9.8 miles of hiking • 250' elevation gain •
The last day of our short trip to the coast and we decided to go to Nehalem State Park. When we arrived there were only a few cars parked in the large lot. However, there was a horse rental area just before entering the trail going south to the jetty. The main trail is a gravel road that is well traveled by people and horses. All the side trails appeared to be loose dry sand, and they were chewed up pretty well by the horses, and we didn't bother going on any of them. We got to the southern end of the park, which has a large boulder wall that needs to be climbed down to get to the beach. We didn't go down to the beach but instead wrapped around toward the west side of the park, and Pacific Ocean. It was during this portion of the hike that we saw a very large Marmot resting on a weathered snag. It looked very content there and didn't move as we got closer. We ended up heading back to the parking lot and then went out and explored the beach for the rest of the hike. There were very few people on the beach, in this park, and it was a pleasant stroll with plenty of solitude. We were heading north towards Sunset Beach, at about 3pm, and the wind was quite strong at this point, so we ended the hike and went to Manzanita for dinner. We got home just late enough to miss the Portland rush hour traffic! A great couple of relaxing days on the coast!
