Revision as of 22:44, 8 January 2018

Spruce buttress, Cascade Head Trail (bobcat)

Methuselah's beard (Dolichousnea longissima), Cascade Head Trail (bobcat)

Boardwalk, Calkins Springs, Cascade Head Trail (bobcat)

Leathery polypody (Polypodium scouleri), Cascade Head Trail (bobcat)

Hemlock woods, abandoned Cascade Head Trail (bobcat)

• Start point: Cascade Head South Trailhead
• End point: Cascade Head North Trailhead
• Trail log:
• Hike Type: In and out
• Distance: 7.4 miles
• Elevation gain: 1295 feet
• High Point: 1275 feet
• Difficulty: Moderate
• Seasons: All year
• Family Friendly: No
• Backpackable: No
• Crowded: No

Hike Description

The Oregon Coast Trail cobbles together beach hikes, trails over headlands, and highway shoulder walks to afford continuous passage from Clatsop Spit to the California border. Some sections, especially the road walks, are far less prepossessing than others. The Cascade Head section of the trail (Trail #1310) once offered six forested miles up and over the headland. This has now been cut to the southern 3.7 miles from FR 1861 to Three Rocks Road. A few years ago, several small landslides and a serious windstorm that brought down a number of large trees on one slope forced the Forest Service to abandon the northern 2 ½ miles of the trail, with no plans to resurrect it. The trail is still there and can be followed by experienced adventurers, though, so this description will detail that section as well.

Much of Cascade Head is part of the Siuslaw National Forest (The other, more popular, Cascade Head Trail, runs up the grassy ocean side of the headland on Nature Conservancy land – see the Cascade Head Hike). The headland was scorched by the great Nestucca Fire of the 1840s, but pockets of old growth forest from before that time remain. The Cascade Head Experimental Forest was established in 1934 to study the forest environment here. Later, the Neskowin Crest Research Natural Area (1941) and the Cascade Head Scenic Research Area (1974) were designated. Together these protected sections have become a United Nations Biosphere Reserve, one of only three such reserves in the Pacific Northwest, which protects breeding areas of four endangered species (spotted owl, marbled murrelet, coho salmon, Oregon silverspot butterfly). Researchers here have found some of the highest conifer growth rates for any temperate forest on the planet and a vast diversity of mosses and lichens.

Note that all areas of the national forest’s research areas west of Highway 101 are closed between January 1st and July 15th to ensure the best success for nesting birds. However, you are still permitted to hike Trail #1310 as far as FR 1861 during that time as long as you don’t go off trail. This means you also need to avoid the abandoned section north of the road from 1/1 to 7/15.

From the parking area, hike up the slope to immediately enter an old-growth forest of Sitka spruce, Douglas-fir, western hemlock and red alder. Cross a small creek and switchback among salmonberry, elderberry, sword fern, and deer fern. Make a winding traverse in an understory of salmonberry thickets. The trail dips above a salmonberry bottom and passes a large Douglas-fir. Cross a couple of small creeks and pass over a footbridge at a third creek. Hike up through the salmonberry and alder, and bear right where the trial meets an old road bed. Continue to tunnel through the salmonberry/ elderberry jungle before switchbacking off the road bed and gradually rising to cross another old logging road.

Reach a third road bed, where the trail drops a little in now what is predominantly secondary Douglas-fir forest. Pass a grove of hemlocks and then enter spruce woods again. The trail is very level for stretches before it leaves the road bed. The narrower tread undulates through a carpet of moss and woods violets before dropping to cross an alder/salmonberry/elderberry saddle. Ascend the slope past an old trail post and soon enter old-growth Sitka spruce forest. Cross a small creek and pass an impressive Douglas-fir on the right. A stepped boardwalk takes you across a salmonberry/skunk-cabbage swamp in an area of springs. There’s a massive spruce next to the trail at the far end of this boardwalk. Next, pass by a large hemlock and some more big spruce trees before dropping to cross the footbridge over Calkins Creek.

Continuing the traverse, pass above a mossy spruce-shaded seep, leaving the old growth and making a generally level traverse to reach the Cascade Head North Trailhead at FR 1861. From January 1st through July 15th, this road is closed west of the trail to all foot traffic (It is also gated at Highway 101). Oregon Coast Trail hikers need to use the road to hike east out to the highway. Day hikers can turn around here as this is the end of the maintained section of the trail.

