A coastal forest-to-beach adventure near Cape Blanco, this loop leads to Blacklock Point’s dramatic cliffs, a remote sandy shoreline, and hidden gems tucked beneath towering sandstone walls.

distance: 9 miles
elevation gain: 300 ft.
difficulty: easy to moderate (due to length)
trailhead: Cape Blanco State Airport
drive time from Cape Blanco campground: 15 minutes
parking pass: none

While camping at the Cape Blanco State Park campground, we drove about 15 minutes north to start this hike at the Cape Blanco State Airport trailhead.

Recent rain had left some sections of trail submerged, with large pools of standing water and a lot of muddy sections to hike through. Fortunately, there were usually side paths to navigate around the flooded areas.

Early on, we took a brief wrong turn into an area thick with invasive gorse — a very thorny reminder to double-check where the main trail is. Once back on track, we followed an old road corridor through dense coastal forest.

In places, the forest felt almost primeval, with towering Sitka spruce, shore pines, and long stretches of thick understory forming green tunnels of salal and evergreen huckleberry.

After hiking two-plus miles through the forest, we reached an open meadow above the ocean at Blacklock Point — a true highlight of the hike. From the cliffs, jagged rock formations jutted out into the water below. We stopped there for lunch, enjoying the sunlit headland and the surf stretching out into the distance.

From Blacklock Point, we continued inland to reach the beach before the tide started coming back in. The cliffs here — known as the Blacklock Cliffs — tower above the beach. There is also an ocean-carved arch that we wanted to see, and if we made it to the far end of the beach where a headland meets Blacklock Point, we could also see a waterfall cascading down a ravine. But first we had to find our way there.

This area has lots of side trails, and it’s easy to get off track, so we checked our map several times to make sure we were heading in the right direction.

We followed the coastal trail through shifting forest types — Shore Pine forest, then back to Sitka spruce — before taking a short side trail to a viewpoint above the beach. Footprints on the sand below promised we were getting close.

The trail eventually switchbacked down to a creek with a damaged bridge. I considered wading across since the creek was fairly shallow, but when I planted my trekking pole on the bank, it sank deep into the mud. I returned to the bridge, where several planks were missing and the wood was slippery, and scooted across instead of attempting to walk it — though one of my friends had no trouble crossing on foot.

We hiked back up from the low area, and soon the forest gave way to sand. When we reached the beach, the tide was just starting to come back in, and we had to cross the creek again — this time it was easy enough to simply hop across.

Unlike other Oregon beaches, this one features rolling terrain that rises and falls toward the water, and all of the sand is loose, which makes walking surprisingly tiring. The waves were energetic, crashing along the shore below us — and while they stayed a safe distance from where we walked, I couldn’t help feeling a bit on edge. I’ve seen sneaker waves appear unexpectedly, and this is definitely not the place to be if that happened.

After hiking along the beach for about a quarter of a mile, we found the distinctive rock arch and stopped to take a few photos before continuing down the shoreline another mile-plus toward the waterfall.

By mid-afternoon, the return felt like a race against daylight — we were hoping not to have to hike through the forested muddy sections in the dark. A shortcut trail on our loop turned out to be a gift — it was far less muddy so we were able to keep a good pace hiking back to the trailhead.

I’m already planning another trip to this area to do this hike in the spring, when wildflowers add to the scenic beauty of this special area.