves under Cape Meares' cliffs. The trail leaves the beach where a rope helps you up a slick soft gully. The route heads up above a swamp fringed with alder and sword fern into the Cape Meares National Wildlife Refuge, making seven short switchbacks to a trail junction. A marker shows the trail heading to the left is the high tide route. However, this trail has been buried under a muddy slide several yards farther on. From the junction, go right and make a wide switchback up. There are views of Bayocean Spit, the hills behind Garibaldi, Tillamook Head and Saddle Mountain. The trail drops s

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