Wondering where to go for spring vacation? Try hiking a new section of the Oregon Coast Trail between Yachats and Cape Perpetua.

Spring hits Oregon on the coast first, with trilliums and hummingbirds and weird sunny days in leafless alder groves. On this easy hike at Yachats you’ll pass a statue honoring a blind Indian woman named Amanda, and learn a bit about the dark side of Oregon’s coastal history.

The round-trip hike from Yachats to a stone shelter atop Cape Perpetua is 5. 2 miles, including a few rough spots on the cape. If you make your goal a statue of Amanda, however, you can trim the distance to just 2.2 easy miles.

Park along Yachats Ocean Drive, a short scenic loop just south of town, and walk south on the lane's shoulder. Just before Highway 101, follow “Oregon Coast Trail” markers to the right. For the next 0.2 mile the path parallels the highway. At Carpenter Drive, cross the highway carefully and turn right on a trail that climbs through the woods above the highway. At the 0.6-mile mark you’ll descend a wooden staircase to the highway. Walk 100 feet along the shoulder to find the continuation of the trail.

Now the path switchbacks up into deeper spruce woods, with views to Cape Perpetua. After the path crosses another small road, the route descends to a 50-foot footbridge over a pebbly creek. Here you’ll find a small plaza and a four-foot concrete statue of Amanda. A tribal ceremony with 150 people dedicated the site last summer.

After the Rogue River Indian War in 1856, the Army removed the native people of Southern Oregon to a reservation on the Central Oregon Coast. Amanda escaped and returned to her home on the Coos River. When soldiers caught her there 8 years later they marched her, blind and barefoot, over the lava cliffs at Cape Perpetua back to the Yachats reservation. Many visitors come to this wild part of the Oregon Coast for the scenery. But if you know the area’s history, you can also hike a portion of Amanda’s 1864 trail of tears.