Florence – Day 7
Hiking
Today we returned to the Cape Perpetua area to hike the St Perpetua Trail. We saw people up on the ridge when we were here earlier in the week. The views from the top of the hike are fantastic.
The Whispering Spruce loop at the top leads to a stone lookout shelter that was built by Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1933, and was used by the Coast Guard durint WW II.
The trail itself has a great tread with a significant elevation and is a rain forest environment with ferns lining the trail and moss everywhere. We really enjoyed this hike, stopping frequently to take in the views or just observe the growth of mosses and fungi throughout the hike.
After returning to the visitor center, which was closed due to the pandemic, we continued to hike on the Giant Spruce Trail, a 2 mile out and back that leads to a 500 year old Sitka Spruce. This trail meanders along a stream which flows between the trail and the Cape Perpetua Campground, which was also closed. Alltrails shows the the trail as closed, but it has recently re-opened. There were several trees that had recently been blown down and had just been cleared.
Our total distance for these hike was 5.6 miles.