South Depoe Bay Creek Loop Hike
From Oregon Hikers Field Guide
- Start point: Depoe Bay Trailhead
- End point: King's Banquet Table
- Hike Type: Loop
- Distance: 1.8 miles
- Elevation gain: 150 feet
- High Point: 125 feet
- Difficulty: Easy
- Seasons: All year
- Family Friendly: Yes
- Backpackable: No
- Crowded: No
Contents |
Hike Description
Depoe Bay’s harbor, a small inlet connected to the ocean by a lava-walled 50-foot-wide chasm, is billed as the “smallest harbor in the world.” Beginning in 1937, a series of improvements deepened and widened the little bay so that boats could float at low tide. A short walk takes you from the town’s ocean front to the harbor and then, a nice surprise, up a densely forested creek. To make a loop, you’ll return along a bluff above the shoreline. Depoe Bay also promoted itself as the “Whale Watching Capital of the Oregon Coast,” and you complete the loop at the state parks’ Whale Watching Center at the north end of the Depoe Bay Bridge. If you want to keep walking from this spot, see the Depoe Bay Hike.
Depoe Bay is named for “Depot” Charley, a Tututni (Lower Rogue River) Indian whose family was forcibly removed north to the vast Coast Indian Reservation, now the much-reduced Siletz Indian Reservation; Charley had been allotted the land that is now the site of the town.
If you’ve parked on the west side of Highway 101, cross the street and begin walking east on Bay Street, the street just to the north of the Depoe Bay Bridge. You’ll pass along the side of a hill and descend to take a steel staircase down to the community hall. After crossing North Depoe Bay Creek, turn right to walk along the harbor seawall. You’ll get a good view across to the entrance channel and the Depoe Bay Bridge. A sign notes that a scene from the 1975 movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was filmed here. Past a fish cleaning station, you’ll enter Depoe Bay City Park.
Follow a gravel track past a spillway with a fish ladder on South Depoe Bay Creek. Cross the creek over a wide wooden bridge and walk the lawn past a picnic shelter and play area. In the far corner of the park, you’ll see a sign for the South Depoe Creek Nature Trail. A gravel trail leads into a coastal wood of Sitka spruce, cedar, alder, and hemlock. The slowly flowing creek meanders over a sandy bottom to the left. Salmonberry and elderberry form dense thickets and skunk-cabbage erupts along the stream. At a junction, keep left: this will be your return spot for the larger loop.
In an alder bottomland, keep left at the next junction to cross the creek on a footbridge. Bear right at a high bench (or table?), passing large stumps. Recross the creek, and pass a secluded but rather sturdy picnic table. The path passes under an arch of mossy elderberry limbs, while violet, hedge-nettle, and false lily-of-the-valley bloom trailside in the spring. Close the loop, and then go left at the next junction.
You’ll be ascending a stepped trail in a dark secondary forest. The path dips into a gully and rises to Indian Trail Avenue. Go right, and then make a sharp left to descend Schoolhouse Street. You’ll pass the city hall, an old elementary school, and its whale statue before reaching Highway 101. Head right about a block, and then carefully cross the highway to Heiberg Street. Hike up Heiberg to Coast Avenue, and turn right. In two blocks, you’ll see a sign at a set of steps denoting the Depoe Bay Scenic View Area. A bench in a salal thicket offers views to Depoe Bay’s North Point and south along the lava rock shore to a small cove. At the bottom of Coast Avenue, you can find a path that leads past the Channel House to Highway 101. Cross the Depoe Bay Bridge to the Whale Watching Center. In general, gray whales migrate south in from Arctic waters in December and January and return north in April and May. However, a population of whales feeds off Oregon’s central coast most of the summer, so there’s a chance of seeing something here most months of the year!
Maps
Fees, Regulations, etc.
- Open to the dawn to 10:00 p.m.
- Play area, picnic shelters, interpretive signs
- Restrooms inside Whale Watching Center
- Dogs on leash
Trip Reports
- Search Trip Reports for South Depoe Bay Creek Loop Hike
Related Discussions / Q&A
- Search Trail Q&A for South Depoe Bay Creek Loop Hike
Guidebooks that cover this hike
- none
More Links
- South Beach and Depoe Bay (wanderingyuncks)
- “Take in Depoe Bay’s rural, urban sights” (Statesman Journal)
- Oregon Officials Worry ‘World’s Smallest Harbor’ Could Shrivel Unless Dredged (OPB)
- An Oregon Coast Secret is Out: Depoe Bay Has Tiny New Park (Beach Connection)
- Whale Watching Center (Oregon State Parks)
- Depoe Bay History (City of Depoe Bay)
Contributors
- bobcat (creator)