Throwback Thursday – Drift Creek Wilderness and Cape Perpetua

This week’s Throwback Thursday hike is another we completed fairly earl on in our hiking days. On September 15th 2010 we set off on our 18th hike into the Drift Creek Wilderness NW of Yachats, OR.

The wilderness is home to impressive stands of old growth trees but in all honesty we had not yet come to fully appreciate what that meant. Like too many hikers we were focused on big views, massive waterfalls, vast wildflower meadows, or glistening lakes.

Our hike began at the Horse Creek North Trailhead where we followed the trail for .6 miles along an old roadbed to the boundary of the Drift Creek Wilderness.

From the wilderness boundary the trail gradually descended for 3.2 miles to a campsite near Drift Creek.

Interestingly there was no easy path down to the creek which one could ford to the Harris Ranch Trail to the north. We have plans to hike this trail in the future.

We returned the way we’d come, climbing back up to the trailhead wondering what the point of that was. Looking back on the hike now we realize we weren’t really paying attention to the forest along the way. If we were to repeat this hike now I think we would come away with a whole different view.

Given that the hike was only 7.6 miles we had the time and energy to make a second stop somewhere. We were hoping for something with a little more “bang” to it so we pulled out our guidebook and began looking for another short hike nearby.

We landed on the Cape Perpetua Scenic Area. Located three miles south of Yachats the area offered several trails to choose from and we picked the Captain Cook Trail.

The Captain Cook Trail leads to a viewpoint of one of the Oregon’s Coasts more famous attraction – Thor’s Well. Unfortunately our visit occurred at time when the tide was out and the well quite.

There was also a view to the north of the Cape Perputua Shelter which we would visit a couple years later (post).

Thor’s Well may have been quiet due to the tide being out but that also meant that we could see quite a few of the tide pools.

After touring the tide pools we headed back toward the parking area but turned left before passing under Highway 101 to take the Cape Cove Trail. This path crossed over Cape Creek on a bridge before leading down to more tidepools along the Devil’s Churn, a 50 slot carved into lava rock by the Pacific.

Again with the tide out there wasn’t much action occurring in the Devil’s Churn but it was still an interesting feature. Our hike here was just under 2 miles making it a reasonable hike for almost anyone. In addition to our plan to revisit the Drift Creek Wilderness we have one more trail to take at the Cape Perpetua Scenic Area so we will also be returning there someday to hike the Giant Spruce Trail. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Drift Creek North and Cape Perpetua Scenic Area