|
Name: Cape Perpetua Box
From Highway 101 in either direction, park at the lot just across from the driveway for the Visitor's Center. (The small lot is slightly north of the driveway, and has big informational signs on the north side.) You'll need to pay the day use fee of $5 unless you have a NW Forest Pass (recommended). Though it looks small from here, the park is actually huge, and you'll likely spend some time here once you have the stamp in your logbook, so it's worth the fee. :)
Go north, past the informational signs, along the highway. (There's a dirt path and a steel fence so you don't get slammed into by the traffic or anything.) Go past the wonderful lookout of the cape and cove, and follow the signs at the next clearing area that lead to the trails.
You'll be following the signs to Devil's Churn, an amazing little area that isn't viewable from the road, where water rushes down a long channel into a cave at the end and hisses/moans/roars, giving it its name. You can do this by either following the 2.8 mile trail (almost all paved and certainly marked), or by diverting south at the place where the trail branches to a sign about local wildlife. Go down the stairs and go around the cape on the rocks below to see some wonderful tidepools. (Good with kids, but only advisable at low tide, of course.)
When you get to Devil's Churn, you'll find some cement stairs leading back up to the main trail. Go up the first set of nine, then the next set of three, and the set of two afterward. At the second bench on a switchback, sit down.
To your left is a stone retaining wall built by the CCC. Count eight stones from your waist going left up the top edge of the wall, and you'll find a stone that juts out with a hole behind it.
The letterbox is in the hole. Please be careful when putting it back so that it doesn't fall all the way to the bottom. (It shouldn't -- the box is bigger than the hole, but it may be bigger by the time you get there, of course.) You'll recognize the stamp from the signs in the lot where you parked.
Follow the trail back, and do hit the Visitor's Center before you go. The day we were there, there was a resident pod of California Grey Whales making an appearance in the waters, visible from the center, which made all of the hike worth it. :)
please also see the letterboxing USA site for all the regular disclaimers and waivers that you assume when you decide to go out looking for boxes. (blah blah blah, legalese saying that you know it's your own fault if you get bit by stuff, fall off a cliff, or if things aren't where they're supposed to be. That kind of thing.)
|