Fogarty Creek-Fishing Rock Loop Hike
From Oregon Hikers Field Guide
- Start point: Fogarty Creek North Trailhead
- End point: Fishing Rock
- Hike type: Loop with spur
- Distance: 2.8 miles
- Elevation gain: 260 feet
- High point: 230 feet
- Difficulty: Easy
- Seasons: All year
- Family Friendly: Yes
- Backpackable: No
- Crowded: No
Contents |
Hike Description
Fogarty Creek State Recreation Area is a picturesque day-use site set on a small cove and beach and bisected by a creek crossed by three footbridges. Short trails lead out under Highway 101 to the beach. You can extend your walk in two other directions. The first is a steep gravel maintenance road that leads up a forested ridge to a water tank; the second is via the Oregon Coast Trail route to Fishing Rock, a lava promontory where you have a good chance of spotting seals, sea lions, and various seabirds.
John Fogarty was a Lincoln County commissioner and judge who moved to Yaquina Bay in 1884.
Walk from the restrooms back near the creek, passing one footbridge. At the far corner of the parking lot, see another bridge over Fogarty Creek. Cross the bridge, and take the paved trail that winds through a picnic area and past a gazebo to the road coming into South Fogarty Creek. To your left, you’ll see a gravel maintenance track rising into the forest between two fenced enclosures.
Head up this road, and pass a green gate to enter a secondary forest of Sitka spruce and western red-cedar. Large stumps attest to former logging operations here; you might find some rusting logging cable lying just off the road. Deer fern verges the track as you walk steeply up to a water tank on the state park boundary. Behind the water tank, fringed by a wood of alder, hemlock, and cedar, you can see through a cyclone fence to clear-cut hills. Return to the South Fogarty picnic area, and walk up along the creek under scattered Sitka spruce to pass under Highway 101.
At the beach, which is composed of dark, coarse sand, go left towards the headland, and get views of Rabbit Rock, which is connected to the beach at low tide by a tombolo, or sand bridge. (The rock supposedly resembles a reclining rabbit, with the ear on the north side.) Return north up the beach, getting views of offshore rocks. Cross the creek – at some times of the tide or season, this could mean a ford – and reach the colorful mudstone cliffs at its north end below the Surfrider Resort. You can hike north a short distance at low tide, but then you’ll need to return to Fogarty Creek.
At the north end of the beach, close to the highway, a signed section of the Oregon Coast Trail leads up to Highway 101 (some steps from the resort connect to this path). Walk up 101 for 180 yards, and go left on Fogarty Avenue. Walk north on Fogarty about 300 yards to its junction with Fishing Rock Street and the Fishing Rock Trailhead. A path leads into a dense thicket of spruce, shore pine, and waxmyrtle. There are a few junctions in here: keep left to head around the south side of the promontory, which offers views a series of inaccessible, cliff-backed beaches that are inundated at high tide. The next point south is north of Boiler Bay. Continue out to a grassy expanse where you can walk out to get a view over the lava island of Fishing Rock, separated from the peninsula by a churning chasm. Look for basking seals, sunning cormorants, and prospecting oystercatchers. Surf scoters, dark seagoing ducks with bright, multi-colored faces, ride the waves. The rounded boulders that compose the point are pillow basalts, formed when a lava flow, in this case the Grand Ronde member of the Columbia River Basalts, hits water.
On the return, keep left to join the Oregon Coast Trail where it is about to drop down to Lincoln Beach (see the Lincoln Beach Hike). Make a right, and follow this trail back to the Fishing Rock Trailhead. Walk down Fishing Rock Street for one block, and make a right onto Chinook Avenue. Hike out to Highway 101, and cross it to reach the North Fogarty entrance to the Fogarty Creek State Recreation Area. Walk down this entrance road for about 350 yards to reach the parking area.
Maps
- Maps: Hike Finder
- Green Trails Maps: Oregon Coast North #356SX
Fees, Regulations, etc.
- No fees
- Open 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.
- Dogs on leash
- Restrooms, picnic tables
Trip Reports
- Search Trip Reports for Fogarty Creek-Fishing Rock Loop Hike
Related Discussions / Q&A
- Search Trail Q&A for Fogarty Creek-Fishing Rock Loop Hike
Guidebooks that cover this hike
- Hiking the Oregon Coast Trail by Bonnie Henderson
- Exploring the Oregon Coast Trail by Connie Soper
- Oregon Beaches: A Traveler's Companion by John Shewey
- Oregon Coast Trail: Hiking Inn to Inn by Jack D. Remington
- The Oregon Coast Trail Guide by Jon Kenneke (eBook)
- Oregon’s Best Coastal Beaches by Dick Trout
- Oregon State Parks: A Complete Recreation Guide by Jan Bannan
- The Dog Lover’s Companion to Oregon by Val Mallinson
- Canine Oregon by Lizann Dunegan
More Links
- Fogarty Creek State Recreation Area (Oregon State Parks)
- Fogarty Creek State Recreation Area (100 Steps on the Oregon Coast)
- Fogarty Creek State Recreation Site (Outdoor Project)
- Fogarty Beach: A Stunning Oregon Coast Spot of Subtleties (Beach Connection)
- The Hidden Freshness of Fogarty Beach (Travel Oregon)
- “New Oregon Coast campgrounds proposed for Fogarty Creek, Brian Booth and South Beach” (Statesman Journal)
- Oregon Coast Virtual Tour: Fishing Rock State Park a Splashing Good Time (Beach Connection)
- Poking Around Pillow Basalt of the Oregon Coast (Beach Connection)
Contributors
- bobcat (creator)