During World War II Coast Guardsmen stood guard here, looking for enemy ships approaching the coast. Today you can see commercial fishing and crabbing boats that work these waters year round.
In the winter and spring you may also spot gray whales as they surface and blow. Each year these remarkable giants migrate between Baja California and Alaska's Bering Sea.
West shelter was hand built in 1933 by workers in the Civilian Conservation Corp.
The 2,700-acre Area was set aside by the Siuslaw National Forest in the early 1960's for its unique characteristics, a Sitka spruce rainforest with a transistion to the sea. Sites within the Scenic Area. This cache is at the highest point along the Oregon Coast)
There are 23 miles of trails that include both seashore and forest settings. Most of the Scenic Area's shoreline is rock intertidal, with tidepools and crashing waves. It is also a protected Marine Garden and so requires folks to take only pictures and none of the treasures they will see as they walk along the surf. The forest trails stretch up to the ridge east of the Interpretive Center, and take the visitor through managed forests, undisturbed wilderness, meadows of wildflowers, and back down into old growth forest along the creeks. The most popular forest trail leads the visitor one mile to the Giant Spruce Tree - a massive tree that is over 500 years old.
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There also is a letterbox near by: "Nothing To Wear"