A sign up the trail warns that the statue is equipped with a tracking device to prevent theft. Interpretive signs describe the atrocity of the forced removal of southern Oregon Natives and the story of Amanda herself. Walk down a stepped trail to a large sign and an amphitheater of rough seats around the concrete Amanda Statue, often draped with necklaces and offerings. Walk 40 yards up the road and resume the trail at a sign indicating a plantation established in 1990. Descend to a gravel road which leads to a tree farm. Where the trail makes a turn inland, you’ll get a view through a gap in the trees of Cleft of the Rock Lighthouse, Oregon’s only private lighthouse. Pick up the trail where it reenters the forest and proceeds higher above the traffic in more mature Sitka spruce/western hemlock forest with a dense understory of salal. Walk along the highway, crossing a few driveways. The trail descends to the highway via a flight of steps at a welcome sign for the community of Yachats.
At Windy Way Street, cross Highway 101 to Carpenter Drive and take the Oregon Coast Trail into the Sitka spruce forest.
The path crosses Surfside Drive, Gender Drive, and a footbridge. At the churn, you’ll have to turn up to the road.) Walk down to the beach and then make your way south along the rocky shoreline. Park in the pullout on the right shortly after turning off onto Yachats Ocean Road. (You can also begin the hike about half a mile north from the designated trailhead at the Yachats Ocean Road Picnic Area. As you approach Highway 101, veer off to the right and pick up a path, marked by Oregon Coast Trail signs, which reaches the highway and then proceeds along its west shoulder. Waves thunder into this cul-de-sac and send up fountains of spray when the tide is coming in. After making a turn on the road, you’ll see a churn below with ledges of volcanic rock. After paying your respects at the Amanda Statue, hike up the steep slope to admire the expansive views from the historic Cape Perpetua Stone Shelter at the top of Cape Perpetua's old shield volcano.įrom the parking area on Yachats Ocean Road above Agate Point, head south, looking first for a spouting horn, which is only active when the tide is high. You will cross the highway and then enter private forest on an easement. You can begin the hike on the rocky coast at the south end of Yachats for a stretch, the path runs right alongside Highway 101. Amanda had been living with a white man and had a daughter by him: the daughter was left with her father, but the latter refused to marry her mother. Amanda De Cuys was a blind Coos woman who was captured along with others of her tribe and force-marched 80 miles up the coast to the Alsea Sub-agency of the vast Coast Indian Reservation at Yachats. The trail is a memorial to the forced relocation of Native Americans to the vast Siletz Reservation, and then their subsequent relocation from that reservation when white settlers began to claim coastal lands. Amanda’s Trail connects the coastal community of Yachats with the Cape Perpetua Scenic Area and also represents a section of the Oregon Coast Trail.