The very end of Cape Lookout

Discussions and Trip Reports for off-trail adventures and rediscovering lost trails
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adamschneider
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The very end of Cape Lookout

Post by adamschneider » January 15th, 2018, 5:54 pm

There's an obvious scramble trail at the very end of the Cape Trail at Cape Lookout State Park:
1 the view from above.jpg
I've been down it before, but not ALL the way down. The last 100 feet looked pretty sketchy, and I really didn't want to, you know, whack my head on a rock and get washed out to sea. But someone once told me there was some sort of cave if you keep going, and I really wanted to check that out. This past weekend's weather was as nice as it gets in January — 0% chance of rain and temperatures in the low 60s — so I headed out there yesterday.

My secret weapon: I recently convinced a rock-climbing friend to give me one of her old climbing ropes. I don't have any actual climbing gear, but I figured a rope would be useful for the occasional off-trail scramble down a steep slope to a waterfall or whatever.

Given the weather, it's unsurprising that there were a zillion people at Cape Lookout. The parking lot was full, and cars lined the trailhead's access road all the way out to the main road. I hiked out to the viewpoint at the end of the 2.5-mile trail, about 400 feet about the ocean, hopped over the cable guardrail, and started down the scramble trail. Almost immediately, there's a fun section of rock that requires you to use your hands:
2 scramble.jpg
And then it's just a really steep zigzaggy trail down to the patch of Sitka spruces about halfway between the viewpoint and the ocean. The route gets even steeper in the spruces, but there are roots and branches to hold onto. After that, there's about 100 more feet of rocks and dirt, and then there's kind of an edge, below which it gets really steep. There's a flat grassy area just below this point, and it looks like if you could reach that, you'd be home free and able to keep doing down (and west) to reach the bottom.
3 grassy bowl.jpg
It was time to get the rope out, but the spruce trees were too far uphill for the 35-meter rope to be much use... so I slung it around a couple of (hopefully) sturdy manzanita shrubs.
4 rope.jpg
I never put more than a quarter of my weight on the rope, but it was nice to have. From the grassy bowl, it was obvious that any exploration along the base of the cliffs was not going to be to the east. Cape Lookout has amazingly steep sides!
5 south-facing cliffs.jpg
So I descended to the west. Beyond the grassy bowl, it was pretty easy going down garden-variety basalt shelves. Up above the splash zone, the rocks were dry and rugged and easy to walk on.
6 basalt.jpg
Here's a view back up toward the trail-end viewpoint:
7 the view from below.jpg
As I got farther down, I started to see evidence of that "cave" someone told me about. I didn't even know what I was looking for, but it turns out it's a really big sea cave!

To get a better view, I had to go out farther and lower, into the splash zone. The rocks were wet and polished smooth down there, and there weren't enough barnacles to provide much traction; I wished I'd brought water shoes. But eventually I was able to get out far enough to get a decent view of the cave:
8 sea cave.jpg
The return trip was uneventful; I used a slightly different route and didn't even touch the rope, because scrambling up is almost always easier than down.

Google Earth does a pretty reasonable job of illustrating my little adventure:
9 Google Earth.jpg

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Bosterson
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Re: The very end of Cape Lookout

Post by Bosterson » January 15th, 2018, 6:41 pm

Interesting exploration and a cool cave. Were you there at high or low tide (or somewhere in between)?
My secret weapon: I recently convinced a rock-climbing friend to give me one of her old climbing ropes. I don't have any actual climbing gear, but I figured a rope would be useful for the occasional off-trail scramble down a steep slope to a waterfall or whatever.
I would recommend tying a fixed knot rather than a sliding hitch like that, because if you're weighting the rope but not actually attached to it, if the knot slides you could lose your balance, lose your grip, and then potentially lose some other things too. :shock:
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adamschneider
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Re: The very end of Cape Lookout

Post by adamschneider » January 15th, 2018, 8:39 pm

Bosterson wrote:Interesting exploration and a cool cave. Were you there at high or low tide (or somewhere in between)?
Just after high tide, although I didn't know that until I checked later.
Bosterson wrote:I would recommend tying a fixed knot rather than a sliding hitch like that, because if you're weighting the rope but not actually attached to it, if the knot slides you could lose your balance, lose your grip, and then potentially lose some other things too. :shock:
Well, in addition to having no climbing gear, I have no experience with tying knots. :) And I knew this was a way I could secure it with a couple of simple overhand knots. Normally I'd use a tree as an anchor instead of two shrubs, and in that case it'd be a lot less likely to move around.

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Chip Down
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Re: The very end of Cape Lookout

Post by Chip Down » January 16th, 2018, 5:35 am

What fun!
Bosterson would cringe if he could see some of my crazy rope hijinks. :lol:

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Guy
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Re: The very end of Cape Lookout

Post by Guy » January 16th, 2018, 5:49 am

Nice report Adam, thanks.
hiking log & photos.
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bobcat
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Re: The very end of Cape Lookout

Post by bobcat » January 18th, 2018, 3:35 pm

Excellent adventure and nice pillow lavas and sea cave!

I went most of the way down once, but the surface was very wet and I didn't dare that steep section. The "trail" is sometimes used by fishermen. I think the rock platform is usually dry at high tide in a calm sea, so they can spend all day down there oblivious to the hordes above.

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