Cape Perpetua Spouting Horn
— — the basalt that breathes when the tide comes in.
Not only on a wall.
“A volcanic shelf below the highest car-reachable viewpoint on the Oregon coast. Pacific swell drives into a basalt fissure called Cook's Chasm and exits straight up, sometimes 30 feet of seawater, sometimes a quiet rinse, never the same twice. The horn is loudest about an hour before high tide. Yachats sits two miles north, and from the rim above, the coastline runs 70 miles in either direction on a clear day.
Cape Perpetua Spouting Horn, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Cape Perpetua is a forested basalt headland in the Siuslaw National Forest, on the central Oregon coast about two miles south of Yachats. The Cape Perpetua Overlook, at roughly 800 feet, is the highest viewpoint accessible by car on the Oregon coast, with sightlines stretching 70 miles north and south on clear days. Spouting Horn sits at sea level below the rim, inside Cook's Chasm, a narrow basalt fissure cut into the volcanic shelf along US-101, a short walk from the Captain Cook trailhead.
The horn is wave-driven, not geothermal. Swell pushes into a sea cave at the base of the chasm, compresses, and exits through a vertical vent in the basalt overhead. Plumes routinely reach 20 to 30 feet on a strong incoming tide. The performance peaks about an hour before high tide, falls off through slack water, and resumes on the ebb. Thor's Well, the sinkhole roughly 600 feet to the south, fills and drains on the same swell.
Spouting Horn is reached by a paved quarter-mile walk from the Cook's Chasm pullout on US-101. A Northwest Forest Pass or a $5 day-use fee covers the parking lot. The basalt shelf is wet and uneven, and rogue waves wash the lower terrace without warning. The Forest Service recommends staying well back from the edge during winter storm surf. The Cape Perpetua Overlook is reached by a separate road, climbing two miles inland to the rim.