January and February are usually great coast hiking months. The roads to the Cascades/mtns can be iffy and the valley can be socked in with clouds and rain but often the "coast is clear" and the low angled sun is very pretty. But not so true this year, at least on the days which have been available to me. Friday was supposed to be partly cloudy/sunny south of Lincoln City on the coast. I drove through rain the entire way, and it persisted even to Lincoln City. By the time I got to Depot Bay, the rain had stopped but it was still pretty foggy. The day continued to be foggy - it began to clear around 2:30 as I was considering heading home. Still, it was a lovely day, the fog making things moist and mysterious. No views, but I saw my first flowers of the season. The tide was in and the waves were powerful because of the stormy weather. Yachats/Cape Perpetua is a good place to view the surf.
The hike was 5.5 mi with 1360 ft gain from the Visitor's center up to the shelter, around the loop, back down and then under the highway to the Spouting Horn (lots of tide pools here when the tide is out), then north to Devil's Churn and back to the car. For those of you who enjoy a latte after your hike, the pull out at Devil's Churn has a coffee stand :-)
map
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| Boiler Bay |
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| Seal Rocks |
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| Seal Rocks |
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| Skunk Cabbage at Cape Perpetua |
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| the view on top the bluff at Cape Perpetua |
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| Salal |
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| pearly everlasting |
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| lawn daisies...I just like these |
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| more cabbage |
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| spouting horn |
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| it was quite the show...I didn't get too close because some of those waves really came up high! |
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| a view of the bluff I had hiked up to...it played peek a boo a little |
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| more fun crashing waves |
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| walking over to Devil's churn |
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| Devil's Churn - some folks down in the slot were getting drenched now and again |
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| he posed for me at Neptune Beach |
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| Driftwood Beach |
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