Constant Killer Views of Three Capes You Don't Know on N. Oregon Coast, Video

Published 07/13/020 at 6:24 PM PDT
By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff

(Pacific City, Oregon) – On the northern Oregon coast’s Three Capes Route, the views are legendary from those capes. Yet there’s much more to the route than just those promontories (Above: Andersons Viewpoint).

The Three Capes Tour starts at Pacific City, and it’s here where you’ll find the tall, ragged and golden cliffs of Cape Kiwanda. It all begins at the parking lot, where it’s about an eighth of a mile walk to the majestic cliffs of Kiwanda and its towering dune overheard. Here, folks love to slide or tumble down the steep incline on purpose. (Complete Guide: Cape Kiwanda State Natural Area)

The dune towers a few hundred feet, but the cliff is reachable after about only 40 feet of plodding up a sandy incline. Once on top, you’ll spot an enormous landscape of all sorts of oddities. On its wildly diverse surface come the numerous secrets and incredible views. Hidden coves beckon, often completely unreachable. From certain angles, some structures resemble human fists, giant faces or maybe the surface of another world.

Peek over the fences on the ledges to witness enormous, wind-carved cliffs getting battered by monstrous waves.

Just beyond Pacific City, you’ll find a tiny place you didn’t know about but likely whiz past all the time: tiny Tierra Del Mar. This unincorporated village merely arrives in sight as a gathering of homes in the trees next to the beach accesses. It’s in here you’ll find two stunning vacation rental homes: Idyllic Beach Houses. They’re rustically upscale and individualistic in style, including an enormous wrap-around deck, with both providing that constant whisper of the ocean in the background.

They’re two minutes drive from that gravel pullout a little over a mile north of Pacific City, where the ocean and distant Cape Lookout suddenly spring into view, and you may catch a hang glider or two launching from these cliffs.

Farther up, the entire miles-long hiking loop of Cape Lookout makes for non-stop ocean expanse action. One formerly completely hidden spot a quarter mile from the parking lot is now turned into an official viewpoint, with breathtaking glimpses of Sand Lake Recreation Area far below.

Heading north, now you’re on the way to Oceanside, but there’s a must-see detour that pops up. By far one of the most soaring viewpoints on the Oregon coast is still somewhat unknown, and having two names doesn’t help. It’s called both Andersons Viewpoint and Cape Lookout Viewpoint. The view is giddiness-inducing as you’re a few hundred feet above the sea, with nothing but ocean to the north and south.

Oceanside has its jaw-dropping yet secret viewpoint atop Maxwell Point, which is increasingly difficult to find these days as some access points have been cut off. Here, you’re hundreds of feet above everything and you’re actually looking down on Three Arch Rocks.(Oceanside, Cape Meares)

There’s more semi-secretive views atop the entrance to Short Beach – just north of Oceanside – with its basalt blob that looks intriguingly similar to Neskowin’s Proposal Rock.

The final massive viewpoint of the Three Capes unfortunately can’t be reached from the Three Capes Route road: you have to go back into Tillamook then drive another nine miles back along Tillamook Bay to get to Cape Meares. There, you’ll find soaring cliffs that plunge suddenly into a dramatic ocean. It can be a bit intimidating to watch winter storms from here as the big piles of waves look so enormous they seem as if they might make it up beyond the clifftop. That never happens of course, but it’s a fascinating illusion.

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