After a week off from going to the coast (we were in no mood with the death of Ann's mother Mary on the 26th of August), we got out of the house again, headed west, our destination randomly selected based on photos. I was loafing, scrolling through a Google image search for the coast and I saw some jaw-dropping photographs of Land's End Point. Drilling down, I found that they were taken from a prominence called God's Thumb at High Meadow on a section of beach very close to us on the very northern edge of Lincoln City.
The Knoll, Lincoln City, OR
Information on how to get there on the internet is sketch and now with the relocation of the trail head, misleading. The best that we could find was to drive towards Lincoln City and then head to the beach past the casino on Logan Rd. Arriving at the end of the road where we read that there is a trailhead, we found that all parking had been prohibited. There is probably a trailhead at the end of the road, but there were several possibilities and most of them were posted and the pavement clearly marked as a no-parking zone.
After returning home, I discovered that the trailhead had been relocated out to NE Devil's Lake Blvd, a bit further inland. We passed Devil's Lake Blvd on the way in; it was blockaded for construction, so it would have been a non-starter anyway. I see now that Google Maps has been updated with the new trailhead information. That should teach me not to rely on Maps on my iPhone, always a day late and a dollar short.
In driving out to the end of the road, we had passed the Roads End public parking lot, so we backtracked to it to formulate plan B. Using the trusty GPS on my phone and the All Trails app, I could see that many of the streets intersected the new trail at some point, so we walked across the street and up the dirt Sal La Sea Road into the hills.
It turns out that almost all streets leading up the hill will get you where you want to go, but we didn't know that when we started out. The real trail starts at the end of Port Drive, which we followed back to the truck on our return trip. We could have parked so much closer and saved a couple miles of walking.
I didn't mind the walking, but we are not in the best shape now, thank you COVID, and we really were not expecting a hike, just a nice walk. What we found was a very steep trail. Be forewarned. The walk up to The Knoll is short, but it is no joke steep as you can see from a topo map, rising 500 vertical feet in very short order. But there is nothing like being 500 feet above the ocean, just off the beach, for great views.
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We Parked at Roads End State Recreation Site
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Our Red Truck, First Vehicle in the Roads End Lot, a Mile Distant
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The walk up the dirt road was quiet enough and quickly we entered the trees of a very wooded subdivision. Just before the road takes a sharp left turn up the hill, we intersected a gated fire road. Behind the gate is the trail coming over the hill from the trailhead. From the junction, it is a roadwalk up the hill. We continued left up the hill to the intersection with Port Rd, which quickly terminated at another gate, behind which was trail up to The Knoll.
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| Purple Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) |
One of the more notable things about west-side flora is that you can hardly go without seeing digitalis blooming at all times of the spring, summer, and fall. Though we do see some in the valley on the east side, as soon as we cross over the Coast Range, we start seeing them in abundance on the wetter west side. Among the brilliant fuchsia digitalis, we saw one white one, but no yellow ones. The volunteers in our yard tend to be yellow.
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| Invasive Common Holly (Ilex aquifolium) |
Just as the trail became really steep, we took a breather break. I saw this little holly on the side of the road, looking for all the world like a common holly. Being new to the Pacific Northwest, I wasn't sure what kind of holly it was so I snapped a photo for later ID. It turns out that it is a common holly and it is a really invasive species out here that people are trying to eradicate.
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Rock off Land's End Point
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Ann was just about broken by the time we got to the top of the climb and the open space, but after a couple minutes rest, she pushed on. From the top, it is a gentle slope down through field towards the ocean.
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| Invasive Tansy Ragwort (Jacobaea vulgaris) |
The field with its expansive views of the ocean is carpeted this time of year in tansy ragwort, a really beautiful sight to see. Unfortunately and despite it being perhaps the most common wildflower in bloom this time of year, it is poisonous to livestock and there have been many efforts to try to eradicate it.
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Looking South Towards Lincoln City
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The Knoll is apparently quite the tourist destination. We met couples from Tennessee and from Idaho, the Tennessee duo being on their honeymoon and deciding to head north into Oregon because of the wildfires in California where they planned to go. It is pretty ironic that as I sit here typing, thousands of acres and many square miles of Oregon are on fire, the day is dark with smoke, and the air is acrid and foul smelling and tasting to the point where we have been holed up inside for three days.
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Road's End Point
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It had been our intention to head over to God's Thumb from The Knoll to have lunch overlooking Road's End Point. It would have been an easy ridge walk followed by an easy descent with a final short climb up the thumb. But, with Annie totally out of gas coming up to the grassy knoll, we decided to save that for a future visit.
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Devil's Lake
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Devil's Lake sits just inland of the coast, directly east and behind the Wecoma Beach section of north Lincoln City. It famed for being connected to the Pacific Ocean by one of the world's shortest rivers, the D River, at 130 meters long.
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Looking East at Coast Range
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Scrapping our plans to eat lunch at God's Thumb, we started back down the hill, this time taking Port Rd back instead of Sal La Sea. A few yards down the street, we were admiring the landscaping of a really attractive house overlooking the ocean and speculating about what such a house would cost, when Ann spied a deer on the front porch.
As we were watching the fawn watching us, the owners came around the side of the house and we chatted with them for a couple of minutes. Apparently the fawn is one of a pair born to a doe who learned to frequent their front porch. They named the fawns Pat and Vanna. Apparently, they just come up on the porch and hang out. The fawn was not at all bothered by the four of us standing just feet away.
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Pat or Vanna
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The walk down the hill was a lot easier than the one coming up and soon we found ourselves back at the truck well before noon.
Neskowin, OR and Proposal Rock
We decided to head up the beach about 15 minutes to Neskowin, walk around, and eat lunch. This is the third time we have been to Neskowin which appears to be a great little village of maybe a couple hundred residents. We took Carter
there in 2017 and we took a drive through about a month ago, down Hawk Street past the golf course to the end of the road and back.
We have long wanted to have lunch at the Cafe on Hawk Creek, but either the timing hasn't worked out or they have been closed. They were closed for renovation and expansion the first time; there was no parking on our last visit; this time, we hit on a normally dark day. No worries as I had brought along lunch to have up on God's Thumb.
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Proposal Rock Three-Quarters of a Mile Distant
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The tide was out and starting to come back in when we arrived, letting us walk right up to Proposal Rock which we had only been able to view from a distance across water before. It's a big pile of basalt, still looking very lava-like, crowned with the usual local fauna.
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Rockfish and Black Bean Salad
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Before we left the house in the morning, I made us a lunch salad of leftover roasted
dry-rubbed rockfish, black beans, poblanos, cilantro, red onion, and tomatoes. After trekking up the hill to The Knoll, it was about as delicious as any lunch could be.
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| The Asters (Symphyotrichum) are in Full Bloom |
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Invasive Monbretia (Crocosmia x crocosmiiflora) Almost Bloomed Out
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One thing that I noticed on our prior trip to Neskowin is that the roads are lined with Crocosmia. Given that they were appearing in places where I know no human planted them, I assumed that they had escaped. This is in fact the case and they are pretty invasive. I've never had any problems, but then, I cut off the seed pods before they can fully form.
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| False Bindweed (Calystegia silvatica) |
Mid-afternoon found us back over the mountains into the valley where the temperatures soared into the upper 80s, making us long for the delightful temperatures and breezes of the oceanside. We're going to have to go back with the express purpose of hiking to God's Thumb. Next time we will be prepared for a hike and will be in better shape.
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