Indian Beach Trail in Ecola State Park

It's been a while since my last post, I'm going to try to do this a little more regularly, just for fun!

So, I've decided to try out a bunch of trails on the Northern Oregon Coast and talk about them. This will be like a travel diary.

The Oregon coast has fantastic, sweeping ocean views from atop staggering cliffsides. Ecola state park has some of my favorite viewpoint spots, I haven't completed all the trails in Ecola State Park yet, but the Indian Beach trail is one of my favorites so far.

Indian Beach trail has quite a few points along the route to admire the ocean for a moment before trudging up the rest of the path.

Cannon Beach, Seaside, and Gearhart are probably Oregon's most popular beaches. It's a quick trip from Portland, so it can be pretty crowded on the weekends and holidays.

Indian beach is nestled right between Seaside and Cannon Beach, and it's usually a bit less crowded than the other beaches.

A Brief History

This area was part of the Lewis and Clark expedition, and there are several historic sites in the area.

At these sites, you can find out interesting details about the area during their journey.

For example, Lewis and Clark visited Cannon beach in 1805 to trade with the local native Americans for 300 pounds of fat and oil from a whale that had washed ashore.

In December 1805, Lewis and Clark sent five men to Seaside to establish a salt camp. They used the salt from this camp at Fort Clatsop to preserve food and for their trip back to St.Louis.

The salt camp was named Seaside Salt Works, and you can check it out at Fort Clatsop National Memorial.

Indian Beach Trail

What I like about the Indian Beach trail is that there aren't usually many people on the trail, they're usually down surfing or walking on the beach. The parking lot has a lower section closest to the beach, and that's where all the van-living, surfer types park. Sometimes there are little canopies out of the vans or chairs set up towards the view.

It's an approximately 3.8-mile out-and-back, moderately challenging route, taking about 2 hours. It's usually open but sometimes closed due to road work. The elevation gain on this trail is only about 900 ft, but some days it feels like more than that! Like I said before, there are several more miles to explore in the area, but I like this one.

Getting to Ecola state park is pretty straightforward, and there are signs for it right off highway 101. Follow signs for Ecola State park and then Indian beach. Once you find the parking lot and pay the $5 fee at the kiosk, you can start going up towards the right of the beach entrance, behind the bathrooms. It's a loop, but I usually stick to the coastal side (left at the fork) going up and down since that's where the views are.

Kaja, my German shepherd, loves running along the beach, and I appreciate her getting some energy out before we start walking the trail so that she doesn't greet people by sprinting up to them.

Kaja does her usual poo before we start, it's always right before we start and in front of EVERYONE in the parking lot, then we begin by sniffing around the ridge overlooking the beach. Here she is sitting on a bench at the lookout :)

The trail continues up behind the bench. I think there are like, 6 points along the way where you can really see the ocean and other cliffsides. I have to hold Kaja when we get to some of them cause she scares me with how she runs up to edges and leans over.

The scenery varies between ocean views and shaded forests. Near the top, you pass by a hiker's campsite, I've never looked up how to rent it, but I've heard that people just hike up the trail and set up their stuff inside one of the cabins up there. I want to try that at sometime.

Just beyond the hiker's campsite is the top of the trail. That's where I sit with Kaja and crack open a cider or something that I brought up with me to sit for a while and enjoy it!

Once we get back to the bottom of the beach, it's nice to walk the short path to the beach and check out the tide pools (during low tide. There you can find all sorts of marine life, such as starfish, gobies, sea anemones, and crabs.

Here's some more pics from the hike! I'll probably talk about Cape Falcon next! Thanks for reading :)