Statistics for the round trip, including the abandoned section of the trail (July 16th to December 31st only):

• Distance: 12.2 miles
• Elevation gain: 2530 feet
• High point: 1340 feet
• Difficulty: Difficult

The abandoned section of the trail can only be attempted between July 16th and December 31st due to the seasonal closure. It begins near the lower end of the pullout you’ll see across the road to your left. The now mossy and overgrown tread actually keeps parallel to the road in an easterly direction as it plunges through a thicket of salmonberry. There has been some itinerant maintenance work done here, and there could be flagging to guide you. You’ll pass an old signboard, rise up a slope, and then exit the thicket to make a traverse along a steep hillside in a secondary forest of spruce and hemlock. Sword fern dominates the slope, and deer fern crowds the trail, but the mossy path is quite distinct in this area. The trail bends around the nose of a ridge and makes a long gently descending traverse down. Scramble over a small landslide, and hike into a salmonberry thicket. Cross a little footbridge, and swish through the deer ferns into a pocket of old growth Sitka spruce and hemlock. Soon, the trail reenters secondary forest with some large, springboard-notched stumps. Cross a soft slope of seeps before stepping over a small creek. Enter a dense younger woodland where you'll traverse a couple more small slides.

Now you’ll begin the more difficult and final section of this trail in an area where a windstorm toppled a number of large trees a few years ago. First, there’s a massive snag down along the trail. You’ll have to climb over this, but you’re soon going to come to a much larger clump of windfall. This is best negotiated by going off the trail to your right and then making your way back to the trail. The path now makes its only switchback and, continuing the descent, you’ll arrive at a more difficult windfall area. Drop below the trail here, and traverse the slope below where salmonberry has colonized the tread. Rejoin the trail, but almost immediately there is more blowdown to clamber over.

Eventually come to the bottom of the slope at an abandoned road bed, and bear right to follow this track. Fall Creek flows to your left as the trail burrows through an extensive salmonberry thicket that occasionally gets pruned (This part of the trail was clear in 2017). Pass a trail post and come out at the old trailhead parking area and a berm preventing access from Highway 101.

You may not want to return the way you came, so there are a couple of options. You can make this a hike and bike by stashing a bike here so you can cycle back the four miles to the Cascade Head South Trailhead. You could also walk back along the road although that would be a fairly unpleasant experience. Hitchhiking is not really an option: vehicles are going at 55-60 mph and there isn’t any space for them to pull over although one possibility could be to walk up the highway to the FR 1861 turnoff and station yourself below it so they can pull out there.

Maps

• Maps: Hike Finder
• Cascade Head Trails (USFS)
• Cascade Head Trails Closure Order (USFS)
• U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service: Siuslaw National Forest
• Pacific Northwest Recreation Map Series: Oregon Central Coast

Fees, Regulations, etc.

• Seasonal area closure from January 1st to July 15th: stay on the trail.
• No hiking of the abandoned section north of FR 1861 from January 1st to July 15th.

Trip Reports

• Search Trip Reports for Cascade Head Rainforest Hike

• Cascade Head Traverse 1-28-17 (This trip report details the abandoned section during the seasonal closure: This was an inadvertent error – only attempt that section between 7/16 and 12/31.)

Related Discussions / Q&A

• Search Trail Q&A for Cascade Head Rainforest Hike

Guidebooks that cover this hike

• 100 Hikes/Travel Guide: Oregon Coast & Coast Range by William L. Sullivan
• Day Hiking: Oregon Coast by Bonnie Henderson
• 120 Hikes on the Oregon Coast by Bonnie Henderson
• Siuslaw Forest Hikes: A Guide to Oregon’s Central Coast Range by Irene & Dick Lilja
• A Walking Guide to Oregon’s Ancient Forests by Wendell Wood
• Oregon Coast Trail: Hiking Inn to Inn by Jack D. Remington
• The Oregon Coast Trail Guide by Jon Kenneke (eBook)
• Oregon Hiking by Sean Patrick Hill
• Pacific Northwest Hiking by Scott Leonard & Sean Patrick Hill

More Links

• Cascade Head Trail #1310 (USFS)
• Cascade Head Scenic Research Area (USFS)
• Cascade Head Experimental Forest (USFS)
• Cascade Head (UNESCO)
• Cascade Head (Oregon Adventures)
• Hiking Trails Near Lincoln City, Oregon (USA Today)
• Mile 99.9 to Mile 118.4: Pacific City to (and over) Cascade Head (Hiking the Oregon Coast Trail)

Contributors

• bobcat (creator)