Hug Point Is Open Again, and the Tide Still Sets Its Hours
October 22, 2026
October 22, 2026
So the story goes, around 1920 a man from Arch Cape bought a brand-new Maxwell motorcar and tried to drive it home along the beach. It got stuck in the surf at Hug Point, and the incoming tide covered it. According to The Astorian's retelling from the Cannon Beach History Center & Museum, he was angry enough to raise money from his neighbors, buy dynamite and blast out a roadbed around the point. The museum's account says the roadway dates to the 1910s, so the Maxwell may be legend. Either way, the rule it left behind still holds. You could only get around the point at low tide.
That rule matters again this season. Hug Point State Recreation Site reopened for Labor Day weekend after nearly a year closed. The repairs fixed how you get onto the beach. They did nothing to change when you can get around the point, and the state says the repairs themselves are temporary.
Oregon Parks and Recreation closed Hug Point last November after erosion made the stairway to the beach unsafe, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported on September 3, 2026. The park reopened with three changes, according to state parks spokesperson Lauren Wirtis:
Wirtis explained the purpose in an email quoted by OregonLive:
"This improves the visitor experience through increased parking, improved traffic flow and limiting runoff that was impacting the beach access itself."
The drainage work matters most here. Runoff was wearing away the access point from above while the ocean worked on it from below. Redirecting that water is the part of the repair aimed at the cause of the closure, not just the symptoms.
The same OregonLive report says this work is only the first phase. Park officials still want a long-term answer to the erosion, either a more permanent stairway or another way down to the beach. The parks department has no budget right now to design, permit or build it.
So the stairway you take down this winter is a temporary fix with no funded replacement behind it. The next winter storms will hit the same spot that closed the park last November. If you live in Arch Cape and treat Hug Point as your north beach, check its status before each visit. Don't assume a park that reopened in September will still be open in March.
OregonLive puts Hug Point's 2025 attendance at 229,784, from state park visitor data. That's far from the busiest site on the coast, and it is still a lot of people for one stairway on an eroding bank. The same report notes that Hug Point and nearby Arcadia Beach are popular with people avoiding summer crowds in downtown Cannon Beach, about four miles away.
Before the highway, the beach was the only way to travel this stretch of coast. The headlands blocked it. According to the Cannon Beach History Center & Museum's account in The Astorian, travelers made a tiring climb over the point until 1893, when hand- and footholds were carved into the basalt and sandstone. Those carved steps were for days when the tide blocked the way around. The roadbed blasted out in the 1910s let coaches and automobiles cross, but only at low tide. You can still see the wheel ruts from the original stagecoach road in the rock.
The road fell out of use once the Oregon Coast Highway was finished in 1936. The tide schedule that governed it never changed. Erosion has carved caves into the sandstone cliffs on the south side of the headland, where there is also a seasonal waterfall. OregonLive notes the waterfall is easiest to reach at low tide. The Oregon State Parks page for Hug Point lists the walk north to the waterfall, the sandstone caves and low-tide tide pools. It also warns that people exploring the point can be stranded by an incoming tide, and that tide and sand conditions change with the seasons. Its advice is short: "If in doubt, don't go out!"
The same guidance applies further along this beach. Trailkeepers of Oregon's shoulder-season guide says to hike Silver Point and Hug Point only when the tides allow. Otherwise, skip those sections or take a very careful road walk.
Every fall, the Oregon Coastal Management Program picks the highest predicted winter tides and groups them into a series of dates. Volunteers with the Oregon King Tides Project photograph those tides from safe distances to document erosion and flooding. The Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition lists the 2026–27 windows:
Thanksgiving falls on November 26, inside the first window. The second window covers Christmas. Both are weeks when Arch Cape homes are likely to have guests. On those days the highest tides of the year will reach the same headland where the stairway failed last November. A low-tide visit to the caves will take more planning than it does in August.
The state's own tide predictions have limits. The 2026 north coast tide tables from Oregon State Parks say predictions are least accurate during storms and at extreme high and low tides, and that times and heights vary by location. King tide weeks are when the printed number is least reliable. Leave a wider margin around the point than the tide table suggests.
The beach road around Hug Point was a local fix for a coast that kept blocking travel. A century later, the road along the coast is still being rebuilt. The Oregon Department of Transportation's Asbury Creek project at US 101 milepost 34.8 will replace a culvert that blocks fish passage with a bridge. The project also includes repaving and restriping the highway, new guardrails, concrete fish-passage sills and a temporary diversion for a detour. ODOT lists design running through 2026 and construction in 2027–2028. The Arch Cape community club's September 21 update also lists construction for 2027–2028.
The cost has gone up as the project gets closer. The club's February 2026 newsletter listed $18,660,504. ODOT's project page, last updated September 14, 2026, now shows $19,140,504, an increase of $480,000 in about seven months. ODOT's page doesn't yet give dates for detours or closures.
If you want to talk through the season with neighbors before the first king tide window, the Arch Cape Community Club's holiday potluck is at the Arch Cape Fire Station on Saturday, November 21, 2026, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. That's two days before the November window opens.
At the Mace Team, we watch the north end of Arch Cape the way our neighbors do, from the Hug Point stairway to the Asbury Creek schedule. If you own here, or want to, and would like a local read on how access and upkeep along this stretch of coast affect a property, Andrea Mace is glad to talk it through. Schedule your concierge consultation.
The Oregon Coast Town that Time Forgot
Cannon Beach Lifestyle
Cannon Beach Cottage Tour & Stormy Weather Arts Fest
Want to sell now or in the future? Let's start a conversation about how my services can be put to use to market and sell your home to a qualified buyer.