Oregon Coast Trail leg 3. Ecola to Arch Cape

Head South from the parking lot at Ecola park, to the trail just beyond the restrooms.   You'll travel briefly up into the forest, then the trail follows alongside the road as you head down to the beach.   You'll cross over a bridge and pass by the trail junction to Crescent Beach - keep heading straight and follow the Ecola Park road down to the beach:   turn left on E 5th.   Right on Fir.   Right on 3rd.  Left on North Spruce.  Right on E 2nd - this road drops you down to the sand.

From here it's a straight shot down the beach to Arch Cape, passing several points and headlands.   Don't forget to check out Cannon Beach's Haystack Rock Tidal pools; volunteers are present on summer weekends to help educate people about these beautiful and sensitive underwater gardens.

Continue on past Tolovana Beach and Silver Point, to Humbug Point - possibly named such (according to William Sullivan) when the pioneers rounded this thinking it was the much tighter Hug Point - and discovered they still had that monster to traverse.

Just down Arcadia beach you find it - make sure it's still low-ish tide when you do.  High tide covers this old wagon route blasted into the rock around the point; before that, settlers would camp out for (sometimes) days waiting for the lowest of tides to clear the way around the rock.  If  you get caught on the road as the water comes in, there is a makeshift swing drilled into the rock for you to hang onto, to keep you from getting swept out to sea.

On the other side of the point is a small oasis, complete with cave, waterfall, colorful algae painting the rock, and another stretch of beach.

Continue down the beach past Adair Point, Point Merriweather, and Austin Point.   Take the last left possible before the point of Arch Cape juts out into the sea.

Campers should be able to pick their spot(s) on the beach above the high tide line with no problem.

TO TRAILHEAD: Shuttle Hike - Ecola State Park parking lot off of highway 101 on the North End. Leech Avenue on the South end, last road on the right as you head South or first on the left on the way North in relation to the tunnel just south of the little town / community of Arch Cape.