Cape Perpetua Loop Hike

We shortened the title of this post to simply the Cape Perpetua Loop Hike, but our route was Oregon Coast Trail - Gwynn Creek Trail - Cooks Ridge Trail - Cummins Creek Trail - Oregon Coast Trail.  Most of the various trails in the Cape Perpetua Scenic Area connect into other trails. This allows you to create your own route and distance depending on the amount of time you have and how far you want to hike.  Since one of our hiking goals this year was to hike at least three 10-mile or more hikes, we did some research about the trails and created the route listed above.

And so our hike begins.......

We started at the visitor center and hiked along the Oregon Coast Trail for about a mile.  Along the way we were treated to some incredible views of the Oregon Coast which was in full sunshine already at 9:00 am!  The trail was level and easy and provided a nice warm up for the miles ahead.  At times we passed through areas that were as dark as a tunnel due to the thick forrested area along the coast.  If you visit Cape Perpetua and don't have a lot of time, this two mile round trip hike on the OCT is highly recommended.

First view of the coast from the Oregon Coast trail

Another viewpoint of coast looking south from the Oregon Coast trail

At the junction with the Gwynn Creek Trail, we turned away from the coast and started inland.

So many choices!!!!

Having read reviews of the Cape Perpetua trails and talking to some hiking friends, this trail is considered one of the more beautiful trails to hike.  We were not disappointed.  Although the trail has a steady climb for the 2.6 miles, there are some flat portions and even a few slight descents.  There are also many rivulets that cross over or under the trail. The attraction of this trail is the Giant Sitka Spruce trees and thick forrested area complete with ferns everywhere.  It reminded us of our hikes at Redwoods National Park,

View along the Gwynn

Trees everywhere and a beautiful blue sky too!

 The trail follows Gwynn Creek most of the time before turning away and ascending to it's end at the junction with the Cooks Ridge trail.  For a shorter hike than ours, one could take a left here and head back to the visitor center for about a 6 - 7 mile hike.  We made a right turn and hiked just over a mile along the Cooks Ridge trail.

This segment took us out of the thickly forrested area and continued to climb.  Although it was probably our least favorite section of the hike, the open areas did provide us with various wildflowers like foxgloves - both the purple and white varieties.

Foxglove #1.........

....and Foxglove #2

We hiked just over a mile on the Cooks Ridge trail before we arrived at the junction with the Cummins Creek trail.

This trail would be the longest segment of our hike and it is where we met our first hiker on the trails. After about a mile hike along the ridge, we took a short spur trail to the Cummins Creek Valley viewpoint and made it our lunch stop.  The view was beautiful.  We could even see the blue of the ocean off to the right of the forrested mountains.

Our lunchtime view.  See the ocean off to the right?

 When we hiked the Gwynn Creek and Cooks Ridge segments, we climbed about 1,200 feet or so over the coarse of 3.7 miles -  about 325 feet a mile.  After our lunch break, the Cummins Creek trail splits into a loop and you must choose either a two mile segment or 1.4 miles segment which eventually rejoin into one trail.  We choose the 1.4 mile segment and found it a very tough trail to descend as it covered the 1,200 feet during that 1.4 miles -- making it a descent of about 850 feet per miles --- steep!

One of the beautiful views as we descended the steep portion of the Cummins Creek trail

After that 1.4 miles of knee and back jolting, the trail levels and widens out as it follows what appears to be an old road.  Eventually the trail ends at the Cummins Creek Trailhead which can be accessed from Highway 101.  We hiked a short distance on that access road before intersecting the Oregon Coast Trail and hiking back to the visitor center to complete our loop hike.

Back to the Oregon Coast trail segment...

One last view of the beautiful coast from the Oregon Coast trail 

As we completed our hike (took five hours), we checked our pedometer and found that our distance was exactly 10 miles!  Guess that is fitting since the hike itself was beautiful enough to be a 10.

Trekking Together
Glenn & Carol