Oregon Coast Day Hike: Ferrelo Cape and House Rock

I love the Oregon coast, I’m not alone in this, and for good reason.  The beaches, rocky capes, towering sea stacks, create a dramatic and enchanting landscape.  For this hike I did a short section of the Oregon Coast trail from Loan Ranch Picnic area, to Cape Ferrelo, through the forest to House Rock and back.  It’s only about 3.5 miles, but you get a lot packed into those few miles. 

Starting at the Loan Ranch Picnic area, you’ll take the paved path northwards past the toilets on your right. Continue along the path as it turns into a packed dirt path and at the Y junction, go right to the beach.

This will put you on the beach heading towards the Cape Ferrelo viewpoint.

From the beach you’ll hike up an incline which leads to decent viewpoint of the beach and the picnic area. 

It’s impressive, but the real view is much higher up. 

There are two ways to go up to the Cape Ferrelo viewpoint, the easy one and the hard one.  I did the hard one going north on the trail and the easy one on the way back.  I’m planning to do this hike again and will probably take the easy trail next time.  I was able to do it, but it was tough.

Continuing along the trail takes you to the north side of the hill and a view of the beach there. Again, a stunning view stretches out north along the coast.  I could have filled my phone with photos but wanted to keep on to the next example of natural beauty.

In this case, it’s a tunnel formed by trees growing over the path. It looks like something you might see in a Lord of the Rings movie.  Your eyes quickly adjust to the darkness, and you’ll find yourself in an almost surreal dense forest before emerging out to the Cape Ferrelo parking lot.  From there, keep heading north and you’ll see the path goes down the hill and continues.

You’ll get a couple of brief views of the coast before going deeper into the forest.  It’s a lush and green canopy of trees that benefit from the marine climate bringing in plenty of fog and rain.

The views of the ocean, capes, and sea stacks are all spectacular, but for me the highlight of the trail was finding a magnificent tree that looked like something from a fantasy movie.  I half expected elves and fairies to appear from behind it.  At this point, there is a trail that goes down the hill toward the beach.  That’s not the trail you want if you plan to keep going on the Oregon Coast Trail.  Instead, take the trail going uphill.  It doubles back on itself and puts you on track to keep going north. 

There are several trails off the main trail that show up on the AllTrails map, but there are also several that don’t which lead down to beaches.  I was sorely tempted to follow them all but didn’t have the time. 

Most of my hiking this summer has been around the Ashland, Jacksonville and Medford triangle which means that I’m hiking in very dry and very hot conditions.  So, to be hiking in a cool and slightly damp forest was a huge relief and reminded me of hiking in the western Cascades of Washington.

You’re going to be following the contours of the terrain on this trail which means several inclines and declines.  With the exception of the first difficult option going to the Cape Ferrelo viewpoint, they aren’t that challenging with only about 100 feet of elevation change from incline to decline.

You’ll emerge from the forest at the House Rock viewpoint.  It’s a great place to stop and have lunch while taking in the views.  While I was there, a dozen or so folks arrived via car to do precisely what I did, sit down and relax looking at the ocean and the coast. 

This Oregon Coast Trail day hike gave me a taste of this trail, and that’s all this was really, I’m planning to come back and hike the full 12 miles next year.  I know this trail won’t disappoint.

For the video trail report of the Oregon Coast Trail covered here, go to Amputee Outdoors on YouTube and check out the Southern Oregon Hikes section.