Cape Disappointment Lighthouse

ristorock88

Beautiful hike up, bout half a mile but totally worth it for these views

Elizabeth Ericksen

We loved our trip to the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse. Our favorite part was the trail detour down to Dead Man’s Cove. The cove is breathtakingly beautiful and so peaceful. The first part of the trail is super muddy in places, and the detour trail down to the cove is very steep and muddy, but there is an amazing volunteer from the Coast Guard base on the property who is working very hard when he’s not on duty to improve the trails, signs, benches, etc. The wildflowers and rhododendrons were gorgeous, and the paved part of the trail was great. The lighthouse and the signage around it are looking pretty worn, but there’s a great informational station about navigating the Columbia River Bar. Make sure to take the easy trail down the road to the North Head Lighthouse, it’s gorgeous and the trail is easy and handicap accessible. We’ve “collected” quite a few lighthouses in our travels, and these two are on the list of favorites.

Jon Swanson

The trail to Cape Disappointment lighthouse has reopened to the public as of October 2021. The path to the lighthouse starts at the interpretive center parking lot which is a dirt path. Once you reach deadman’s cove trailhead which is labeled by signs the path turns to gravel. Take a right to access Deadman’s cove and go left to continue to the lighthouse. Deadman’s cove has wooden steps so use caution when wet. Currently there are trail improvements happening so take it slow where gravel hasn’t been placed. Handrails will be coming soon which will make transiting up and down much easier. If you go left on the trail it will take you to a black fence where you will have a great view of the Coast Guard Station and the 47 MLB’s. The trail then turns to a nice concrete driveway all the way to the lighthouse. In a few days there will be benches placed along the trail to allow those that need to rest a place to do so. Take note vehicles do transit up and down the driveway to conduct Coast Guard business throughout the day so move off to the side when safe to do so. The watch tower has an active duty member in it so please don’t disturb them by tapping on the windows or trying to open the watch tower door. Please remember no littering, climbing on navigating aids, and defacing any of the trails bunkers or trees. Please do your part to keep this beautiful place open. The trail to the lighthouse will close when adverse weather conditions arise such as high winds, snow, or ice.

Gray Akers

As a lighthouse fangirl, I will simply counter many people’s three-word reviews of this lighthouse and say: ɴᴏᴛ a disappointment! You guys aren’t clever! We visited on a lovely Sunday morning in mid-February. It had been sunny & warm & dry for a few days beforehand, so the primary trail from the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center to the lighthouse was not as treacherous & mucky as other reviews have suggested — that said, it is not a remotely difficult mental leap to believe & imagine the level of mud that could accumulate at countless points on the trail, especially during those Pacific Northwest Winters™︎︎, which I absolutely believe would render the trail significantly less safe & far more difficult. As others have stated, the trail is indeed labeled as “difficult.” Parts of it are paved, but most of it is dirt. The walk towards the lighthouse is downhill for the most part, so just… be cognisant of your walk back. I’m 31 years old & in some pretty lousy physical shape due to a few compounding factors, but the walk (I wouldn’t even call it a hike!) was still more than manageable for me without having to stop & take any embarrassing catch-my-breath breaks around my boyfriend. The trail is also only 0.4 miles each way. Though it is generally uphill walking back, there is a nice balance of uphill & downhill grades, so it’s really not as daunting as the trailhead sign might suggest. Unfortunately, the trail to actually access the site of the lighthouse is not handicap-accessible as far as I understand, but there is a nice view of the lighthouse (plus some binoculars) from the paved sidewalk circling the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center. This is a beautiful lighthouse with some gorgeous panoramic views of various regional waterways & landmarks. Driving south to Cape Disappointment from Seattle along the coastline basically obscures the actual ocean due to, say, the Long Beach Peninsula, etc. along the Washington coast 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘶𝘱 𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘭 entry into the park, so it’s refreshing to suddenly arrive & be surrounded by a vast berth of beautiful blue ocean, versus the greenish, stationary globs of water to the west if following stupid Google maps the whole way. 𝗦𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗠𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗖𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗨𝗽: ✘︎ Some sources (including my go-to, LighthouseFriends.com) suggest that the trail to the lighthouse was closed in 2020. I see Google reviews from 2021 still indicating that the trail is inaccessible.【︎However, as of February 2022, the lighthouse trail is ᴏᴘᴇɴ.】︎ ✘︎ Having visited a very lovely lighthouse in Crescent City, CA several years ago, I luckily hit that spot at low tide, not having known in advance that that particular lighthouse is inaccessible during high tide. Since then, in my lighthouse journeys, I now make an active effort to ascertain whether tides may affect the accessibility of 𝘹-lighthouse. I read a fairly recent Google review for Cape Disappointment which asserted that the trail becomes washed over during high tide, so if one were to successfully walk to the lighthouse but somehow lollygag long enough for the tide to rise, then one would be stranded until the next low tide. I truly don’t mean to sound like a sanctimonious “well, 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺” Cheeto-finger Redditor, but 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙞𝙨 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙧𝙚𝙢𝙤𝙩𝙚𝙡𝙮 𝙩𝙧𝙪𝙚. I feel that it is important to distinguish this for folks who may be timing their trip based upon reviews that they may have encountered on Google. A Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center docent, as well as our own walk to the lighthouse at peak high tide, confirmed that the tides have absolutely no bearing on the functionality of the lighthouse trail. ✘︎ Accessibility: There is a large lower parking lot, where the lighthouse trailhead can be accessed directly from one corner of the lot, plus a much smaller parking lot located immediately adjacent to the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center, which offers a completely paved & handicap-accessible path to the museum & an associated set of binoculars for viewing the lighthouse from there. Please be courteous ♿️