Cape Lookout
Fridays are often hiking days for me. Back in summer I had asked a surfer friend of mine to recommend a good coastal hike. He said he had spent full days surfing at Cape Lookout and only seen a handful of people. I finally got a chance to check it out. The weather predicted 25 mph wind gusts and snow in the mountains, but the sun shone on and off, and the wind was mild. There are a couple of hikes starting from the parking lot. One heads out along the cape where you can look out. Apparently this is one of the best places on the coast to see migrating gray whales, because the have to make their way around the massive peninsula, but I didn’t see any. I have read the best time to catch them coincides with Christmas and Spring break which is coming up, so maybe I’ll go back and check out the scene.
The other route heads down to the beach. I took the beach route. On the way down there were hundreds of lobster mushrooms, but they were all too soggy and rotten. Checked out some tidepools at the bottom. Saw hermit crabs, a regular crab, starfish, barnacles, little fish, and sea anemones. Saw a mysteriously dead coyote. After that headed to Pacific City to check out a giant rock in the ocean. Here there were even better tide creatures! There was one rock with about a bazillion starfish, and another rock with about a bajillion anemones, and the barnacles were making noises. It was really cool! I would very much like to know more about these sea creatures.
Starfish in Tidepool
Dead Coyote
Pacific City, Oregon
