Just Another Trail on the Oregon Coast

Sometimes it's worth stepping on a trail you just find along the road... You never know where it leads... - Letters from a Wanderer No 17

Hello and welcome to another issue of Letters from a Wanderer!

Hope this new letter finds you all well. This time, I’d like to take you along a trail through a forest… Just another trail, its name and way to find it are not important.

One afternoon on the Oregon Coast a few years ago, we were driving around with no particular destination. We stopped in a forested area in a deserted parking lot. By deserted I only mean there were no other cars stopped there. However, we hoped to find a trail head nearby, a place we could take a short walk in the woods.

Which we did.

Starting off on the trail

The trail started off in a forested area but soon followed a road for a short time. Though I realized that it was going to be relatively long and uphill, for a while it looked like we’d take a stroll through a small forest to the beach. At least that was our intention since we planned on heading back within an hour.

We thought we’d be taking a short stroll in a forest towards the beach

When we got to a denser, older forest and we slowed down to enjoy it…

We were walking in a denser forest..

I enjoyed the mossy trees along the path…

Mossy trees were common in the deep forest.

Some areas were open enough to let the late afternoon sunlight peek through the trees.

And the trail still kept going…

The trail passed through areas open enough to let the sunlight in

It seemed like we walked through the woods for hours. We stopped often, hoping to see wildlife, but other than robins and other birds, we didn’t encounter anything else.

The trail was going uphill, which was becoming increasingly noticeable. Since we weren’t sure where we’d end up (and I dislike walking uphill), I thought of turning around soon. 

Finally, the trees were parting and I noticed the end of the forest. The sun was still bright, though it was late afternoon.

Uphill, ahead, the trees parted signaling the end of the forest

We found ourselves in a meadow, on a high cape above the Pacific. We walked a bit farther…

We were in a meadow, on top of a cape

And then we saw the postcard view I didn’t anticipate…

the postcard view at the end of the trail

It made the long hike worth every minute.

I love the forest, so of course, I enjoyed the trail just as much. But this was one of those moments where I just stood there, transfixed, hardly believing that I was actually seeing this.

Moments like this make hiking on an unknown trail worth it (besides just being in the woods).

Thank you for reading!

All the best,

Emese

Other posts in the Oregon series:

Whale Watching on the Oregon Coast

Tidepooling Along the Oregon Coast

Cape Blanco and the Lighthouses Along the Oregon Coast

Cape Kiwanda, One Of My Family’s Favorite Spots Along the Oregon Coast

and about getting there from the desert:

Roadtripping from Phoenix to Cape Kiwanda

Walking Among Giant Redwoods (in Northern California)

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For more articles about Oregon, as well as other places I visited and wrote about (including the US Southwest, Maya archaeological sites in Mexico and Central America, and many other places, travel stories, guides, and much more) visit my main travel site, Wanderer Writes.