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I’m an avid world traveler, photographer, software developer, and digital storyteller.

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100
Cape Disappointment State Park
100

Cape Disappointment State Park

west of Ilwaco, Washington
visited 21 May 2022
Back to parks list

And now I present the 100th park in this series! Cape Disappointment did not disappoint. As it turned out, good friends of mine formerly from Bainbridge Island were manning the visitors’ center. So we took a Saturday afternoon to visit them and explore the park.

We started with the Cape Disappointment Trail, which leads to the visitors’ center and to Cape Disappointment Lighthouse, which first went into service in 1856.

The mossy, twisting base and exposed roots of a large old tree spread across a shaded forest floor, surrounded by lush green ferns, small white wildflowers, and dense undergrowth in a Pacific Northwest woodland.
Cape Disappointment Trail
A narrow dirt hiking trail winds through a sunlit coastal conifer forest, bordered by tall grasses, ferns, and small white wildflowers, with a large lichen-covered tree trunk rising prominently on the right.
Cape Disappointment Trail
A black-and-white banded lighthouse stands atop a lush green headland overlooking the ocean, with evergreen trees, grassy slopes, and yellow wildflowers in the foreground under a blue sky with scattered clouds.
A large tree trunk covered in green moss and pale gray lichen dominates the frame, surrounded by a lush forest floor of ferns, broad-leafed plants, and small white and pink wildflowers, with more mossy trees and greenery in the background.
Cape Disappointment Trail
A view through evergreen trees down to Deadman’s Cove, where a narrow inlet of green-blue water winds between forested, moss-covered headlands to a sandy beach scattered with driftwood. Thick tree roots wind across the shaded dirt trail in the foreground under a blue sky with wispy clouds.
Deadman’s Cove
A view through tall evergreen trees and ferns overlooking Deadman’s Cove, where a sheltered inlet of blue-green water meets rugged, forested rocky cliffs, with the ocean and a distant shoreline visible beneath a bright sky with scattered clouds.
Deadman’s Cove
A weathered concrete military bunker with moss growing along its top edge, featuring a large central open doorway and two square window openings, set into a forested hillside beside a paved path in a coastal state park.
Cape Disappointment Trail
A weathered black-and-white banded lighthouse rising against a deep blue sky, its metal lantern room and gallery railing at the top and peeling paint on the tower below. A low stone outbuilding sits to the left and a metal safety railing surrounds the base, with the ocean and hills visible in the distance.
Cape Disappointment Lighthouse
A view from a grassy, flower-dotted headland overlooking a broad blue bay, with a long rock jetty extending into the water toward a distant sandy spit and low hills under a bright blue sky scattered with puffy white clouds. Yellow wildflowers and green shrubs fill the foreground, with wind-shaped evergreen trees on the slope.
Cape Disappointment Lighthouse

It turns out one lighthouse was not enough for this region. Poor visibility for some routes led to the construction of a second lighthouse a few miles north. The North Head Lighthouse entered service in 1898 to protect ships arriving from the north.

Today’s trail starts near the keeper’s residence for that lighthouse, which can now be rented as a vacation home:

The pale green stucco facade of the Head Lighthouse Keeper’s Residence, showing four tall arched sash windows arranged in two rows, each framed with white trim, gray sills, and gray arched keystone-style hoods, with sheer curtains draped inside and a dark red cornice along the top.
Head Lighthouse Keeper’s Residence
A two-story white stucco building with a bright red hipped metal roof, gray-trimmed arched windows, and brick chimneys, set on a manicured green lawn beside tall evergreen trees under a cloudy sky. A gray concrete staircase with black metal railings leads up to an arched entry porch, and a walkway crosses the grass in the foreground.
Head Lighthouse Keeper’s Residence
A large historic white two-story keeper’s residence with a bright red hipped metal roof, gray trim around the windows, and brick chimneys, set on a manicured green lawn with a paved path leading toward it. Tall evergreen trees line the background beneath a partly cloudy blue sky.
Head Lighthouse Keeper’s Residence
A small white clapboard building with a steep gabled roof, gray-trimmed windows, and a gray front door, set on grass in front of a dark evergreen forest. A large rhododendron bush covered in pink blossoms grows to the left of the structure.
Head Lighthouse Keeper’s Residence
A paved trail curves through a coastal forest of tall evergreen conifers, flanked by lush green ferns, shrubs, and grass under an overcast pale sky. A small bench sits beside the path in the distance where the trees open up.
North Head Lighthouse Trail
A paved trail winds through a stand of tall, silhouetted coastal pine trees toward a distant view of the ocean glinting under an overcast sky. Green shrubs and undergrowth line both sides of the path.
North Head Lighthouse Trail
A white lighthouse with a black lantern room stands atop a grassy headland overlooking the ocean, viewed across tall green grass under a mostly blue sky with scattered clouds.
North Head Lighthouse
North Head Lighthouse Trail
A white lighthouse with a black lantern room stands on a grassy bluff overlooking the calm blue Pacific Ocean, with an attached white keeper’s building and a wrought-iron fence surrounding its base, under a partly cloudy sky.
North Head Lighthouse
A rugged forested headland with dark rocky cliffs dropping into a choppy gray-green ocean under an overcast sky, with wind-shaped conifers along the ridge and waves breaking against the base of the cliffs and offshore rocks.
North Head Lighthouse Trail
A narrow concrete footpath winds uphill through lush green grass, flanked by a wind-sculpted evergreen tree bent dramatically to the right and a dense forest of conifers under a hazy purplish-gray sky.
North Head Lighthouse Trail
A paved walking path winds through lush green grass and coastal shrubs toward North Head Lighthouse, a white tower with a black lantern room, standing on a bluff above the ocean under a heavily overcast sky.
North Head Lighthouse

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