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Cape Lookout State Park
Rating Details »
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
10 reviews for Cape Lookout State Park
GREAT campground. Hot showers and bathroom. Lots of campsites, but are open according to season. Recommend calling ahead of time to ensure you get a spot (you can reserve them ahead of time (503) 842-4981).
Very close to town- food and gas stations nearby. Lots of trails in the area too.
I found nearly 30 perfect (not broken or cracked) sand dollars on this beach! Woo hoo!!
Great full service campsite. Walking distance to the beach, full bathroom that include hot showers. Grounds well kept. One of the best camp grounds I've been to in the United States. Not overly crowded but not as private as a primate camp ground. For the cost it is great way to escape the city and get to the beach for a cheap holiday.
I went here for my very first camping trip. Overall, I had a really good experience. I reserved the site online and was therefore able to avoid the line at the registration booth to get in and instead dropped my receipt in the box and headed straight to the site. We stayed on the A Loop... A56 to be exact. I liked the location and it's close proximity to the beach. There wasn't much privacy between sites though. Our spot was right across from the bathroom, so it wasn't as dark as I was hoping. The sites themselves were adequate, but didn't seem all that special. They were mostly dirt and each had a picnic table and a little grill. The bathrooms were pretty clean and they seemed to be on top of maintaining them. If this campground wasn't on the beach, it would really be nothing special, but since it is, I'd definitely go back. It's also nice to drive the scenic loop that is close by.
This review is for the Cape Lookout Trail. This has to be one of the most spectacular hikes on the Oregon coast!. To get to the trail head, drive south of the State Park campgrounds another 5 or 6 minutes. The parking lot for the trail head is well marked. There are 3 trails here, but by far my favorite is the Cape Trail which takes you on a 2 1/2 mile (5 miles round trip) easy/moderate trail in old growth and spectacular views of the ocean. The trail switches a few times from the north to south of the cape, giving you view of both sides. The trail gets pretty muddy after a rain, so wear shoes that are appropriate. At the end of the trail you are rewarded by an amazing view and the perfect spot to look for whales. We like to take a bottle of wine, cheese & bread in a little pack and enjoy it at the end of the trail. Truly a slice of heaven.
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Thanks Mongolia!
The yurt lodging at the Oregon State Parks is often gushed over, yet rarely available -- people go crazy booking these things a guhbillion months in advance. BUT! Lucky me, I caught a cancellation only a few days before the weekend.
The rustic yurts are only 27 bucks a night, heated, have a picnic table and fire pit outside, and reasonably comfy beds (think along the lines of the indestructible furniture that adorns college dorm rooms) which you bring your own bedding for. It's like camping, but you're not cold at night! :)
Might I also mention how AMAZINGLY clean the bathrooms were here!? I mean sheesh, not even the typical, forgivable cobweb on the ceiling mess. Very cool.
It's a very short walk to the beach from anywhere in the camp grounds and Cape Lookout has some mighty fine little tide pool areas at low tide along the cliffs -- star fish and hermit crabs galore.
Even if you can't manage to find a reservation for a yurt, a day trip or a camping trip to this park is well worth it. All easily accessible, nice beach, mostly forested camp spots.
Oh, and you really do want to drive very slow on the camp roads, little kids roam the territory endlessly on bikes, and do NOT think of camp roads like normal roads, so they're slow to react and prone to spring from the bushes. But if they're not wearing a helmet and they look 16 or younger, perhaps you should give them a citizen's citation for breaking Oregon law? Or just run them over and call it natural selection? Oops...beginning a pro-helmet rant...
Yay for Yurts!
This place can be a great place to car-camp if you're in the right loop. It has good beach access and relatively clean restrooms and showers (in comparison to other state parks I've camped at). You're a pretty good distance from Tillamook, so be prepared if you have to run out for missing toiletries or food. I recommend camping with friends and getting spots B31 and B33 - two sites connected by a natural brush arch. They're private, but close to the restrooms.
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This is place a beautiful!
The gathering areas are somewhat small but amazing trails and great forest rangers. As long as it's not too crowded its a good time.
Just be kind to your other hikers, walkers, riders, dogs, cats, birds, and fish. If you go to this or any other state park realize its not your back yard (dude keep your shirt on! nobody came to see that), or a forest where you are alone there will be other people around.
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Went hiking at Cape Lookout State Park. There is this super cool peninsula that juts straight out into the ocean. There are three trails right by this part, the North goes into forest and to a camp site. The South Trail goes down to a beach you can only get to by trail, (zero people there).
The middle trail takes you out on the peninsula through forest with amazing ocean views. Not a difficult hike at all, but you'll get your exercise. Super beautiful the whole way, and not too busy. The end of the trail puts you on a 400 ft. cliff with a bench.
I had a real good time, and would definitely go back again.
Leaving town for the coast, the hubby suggested that we take a scenic drive around the "Three Capes Scenic Loop", which I happily agreed to - he'd been curious about it since his prior trip to Tillamook, and I'm all about enjoying the scenery in Oregon. I love my state. It never fails to inspire and delight me. And true to form, the whole drive was beautiful - astonishingly beautiful, everywhere I looked. In fact, it was excruciatingly lovely with monotonous regularity, my heart clenching in my chest in an agony of emotion, with each new vista gained, at each bend in the road. From rugged and rain-shrouded cliff-edges with wind-sculpted trees and tiny, tidy lighthouses; to mirrorlike wet sandy beaches with gulls huddled against the wind; to grey-green waves piling mountainously on the horizon, cresting in halos of wind-blown spray, crashing thunderously into cataracts of foam along the caverns and tidepools of the shore's craggy feet; to misty islands with alluring natural arches, circled by seabirds and surrounded by a sea gone suddenly lambent silver in the spearing brilliance of an occasional sunbeam... I could have wept for what my camera could not capture. The Cape Lookout State Park, with its picturesque lighthouse and magnificent "Octopus Tree" (world's largest Sitka spruce), was the crowning gem on the tiara of the loop. And, swept up in the electrifying spectacle of it all, dressed for indoor adventures, I got thoroughly soaked and spent the afternoon fogging up the windows of the car, slowly drying out as we made our way up the coast.
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I took a spur of the moment camping trip this weekend to the coast. I've never camped in a state park before...The sites were large enough for our big group of folks, had a picnic table and fire pits on our site. There were huge shrubs growing as a divider for the sites and bathrooms with an abundant supply of toilet paper were very close by.
It was freakin' gorgeous out there. Unfortunately, the one day we decided to go camping, was the one day it has rained in months. Being a novice camper, I packed really light, not preparing for the wet and cold weather...but I did bring a lot of beer to ease my uncomfortable state.
The park is dog friendly. You are supposed to keep animals leashed at all times, but we did not. The park rangers passed by frequently and said not a thing to us. The ocean was steps away from our campsite and of course, due to the weather conditions, we not only had rainfall, but we had the mists from the ocean spraying us.
I don't recommend swimming in the Pacific when it is 50 degrees outside. The water was slightly chilly. My pants never dried and I had to wear a sundress for the remainder of the day...but the sun never peeped it's ugly head out of the clouds.
I also recommend going camping with a tent. We slept two humans and two ginormous dogs in the back of a covered truck. Uncomfortable, but warm.
I would go back to Cape Lookout in a heartbeat, but perhaps I would check the forecast before hand. Or at least bring rain gear and warm weather clothes. And a tent. Oh yeah, the site was paid for by my friends, but I think it was $16 a night.
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