The Oregon Coast Trail (OCT) is a long-distance hiking route along the Pacific coast of
Oregon in the United States. It follows the coast of Oregon from the mouth of the Columbia
River to the California border south of Brookings.
The trail was envisioned in 1959 by Samuel N. Dicken, a University of Oregon geography
professor, approved in 1971 by the Oregon Recreation Trails Advisory Council and developed
and managed by the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department as part of the state park system
of Oregon. The walking length of the trail varies depending on choice of passage across or
around estuaries and rivers along the route. If a ferry is not arranged or available, an
alternate route around the estuary must be taken; if traveling on foot, this means road
walking. The length of the trail, using the Google Maps pedometer tool to measure route mileage,
is about 425 miles if no ferries are used, though the official coastal guide gives a length of
382 miles. If no ferries are used, about 39 percent of the route is on the beach, 41 percent is
on paved road, and 20 percent is on trail and dirt roads.
A chief feature of the trail are the public beaches created in 1967 via the Oregon Beach
Bill, which formalized the public nature of the coastal beaches since the first such law was
passed in 1913. Many of the locations, particularly on the southern portion, are remote
and isolated. The Oregon coast is bordered by a temperate rainforest, much of which is now
second or third growth.
The difficulty of the trail ranges from easy to moderate, with elevation changes of up to a
few hundred feet.