Bayocean Spit Loop Hike
From Oregon Hikers Field Guide
- Start point: Bayocean Spit Trailhead
- End point: Kincheloe Point
- Hike Type: Loop
- Distance: 7.6 miles round trip
- Elevation gain: 50 feet
- High point: 25 feet
- Difficulty: Moderate
- Seasons: All
- Family Friendly: Yes
- Backpackable:Yes
- Crowded: No
Contents |
Hike Description
This sand spit was once the site of the City of Bay Ocean Park, conceived by a developer in 1906 and then lost gradually to the ocean as the north end became an island. The last home was destroyed in 1960 although the breakwater at the mouth of the bay allowed the island to become a peninsula once more. The hike description takes you first along the beach to the tip of the peninsula at Kincheloe Point. You return on an old road track on the bay side. If you want a shorter hike, go along the bay side first and pick up one of the trails heading through the dune forest to the beach for your return.
Begin your hike at the Bayocean Parking Area, and take the sandy trail leading through the dunes toward the ocean. Scots broom, evergreen huckleberry, and stunted spruce and shore pine dot the grassy expanse. Head up the beachfront dune for a view south to Cape Meares and Haystack Rock at Cape Kiwanda and also north to Barview Jetty. Once on the beach, walk north. Little clouds of sanderlings may be foraging at the water line, and surf scoters duck in the breakers. Knolls in the middle of the peninsula, once islands, support taller spruces and pines. Salal and evergreen huckleberry are the dominant shrubs. Coming to the end of the spit, climb up on the jetty and watch the swells rolling into the bay.
To return, head east through the accumulated driftwood towards a beacon powered by a solar panel, and pick up a gravel track from here. There's a view across to Barview County Park and the Barview stacks. Enter shore pine woods and then negotiate a washed out section of the track at an inlet. Skirt around the little cove and reconnect with the track down an alley of shore pine. The road passes an outhouse just south of Kincheloe Point and curves around the edge of Crab Harbor in a forest of spruce and pine. You'll soon pass a trail leading west scross the peninsula to the beach. Spruce, salal, evergreen huckleberry, and wax-myrtle dominate the thickets here, while alders line a mudflat exposed a low tide. Second and third trans-peninsula trails lead off to the right. The road swings inland for a detour around a swamp. Here much taller spruces flourish among salal, salmonberry and sword fern. Walk around a gate, and pass another connection to the beach. This open area supports stunted pines, spruce, willow, salal and Scots broom. Finally, reach the parking lot.
The spit is also a great venue for a family bike ride. The flat terrain makes it easy going on both the interior gravel road and the packed beach sand at the tidal interface. The only hard part is dragging your bike back over the dunes to the parking area.
Regulations or Restrictions, etc.
- $10 Tillamook County Day Use Access Parking Fee
- There may be fire restrictions for campers in the summer.
Trip Reports
- Search Trip Reports for Bayocean Spit
Related Discussions / Q&A
- Search Trail Q&A for Bayocean Spit
Guidebooks that cover this hike
- 25 Hikes on Oregon's Tillamook Coast by Adam Sawyer
- 100 Hikes/Travel Guide: Oregon Coast & Coast Range by William L. Sullivan
- Hiking Oregon's History by William L. Sullivan
- Exploring the Oregon Coast Trail by Connie Soper
- PDX Hiking 365 by Matt Reeder
- Day Hiking: Oregon Coast by Bonnie Henderson
- 120 Hikes on the Oregon Coast by Bonnie Henderson
- Best Short Hikes in Northwest Oregon by Rhonda & George Ostertag
- Oregon Hiking by Sean Patrick Hill
- Oregon Beaches: A Traveler's Companion by John Shewey
- Oregon's Best Coastal Beaches by Dick Trout
- Oregon Coast Hikes by Paul M. Williams
- Oregon Coast Camping & Hiking by Tom Stienstra & Sean Patrick Hill
- The Oregon Coast Trail Guide by Jon Kenneke (eBook)
- The Dog Lover's Companion to Oregon by Val Mallinson
- Bayocean, the Oregon Town That Fell Into the Sea by Bert & Margie Webber
More Links
- "Bayocean Spit once setting of deluxe resort, now unspoiled hiking, birding destination" (Tillamook Coast, Oregon)
- Bayocean Spit Loop Hike (Share Oregon)
- Bayocean Peninsula (Outdoor Project)
- Bayocean Peninsula (All Trails)
- Bayocean Peninsula Park and Tillamook Bay, Tillamook County, Oregon (BirdWatching Daily)
- Protecting Bayocean Spit Now and for the Future (Oregon Coast Alliance)
- "Bayocean: The lost resort town that Oregon forgot" (Oregon Field Guide)
- Bayocean (The Oregon Encyclopedia)
- Bayocean (PDXHistory.com)