Friday, November 27, 2020
While staying at the coast this weekend we decided to take advantage of a gorgeous day to hike up to God’s Thumb in Lincoln City.
NOTE: Most people who hike to God’s Thumb park at the end of NE Sal la Sea Drive (there’s even a “The Knoll / God’s Thumb Trailhead” marker on Google Maps; it’s also described in the Oregon Hikers Field Guide). As of this writing it’s legal to do so as long as you obey the signs at the very end of the road where parking is not allowed. You can park alongside the road before those signs. It is approximately 1.8 miles one-way to hike from the end of the road to God’s Thumb. The other place to park is at the end of NE Devils Lake Blvd (there are directions in the Oregon Hikers Field Guide). A description of the hike can be found here. Hiking in from the end of Logan Road is no longer recommended, which we didn’t know until after we did this hike.
We parked at Road’s End State Recreation Site and hiked one mile up Logan Road to its end. We took this route because it’s the way I went last time and I didn’t think parking at the end of NE Sal la Sea Drive is allowed (it is).
At the end of Logan Road we walked around the gate where this nothing except a “no parking” sign.
But about 0.1 mile further we reached a “no trespassing” sign. The Siuslaw National Forest boundary was just behind that sign, so we kept going:
The trail was, as expected, quite muddy:
Lots of mushrooms:
Almost there:
The sun shining on the spray from the waves was pretty:
God’s Thumb came into view:
1.7 miles from the car we reached the top. The view from up there was great! Cascade Head to the north:
Looking south over Lincoln City:
Looking west:
We sat and enjoyed the view for a short while, but it was quite windy:
We were making a loop out of this hike so rather than returning the way we came we hiked east. This is the way we would have come if we had parked at the end of Sal la Sea Drive:
There was a very muddy hill to climb going this way. Descending it would be really challenging because it’s so slippery:
At the top of that muddy hill is this grassy knoll, which makes a great turnaround spot if you don’t want to navigate that hill:
More mud:
We saw signs of recent maintenance:
We reached a big grassy viewpoint known as The Knoll:
Descending from The Knoll:
We reached the gate at the end of Sal la Sea Drive:
Then we road-hiked back down to Road’s End where the car was parked. From there we had a nice view looking up at The Knoll:
And a view of God’s Thumb and Cascade Head:
Gaia stats: 4.2 miles, 650′ elevation gain