Cape Perpetua – August 15, 2026 – Friends of the Umpqua Hiking Group

Hike coordinator: ~~Missy Kroeker~~ Lane Harris

Narration by Lane Harris

As you can tell from the above, Missy was unable to lead this hike, but I was more than happy to fill in for her, as I was planning on going anyway. Besides, I kinda wanted a do-over of this hike, a hike that we all got absolutely drenched on back in October 2024. On that hike, we simply started at the visitor’s center, walked up to Cape Perpetua, then back again. A very short, and very wet hike. Today, it would be a little bit different.

On this hike, we began on the north side of Cape Perpetua, where Amanda’s Trail starts. A short walk brought us to the memorial site, a rather solemn place that honors Amanda De-Cuys, an elderly blind woman from the Coos tribe who, in 1864, was forced by government soldiers to walk roughly 80 miles barefoot from her home area near Coos Bay up to the Alsea Subagency military camp in Yachats. She was made to walk over sharp basalt rocks along the coast, which cut her feet so severely that she left a bloody trail. Her experience represents the painful displacement of Indigenous people during Oregon’s pioneer era. A sad story, indeed.

After a short visit at Amanda’s statue, we proceeded across the long footbridge spanning Amanda Creek and then began the long trudge up the ridgeline. The trail isn’t necessarily steep here, but the steady pull uphill makes you wonder when you will ever reach the top. At about the 1.5-mile mark, the trail switchbacks across North Cape Creek, at which point the trail becomes a bit friendlier, although it still heads uphill.

Prior to reaching the summit, we came across some chicken of the woods. Although this term may accurately describe my hiking buddy Richard when he encounters a deer during a hike, it actually refers to a bright, colorful fungus that is commonly found sitting on downed trees in the woods. On second thought, I guess there’s not much difference between the two.

Upon reaching the top of Cape Perpetua, it was determined this would be a good place to have lunch, especially since it was already well past lunch time! The views from here were only slightly diminished by the grayish skies, and the temperature was absolutely perfect! This place was obviously teaming with people of the non-hiking variety who, after a grueling quarter-mile hike to the stone structure, had to turn around and endure the quarter-mile slog back to their vehicles. I’m being sarcastic, of course… It’s actually probably less than a quarter mile.

We said goodbye to the views atop Cape Perpetua, and began the long, winding walk down the south side of the hill, encountering no less than 16 switchbacks in a one-mile stretch. The trail eventually comes out near the Cape Perpetua campground, and then it’s just a short trek back up to the visitor’s center. This hike felt much longer than the 4.5 miles that we ended up doing, and, if we had a bit more energy, we would’ve explored the water features around the area. As it was, we felt it best to save what energy we did have for the long drive home back to Roseburg.