Sunday June 25, 30.8mi/49.6km

South Beach State Park Campground (159.3/33ft) to Cape Perpetua Campground (190.1/140ft) (OR)

I was awake early to begin a long day of hiking, most of it being easy miles on beaches. A few minutes into my day and I saw my first wildlife!

To leave the campground I had to hike over a few dunes. The soft sand is always slow going.

And then I was on the beach! There’s a ton of stuff that washes up from the ocean, most of it is dead crabs, jellyfish, and kelp. This object was none of those things, and it almost looked like a skeleton.

My second wildlife of the day was a seal, who was napping on a sandy spit.

The beach went on and on, under the morning’s cloudy skies. Usually the clouds burn off around mid morning.

In some of the rocky cliffs, there were little caves that had been formed by the erosive power of the sea.

At one point I came to a little stream crossing that was deep enough where I would have to take off my shoes to cross. There was also a bridge a couple hundred meters inland, so I detoured to the bridge.

After another hour of beach walking, I departed the beach at a minor headland.

I love these neat little trails, they’re so hidden in the brush that you can’t see them until you’re right in front of the entrance.

I arrived at the Alsea Bay bridge at lunchtime so I ate lunch in the little picnic area at the base of the bridge. I couldn’t figure out why the area had so many concrete obelisks.

The Alsea Bay Bridge was huge, it was about a half mile of walking to get to the other side.

On the other side, I was in the town of Waldport, “where the forest meets the sea”.

There were lots of little shops and restaurants, it was maybe six blocks long. Many of the buildings had amazing artwork painted on the side.

After I left town, the trail left the road and returned to the beach. I was seeing seals everywhere!

An hour later, I saw a very different type of ancient wildlife, a redwood stump. The stump was not washed here by the sea but instead grew in this spot, 1200 years ago. The climate must have been different then, because in modern times all of the redwoods grow much further south, over 200 miles away in California. Cool.

After a couple hours of beach hiking, I could see the end of this beach. The clouds had been accumulating all afternoon, but no rain happened.

I left the beach just north of the town of Yachats, on this very nice path called the 804 Trail.

It was now high tide, and the waves were crashing thunderously on the rocks.

Watching waves crash on rocks is so much more fun than watching them gently roll up on a sandy beach!

There was a state park with a little beach, which was more protected from the crashing waves.

I walked through the little town of Yachats, and since it was 5pm I decided to have dinner.

I ate at Luna Sea Fish House, of course ordering the fish and chips.

After spending an hour at the restaurant I continued my walk through town. It was a cold day so unsurprisingly the beach was empty.

There was a few minutes walking next to Highway 101 on a little path.

And pretty soon the trail turned into the forest, where there were a bunch of interpretive displays and artwork. Of course I had to get a photo next to the bear statue.

This section of trail is called Amanda’s Trail, named for an elderly blind woman of the Coos tribe, who was forcibly marched (along with the rest of the tribe) by the US government to a distant reservation, where many of them died of starvation and disease. There was a statue to memorialize her.

After spending some time exploring that sad spot, I crossed the nearby creek on a swingbridge.

I climbed 1,000 ft up Cape perpetua through an increasingly wet and green forest.

There was a nice viewpoint at the top.

Since I was so high I was up in the cloud!

I hiked back down the other side on switchbacks, and within a mile I was at the Cape Perpetua Campground. I talked to the campground host who told me that all the OCT hikers camp on site 29A, the hiker/biker site. That site was an extra half mile walk from the entrance, bummer. 10 minutes later I was at my campsite, and had my tent set up under a big spruce tree.

Since I had dinner in town just 2 hours before, I didn’t make my usual pasta dinner at camp. So with almost no camp chores to do, I was in bed at 9pm. Long day!