Cape Disappointment State Park — Blog

This beach is THE BEACH to watch crazy ass huge waves crash into massive rocks. If you choose to come here on king tides be prepared to see a ton of people/photographers lined up hoping for a huge wave with the lighthouse in the background. Last king tide there was approximately 50 photographers lined up 2 hours before high tide and that wasn’t including all the other people just there to see huge waves.

There are two general areas of the beach. One is the actual beach area and another off to the side near the jetty with slightly better views of the lighthouse.

The actual beach area has a ton of driftwood so it can be a bit tricky and definitely not safe on high tide days. The funny thing is that we’ve been to the side view area many, many times but only recently went down on to the beach area. It’s a nice little beach area to sit and watch the ocean.

The side area has a small parking lot with picnic tables to enjoy a coast day. There are tons of driftwood along the water and some people climb over them to get closer but beware on high tides and sneaker wave warnings as it’s not the easiest to climb over the driftwood. This is the area where everyone waits for large waves to hit. The waves crashing is sometimes higher than the lighthouse which is definitely a sight to see. The waves below were not taken on a king tide day just a day with predicted big waves.

We recently took a day trip with the pups to Cape Disappointment State Park in attempt of better understanding the waves using an app. The waves were nothing spectacular so we opted to explore another part of the park we had never been to before - the North Head Lighthouse.

Here’s the goods.

Parking: small parking lot (cost is either $10 per day or WA State Parks annual pass)
Dog-friendly: yes, leashed
Path: paved, ADA accessible
Length: ~ 1/2 mile, flat

The path to the lighthouse starts walking past the old lighthouse keeper houses. Random note: you can rent these out for overnight stays. Then a short part goes through the forest and opens along the ocean from up high. You can walk entirely around the lighthouse and the old oil houses at the end. From the lighthouse you can walk back via the same path or you can walk on a narrower path to the left and make a circle of your walk. The narrower path is not ADA accessible and has a small set of stairs before it opens up to the keeper houses.

From the parking lot there is another short trail to Bell’s viewpoint. This paved trail is a peaceful walk through the woods. It takes you past an old wood water tank and a few bunkers left from World War II. The partially underground bunkers are always fun to see and explore. The trail ends at an overlook of the ocean. The North Head Lighthouse isn’t visible from this viewpoint but it’s still a great view. We happened to hit it right at sunset which was awesome that night.

Waikiki Beach: Cape Disappointment State Park

North Head Lighthouse: Cape Disappointment State Park