Harts Cove

Because it's Valentines Day today, I thought I would tell you about a hike to Harts Cove. The previous hikes I wrote about were just a warm up for the hike on Nature Conservancy land at Cascade Head. We suggest the most rewarding of the hikes to Hearts Cove. This trail from the summit is a Forest Service trailhead and is closed from January to mid-July to protect wildlife.

Head out to highway 101 and south. You will drive through the town of Neskowin and head up the hill to the summit of Cascade Head. At the summit, pull off into the parking area on the right for Cascade Head Road 1861. After 3.3 miles, a guardrail on the left marks the easy, upper trailhead to the Nature Conservancy preserve on Cascade Head. Pass that by and drive an extra 0.8-mile to a parking lot at road's end.

Harts Cove is a 5.4-mile hike down 900 feet of elevation, one-way. They say it’s a moderate hike, it is going down hill. The return trip is a little more difficult. You will hike down a switch-backing trail through a hemlock forest and a footbridge over Cliff Creek. Then it’s Sitka spruce and hemlock giants to a bench that offers a glimpse ahead to Harts Cove's headland. Continue on the main trail, cross a bridge over Chitwood Creek to the headland's fabulously scenic meadow. Take the leftmost of several paths down the grassy bluff to find a cliff-edge viewpoint overlooking Harts Cove and Chitwood Creek's waterfall. To reach the shore, climb back up from this viewpoint 50 yards to a junction and head seaward. A scramble trail descends to the lava rock edge of the headland, where deep water gently rises and falls, exposing a bathtub ring of barnacles, starfish, and sea palms.



Cascade Head information:
Cascade Head is the tip of a 300-mile-long Columbia River basalt lava flow that erupted near Idaho about 15 million years ago and puddled up at the seashore here. The panoramic bluff-top wildflower meadows were threatened by commercial development in the 1960s, but fans of the wild headland rallied to purchase the fragile area and donate it to the non-profit Nature Conservancy for preservation. Ironically, the impact of up to 10,000 nature-loving visitors a year now threatens the meadows' ecology. As a result, two of the trailheads are closed for six months of each year, pets are banned, and hikers are urged to stay on existing trails. Flower picking, hunting, camping, fires, bicycles, and dogs are banned at Cascade Head. The easy, upper trailhead to the headland meadows is closed six months of the year to protect threatened Oregon silver spot butterfly caterpillars. Even if you hike here from the lower trailhead (open all year), please stay on the trail. Even spreading out a picnic may inadvertently trample the meadow's rare checker mallows, 5-petaled pink wildflowers, or the violets that serve as food for the rare caterpillars. In summer expect white yarrow, plumes of goldenrod, tall pink foxglove, and Indian paintbrush.

Head back to 101 north to Pacific City and The Craftsman B&B.  The hot tub will be ready for your weary body.  I'll peek over the edge to make sure you are doing OK in the tub, don't worry, I won't jump in, I don't like water.