Angora peak hike
From Oregon Hikers Field Guide
- Start point: Angora Peak Trailhead
- End point: Angora Peak
- Hike Type: Out and back
- Distance: 8.4 miles
- Elevation gain: 2255 feet
- High point: 2,682 feet
- Difficulty: Moderate
- Seasons: All year
- Family Friendly: No
- Backpackable: No
- Crowded: No
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Hike Description
Angora Peak is a large, lumpy breccia formation at the very western edge of the Coast Range. Like its sister peaks in the area, Saddle Mountain and Onion Peak, it is composed of Columbia River Basalts that formed pillow lavas when they encountered ocean water. Angora Peak has at least three satellite pinnacles that are worthy scrambles/technical climbs (see the Summit Post article in the More Links section below). Your approach is all on private logging land, however, and much of it is clearcut – cyclists and hikers are permitted if you obey the posted rules. The hike gets more interesting the higher you get as you leave the recent clearcuts and circle around the peak itself, with expansive views opening up at various points.
The first 250 yards of the hike up the road are part of Oswald West State Park, a serene old-growth coastal forest with some aged cedars and impressive Sitka spruce. Pass around the blue gate, but not before you’ve perused the Weyerhaeuser regulations that are posted there. Suddenly, the road emerges from the lush forest and enters a clearcut, with the western profile of Angora Peak looming ahead above the headwaters bowl of Short Sand Creek. Bear right at the first junction, and stay on the main track. Mammal sign on the roads will include elk droppings, coyote scat, and perhaps cougar scat. After you descend past a small quarry, the road bottoms out and rises again out of an alder wetland. Ignore two spur roads, and bear left on a short connector to reach a T-junction.
Here, turn right to pass a gate posted with public-use regulations by the current owner of property around Angora Peak, EFM (Ecotrust Forest Management). You need to keep following the main track of Arch Cape Mill Road as it rises. Views now open up to the ocean, with Castle Rock visible off Arch Cape; then comes a vista of the entire sweep of the Cannon Beach coastline to Tillamook Head and the Tillamook Rock Light. Drainage ditches angle across the road bed, which was blasted out of the steep dark breccia face of Angora Peak’s north ridge. West Onion Peak looms into view across the drainage of Arch Cape Creek. A stunning viewpoint offers expansive views to the coastline.
From here, the road turns south and into the trees as it continues up along the east face of the north ridge. Douglas-fir, hemlock, Sitka spruce, and red alder wall in the track, but a break in the trees offers views east to the Little Angora pinnacle, a technical climb, and north to West Onion Peak. Soon, you’ll see the road ahead blocked by alders. Look for a trail leading right about 50 yards before the end of the road, and keep following what is now a foot trail in the same direction. (You're still actually on a very overgrown section of Arch Cape Mill Road.)
Young alders, some rubbed by elk bulls, and salmonberry crowd this path. The trail reaches a grassy opening at a saddle, where you’ll need to keep left. Just out of the opening, the trail splits. For an interesting diversion, take the right fork as it rises through a dense thicket of salmonberry to emerge on another old road track. This rises in short order to a junction of sorts. To your left are the remains of the Hermit Hut, an abandoned elk hunter’s shack. Apparently, the hunter had a key to the gate(s) and was able to haul construction material up here to build his getaway. Apparently also, the hunter came to a violent end in an altercation with his son. Right across from the Hermit Hut, a trail leads straight out to a clifftop viewpoint to the coast, including the ridgeline of Neahkahnie Mountain and the, yes, rounded hump of Round Mountain in Oswald West State Park. For those who are leery of delving into even sketchier routes, this is a good turnaround point, but you can follow the ridge southwest to reconnect with Arch Cape Mill Road.
If you’re going on to the summit, return to the junction in the salmonberries, and bear right. You’ll reach the ridge crest and an open stretch of Arch Cape Mill Road to contour along the south face of Angora Peak, often getting wide-ranging views to the Nehalem River valley and the Pacific. The Angora Pinnacle is the rocky spire jutting out of the forest ahead, and you can now make out the summit area and the rounded prominence of Revenge of Angora. Looking back, you’ll see imposing cliffs that are just south of the Hermit Hut. At a road junction, Arch Cape Mill Road veers right to pass the Angora Pinnacle. You should bear left to head along the rugged east face of Angora Peak.
The going deteriorates as vegetation crowds the route. There are glimpses north to Onion Peak and Saddle Mountain. You may even be able to make out Mount Saint Helens, Mount Adams, and Mount Rainier on a clear day! Two significant slides have ripped away the road bed: these can still be skirted by narrow and sketchy user paths. You’ll get more views of the Angora Pinnacle before the road turns sharply around the nose of a ridge and passes through dark, mossy woods where you have to weave through alders that crowd the route.
Look for a fairly obvious scramble trail that heads to the left off the road bed. This steep, rooty user path veers slightly left and then rises precipitously in dense dark woods. There could be orange ribbons to assist. A spur trail breaks left as you near the ridge crest. This will take you out to a wonderful, bouldery, clifftop viewpoint. Views look to Neahkahnie Mountain and Cape Falcon and then sweep south past Nehalem Bay all the way to Cape Lookout. Onion Peak is visible to the east. Walking to the right, you’ll get an excellent view of the profile of Revenge of Angora, a large gnarly protuberance off the summit itself.
To tag the actual summit, drop down the user trail from the viewpoint and bear left below the ridge crest. Keeping just below the crest, weave through the dark woods to bear left around one huge mossy boulder and then right around the next one. Curve to the left to reach the mossy rocks at the true summit, which is viewless. Poking through the trees offers you a backside view of Revenge of Angora, a gnarly scramble through dense brush.
Maps
- Maps: Hike Finder
- Oregon Department of Forestry: Tillamook State Forest Map & Guide
Regulations or Restrictions, etc.
- No overnight use (no camping, no fires)
- Private property: respect posted rules
- Closed when there is active logging activity along the route
Trip Reports
- Search Trip Reports for Angora peak hike
- Angora Peak 3-3-21
- Onion Peak w/loop around Angora Peak and OCT: 1/15/16
- Onion Peak and Angora Peak Loop Hike: 4-26-14
- Saddle, Neahkahnie, Angora: Snake Hike with TFF’s – 5/31/13
- Angora Peak and the Hermit Hut: 4/23/13
- Angora Peak: 3-31-12
Related Discussions / Q&A
- Search Trail Q&A for Angora peak hike
Guidebooks that cover this hike
- 100 Hikes/Travel Guide: Oregon Coast & Coast Range by William L. Sullivan (partial)
More Links
- Angora Peak (Just Peachy)
- Angora Peak and Cape Falcon (wanderingyuncks)
- Angora Peak – Grand Tour 11-11-18 (NW Adventures)
- Angora Peak (All Trails)
- Our favorite hiking spots near Cannon Beach (Vacasa)
- Angora Peak (Oregon) (Summit Post)
Contributors
- bobcat (creator)