I almost didn’t add this trip since it was so short, but after doing it, I wanted to include it because it was so cool. I’m really glad we ended up doing it, and would do it again – this is a phenomenal area if you like big trees.

This was kind of a spur of the moment trip at the end of an afternoon at the beach. I thought we could try this trail out – we’d looked at it before but it never worked out but today the conditions were just perfect. This trail is home to the largest cedar tree in Oregon. I was curious about this, since I had heard that the cedar in Big Bottom was the largest red cedar tree in Oregon but apparently it is ONE of the largest red cedar trees in Oregon.

We parked in the small parking area along 101 and headed down the well constructed boardwalk. This trail is a boardwalk the entire way – it is quite a feat of engineering. The trail starts going thru a wetlands/bog area. Going thru there we saw the biggest skunk cabbage leaves I’ve ever seen – some of them had to be at least 4 feet long!

We continued down the trail and it wasn’t long before we got to a point where we could see the big cedar tree – it was enormous:

For reference, here is a picture of the “largest” cedar tree at Big Bottom (from a 2013 trip) – it was enormous too, but I do think the Rockaway Beach tree was larger – and certainly easier to get to:

We walked around the boardwalk to the deck around the tree – I got a couple of closeup pictures – it is hard to see the enormity of this tree in the photos:


We walked around it a little bit – it is quite a sight – we then started heading back. On the way back I had to take this picture of a very large spruce tree – it had to be at least 6′ in diameter:

Part way up the trail, there is a junction that goes to a “viewing area” – we walked over there but there wasn’t much of a view of the wetlands so we headed back.

This was a very short hike, but I’m really glad we did it. I would do it again – it is extremely easy to do and the trees at the end are absolutely worth the effort.