It’s been just a month since we returned from our annual New Year’s trek to the Northern Oregon coast. A time for reconnecting with old friends and celebrating the closing of one year and the beginning of another, it’s also a chance to get outside and breathe in the fresh (and chill) sea air and drink in the wide-open expanse of sea and sky. I always feel a sense of release and opening in my chest and mind at the beach, as if something that has been subtly binding me loosens, and a buoyancy and a lightness fills me.

As with the past few years, we were again blessed with sunny skies and, this year, also mild temperatures and little wind. On New Year’s Eve Day we decided to visit Ecola State Park, draped over Tillamook Head between two popular coastal towns, Seaside and Cannon Beach, and encompassing nine miles of spectacular coastline. The entrance road begins at the north end of Cannon Beach and winds through old-grown Sitka spruce rainforest, dark and lush with ferns and undergrowth even on a sunny day. We veered to the left to explore Ecola Point, featuring a grassy meadow where Roosevelt elk are known to graze and offering expansive views south to Haystack Rock   and west over the Pacific.   Here we hoped to spot migrating gray whales on their annual trek south to their breeding grounds in the Sea of Cortez in Baja. Volunteers man this and other key viewing points along the Oregon coast during the winter migration season, and we picked up interesting tidbits of information as we gazed out to sea. Over the course of the afternoon from various points, we did spy a few spouts, but it’s a bit like looking for shooting stars: You often catch a glimpse out of the corner of your eye rather than straight on.

Several trails crisscross the park, including the state-long Oregon Coast Trail and the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail. (The Corps of Discovery wintered over here in 1805-06.) Due to recent storms, several trails were closed, so we drove north to Indian Beach, a sheltered crescent   popular with surfers . . . even at this time of year.   We followed a trail down from the parking lot alongside a stream to the beach, where about two dozen drysuit-clad hearty souls and their companions were enjoying the moderate waves. We strolled down the beach, checking out the tidepools and views of the Tillamook Rock Lighthouse about a mile offshore.    “Terrible Tilly,” opened in 1881 and serving for over 70 years, now sits empty, but she has a fascinating history and often appears in photos drenched in high seas during big storms.

As the sun slipped toward the horizon on this short winter day, we made our way back through the forest, renewed in body and spirit.

— Patty Vanikiotis, associate editor/copy editor