Road Trip: Cannon Beach, Part 2, Ecola State Park
This is the second part of our trip to Cannon Beach in April. You can read part 1 here. View Kyle's video of our trip here.
There's no way we can go on a vacation and not explore the local hiking scene - it's just not possible. Earlier this week I shared the first part of our trip to Cannon Beach, which involved a sweet lodge and lots of good food. Today I'm sharing my favorite part, our hike in Ecola State Park, just a few minutes away from Cannon Beach.
The drive took us on a small, winding road through dense rainforest. Many of the tree trunks had a larger diameter than our bedroom and towered above with curtains of moss draping from nearly every limb. The park spans 9 miles of coastline, and is best known for being part of the Lewis and Clark expedition.
We took the Indian Beach trailhead and did a 4-ish mile hike to see the Terrible Tilly Lighthouse. The trail was still very muddy, with areas almost as deep as my hiking boots at times. But the scenery was amazing, and everything was green. The trail climbed for a while, weaving through the coastal forest and along a ridge overlooking the ocean.
We came across a hiker’s camp, complete with little cabins and a fire pit. Just past the camp is the viewpoint for "Terrible Tilly," the Tillamook Rock Lighthouse. This seemingly small lighthouse was built on a rock, nearly 1-and-a-half miles offshore. It was built in the 1870s, and one of the engineers lost his life on the rocks. It is one of the most weather-exposed lighthouses in the world; one storm even landed a 130+ pound rock in the kitchen. It was closed in 1957 due to its dangerous conditions and several lives lost. In the 80s, it was bought and renovated to be a columbarium: a storage house for urns full of cremated human remains. That business was shut down in the 90s, and today Terrible Tilly is a wildlife refuge - but many say it's haunted due to its deadly history.
