Cape Meares State Scenic Viewpoint
Lighthouse · Cape Meares, Oregon
A high bluff on the south side of Tillamook Bay carrying three separate curiosities within a few hundred yards of one another: the shortest lighthouse in Oregon at 38 ft, built in 1890 with a first-order Fresnel lens made in Paris; the Octopus Tree, a Sitka spruce with no central trunk that spreads six massive limbs out horizontally before turning them upward; and a viewpoint over one of the larger seabird colonies on the coast. The lens is the reason the tower could be so short - the cliff already gave it the height.
Lighthouse Road, Cape Meares, Oregon, 97134, United States
The viewpoint, the Octopus Tree and the bluff paths are open daily, dawn to dusk, year round, and are FREE - there is no day-use fee here, which is unusual on the Oregon coast. ⚠ THE LIGHTHOUSE TOWER ITSELF IS VOLUNTEER-STAFFED AND OPENS ONLY SEASONALLY AND IRREGULARLY; the site being open does not mean the tower is. The seabird colony is at its fullest from about May to July. The access road from Tillamook is narrow and winding, and the small car park fills on summer weekends.
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