This Oregon state park’s new $10 parking fee buys a beach, a rainforest and a mountain summit in one visit
Oswald West State Park started charging for parking last October, and if you’ve driven this stretch of Highway 101 without stopping, you might assume it’s just another pull-off with a view. It isn’t. Ten dollars gets you a sheltered surf beach, one of the last real stretches of old-growth coastal rainforest in Oregon, and a mountain summit with a view that will stop you mid-sentence — and most people who park here only ever see one of the three.
We’ve spent enough afternoons in this park to know the mistake. Treat it as a quick beach stop, snap a photo, get back in the car, and you miss most of what makes the ten-dollar fee worth it.
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Short Sand Beach is a ten-minute walk, and worth every step of it
Locals call it Shorty’s. From the main parking lot, the trail ducks under the highway and follows Short Sand Creek through the trees for about half a mile before crossing a railroad-style bridge into a picnic area right above the sand.
It’s one of the more reliable surf breaks on the north coast, tucked into a cove between basalt and sandstone cliffs that block most of the wind. On a clear late-summer afternoon, this is exactly the kind of stop that makes the drive out from Portland worth it before summer actually ends.
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The rainforest walk nobody talks about
Get off the beach trail and onto any of the park’s other paths and the scenery changes fast. Western red cedar, Sitka spruce and western hemlock crowd out the sky, with sword ferns, salal and salmonberry filling in everything below knee height.
This is some of the healthiest old-growth coastal rainforest left in the state, and it’s easy to forget you’re only a few hundred yards from a highway shoulder. If you’re working your way up the coast from here, 11 Stunning Things To Do on the North Oregon Coast rounds out where else to stop between Oswald West and Astoria.
Neahkahnie Mountain earns the climb
Two headlands bookend the park: Cape Falcon to the north, Neahkahnie Mountain to the south. The south trailhead route up Neahkahnie is a 3.5-mile loop with about 1,059 feet of climbing — a real workout, but a moderate one rather than a technical scramble.
Switchback up through spruce forest, break into an open meadow, and the ridge delivers a view of Nehalem Bay and the Pacific that’s hard to beat anywhere else on this coast. We’ve made that climb before, and the view from the ridge is worth every one of those 1,059 feet.
What that $10 actually pays for
Oswald West is one of 22 Oregon state parks that started charging day-use parking fees on October 1, 2025, according to the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department. The rate is $10 a day for Oregon residents and $12 a day for out-of-state visitors, or $60 a year for residents and $75 for non-residents if you know you’ll be back more than a couple of times.
Neither the Northwest Forest Pass nor the America the Beautiful Pass covers it here, since both are federal passes and this is a state park. Walk, bike or bus in and you skip the parking fee entirely — so does anyone camping at a state park that same day.
Labor Day marks the unofficial end of summer on the coast, and this is about as good a way as any to spend one of the last long weekends before fall settles in.
Trip tips: grab a rental car to make the drive out from Portland, book a hotel in Cannon Beach or Manzanita if you’re staying over, or skip both and roll in with a camper van instead.
Rules and fees change — always confirm current requirements before you go.
