Enter your zip code. Neahkahnie Mountain juts 1,600 feet above the beach, providing aerial views of Nehalem Bay and the Pacific shore south to Cape Lookout. The trail starts at a gray post on the left. Steep switchbacks lead up through meadows 0.9 mile to a ridgetop junction. Continue straight on a path that contours 0.6 mile around the wooded back of the mountain before emerging at the summit meadow viewpoint.
Most hikers return as they came.
But if you can arrange a car shuttle, it's worth continuing down the far side of the mountain. This portion, muddy in spots, descends two miles through forest to a crossing of Highway 101. If you want to park a shuttle car here, look for a gray post at a viewpoint pullout 0.2 mile south of milepost 40. But as long as you're shuttling a car, you should take it another mile to the Oswald West campground parking lot. Then you can hike the very scenic 1.3-mile stretch of the Oregon Coast Trail to Short Sand Beach.