Trekks and Travels: 8 February 2013 Yachats and Cape Perpetua, OR

I was sorely in need of ocean view and sunshine so I headed to the coast on a foggy Friday morning. I had not explored the coast south of Waldport, so I determined not to get out of the car at any pull-outs until after I had passed that town. Hard to do, I tell you. I did make one stop even before I reached the coast - Basket Slough. I couldn't resist the view of the land in the fog.
Fog lightened up after I went over my first rise in elevation and the sky was crystal clear. It fogged up again when I got to the coast but not too bad. You could see a big marine layer in the distance over the ocean. By afternoon, even that was gone. Temps were in the 40's with a bit of a breeze. Sunny for the most part.
I made it to Smelt Sands State Park in Yachats without stopping anywhere else - a 111 mile, 2 hr 20 min trip via Hwy22/18 and Hwy 101. The tide was up (going out but still pretty high) so I wasn't able to really get to the tide pools, plus the waves were pretty intense. But it was picturesque and peaceful despite the ocean front hotels there. I walked to the end of the 0.7 mile paved trail and had to turn around because the tide was too high to continue on the sandy beach. You can travel another 6.3 miles to Waldport when the tide is lower. After enjoying lunch on one of the benches above the rocks, I continued on into Yachats to check it out and get coffee. It is a very small town, however, and not finding coffee and not realizing I was leaving town I had to keep on going. I ended up at Cape Perpetua on accident but was very glad I had continued because it is a place I definitely want to come back to. I hiked the short Trail of Restless Waters to Devil's Churn and then over to the tide pools before turning back to my car. Next time I will try not to stop until I get to Cape Perpetua and hike the variety of bluff and forest trails the park has to offer.
On the way home, I stopped at Seal Rock (huge volcanic rocks of the same composition as volcanic rock from Hell's Canyon near Idaho). I also made notes to check out Yachats State Park (rocky), Beachside State Rec Area for long strips of beach and Lost Creek on future trips. Also take a drive on Yachats Ocean Road. At Cape Perpetua check out Thors Well. Further on past Perpetua, is Neptune Beach...looks like there are trails descending to the coast from the cliff.
Or an idea would be to drive to Eugene, head to the coast via Florence, then North in a circle back to Keizer (270 miles)