Ecola State Park reopens on the Oregon coast after long-awaited road repair

600 coast hikes

The sun begins to set over Indian Beach at Ecola State Park on the north Oregon coast. (Jamie Hale/The Oregonian)

Patched up but not completely repaired, one of the most popular park sites on the north Oregon coast is back open to the public.

Ecola State Park north of Cannon Beach reopened Saturday, park officials said, opening its gates after wrapping up long-awaited road repairs caused by a landslide last winter.

The main entrance on the south end of the park closed in February after a nearly 100-foot section of the Crescent Beach Trail slid over a cliff, damaged the entrance road and disconnected the park’s main waterline.

Plans to repair the road were put on hold as the coronavirus pandemic took over the region and shut down the entire Oregon state parks system at the end of March. While neighboring state park sites on the north Oregon coast started to reopen in June, all of Ecola remained closed until the parks department could complete the repairs.

With that finished, both the main entrance at Cannon Beach and the more rugged trailhead in Seaside reopened to the public Saturday. Sections of the park remain closed, however, including the segment of the Crescent Beach Trail that was lost in the landslide, and part of the Indian Beach Trail that washed out in 2017.

The rustic shelters used by backpackers hiking the Oregon Coast Trail have also reopened. The shelters are not available for casual campers, as there is no overnight parking at Ecola.

The reopening of Ecola comes as outdoor recreation areas in Oregon are busier than ever, especially on the north Oregon coast. State parks spokesman Chris Havel said overcrowding on the coast has overwhelmed parks at a time when the agency’s budget and staffing are slimmer than ever.

Two of the region’s most popular state parks, Ecola and Oswald West, are found on either side of Cannon Beach, which has long been a popular destination for those who live in the Portland metropolitan area. While Ecola has been closed this summer, more people have been flocking to Oswald West, Havel said, resulting in an overwhelmed water system and illegal parking along the side of U.S. 101.

With Ecola State Park now open, park officials hope some crowds will choose to go there instead.

“We were pretty motivated to get that done in an attempt to take the pressure off at Oswald West,” Havel said of the road project at Ecola.

Ecola is open for now, but the long-term future of the park is still up in the air – or rather underground. Landslides have been common at the park over the last 10 years, Havel said, and will most likely continue for decades to come.

Back in April 2017, the parks department closed Ecola for several days after a landslide damaged the entrance road. After spending around $10,000 on the road repair, the department announced that intermittent closures would affect the park all spring, as the danger of landslides persisted.

“The entire coast is a well-known slide zone and Ecola is no different,” Havel said. “We still need to make a decision about shifting the road in the future, if we want to avoid having this problem over and over again.”

Repeatedly repairing the road has proved to be less expensive than a single massive project to move the road to more stable ground, park officials said.

That will likely mean more closures in the future, especially in the winter and spring when wetter weather brings a higher risk of landslides. Those who have been looking forward to visiting Ecola would do well to visit this summer and fall – as long as it’s not too crowded.

Like so many other natural areas around Oregon, Ecola State Park is expected to become crowded frequently this summer, especially on warm weekends and weekday afternoons. State park officials are urging visitors to show up with a Plan B in mind, and not to rely on finding parking when they arrive.

“Space is not unlimited,” Havel said. “I cannot emphasize enough that if a park is full, if the parking lot is full, you need to go somewhere else.”

--Jamie Hale; jhale@oregonian.com; 503-294-4077; @HaleJamesB

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