[/caption] A moderate hike takes you high above the Pacific Ocean with views of the National Forest and secret coves. The Oswald West State Park is located just north of Manzanita and the hiking trail is one of the most jaw dropping and gorgeous hikes along the Oregon coast. The views of the Pacific Ocean are amazing and the views along the coast line stretch for miles both north and south and the National Forest is teeming with wildlife. The summit of Neahkahnie mountain is 1600 feet and offers the best overall view and is facing west so you can really enjoy looking across the ocean. This photo was taken near the start of the trail and smugglers cove is in the photo with Devils Cauldron visible in the bottom portion of the photo. This photo was taken over 4 years ago when I was using my Panasonic DMC-FZ30 point and shoot. I’ve returned to this trail since I purchased my Canon T1i but I haven’t been lucky enough to be there on a day like this. I remember that I wasn’t using a tripod so I had to be sure and keep the camera steady. I had the camera in landscape mode and the metering was automatically set at Pattern. The focal length was at 12mm in order to get the best possible panoramic shot without showing the highway below. The aperture was at F-1 and the shutter speed at 1/40 second. I was using my CIR-PL, warming filter and UV filter in order to eliminate some of the glare from the bright sun. This is a hike that you should take if you want to get a really good birds eye view of the Pacific Ocean with the coastline in full view as well as the forest, beaches, coves, wildflowers, wildlife and many other things that most ocean hikes just don’t offer.