Humbug Mountain

Some people will tell you that 1,756-foot-high Humbug Mountain, six miles south of Port Orford [1] on U.S. 101, is the highest mountain rising directly off the Oregon [2] shoreline. Because the criteria for such a distinction varies as much as the tides, let’s just say it’s a special place.

There’s more than one version of how the peak, formerly called Sugarloaf Mountain, got its name. According to one version, gold miners who were drawn here in the 1850s by tales of gold in the black sands nearby soon discovered that the rumored riches proved to be “humbug.”

Once the site of Native American vision quests, Humbug Mountain now casts its shadow upon an Eden-like state park campground [3] surrounded by myrtles, alders, and maples. Just north is a breezy black-sand beach. A three-mile trail to the top of Humbug rewards hardy hikers with impressive vistas to the south of Nesika Beach and a chance to see wild rhododendrons 20–25 feet high.

Rising above the rhodies and giant ferns are big-leaf maples, Port Orford cedars, and Douglas and grand firs. Access the trail from the campground or from a trailhead parking area off the highway near the south end of the park.

In addition, the Oregon Coast Trail [4], which follows the beach south from Battle Rock [5], traverses the mountain and leads down its south side to the beach at Rocky Point.