The Brand New Corvallis to the Sea Trail Lets You Thru-Hike from the Mountains to the Pacific

Oregon hikers enjoy the kind of geographic diversity that most can only dream of, with lush forests, rocky coasts, and high peaks all within just a few hours drive. Now, with the opening of the Corvallis to the Sea Trail, you can see it all in a single trip

The Forest Service first proposed the idea that would become the Corvallis to the Sea (C2C) Trail in 1974. Though the USFS and other land management agencies, along with a number of volunteers, continued to champion the concept for several decades, none of them made any progress until a coalition formed in 2003 to revive the project. The C2C Trail Partnership secured an assistance grant from the National Park Service, then secured permission from the National Forest and private landowners to flag proposed trail segments. Public outreach was also a key part of their mission; community opposition was the main reason the trail proposal didn’t succeed in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. By 2010 the Trail Partnership submitted a completed route to the Forest Service, which permitted construction of the eastern half of the trail in 2012 and the western half in 2018.

The completed route runs 60 miles from the town of Corvallis to Ona Beach, a state park right on the Pacific Ocean. Both hikers and bikers can take the path through the Willamette Valley and Oregon’s Coast Mountains, where remote woods alternate with working farmland, before dropping down to sandy Ona Beach and the pounding waves of the open coast. Most camping along the route is dispersed, with only a few established campsites.