Cape Lookout South Face

Cape Lookout is a basalt headland roughly 2 miles long that projects about 1.5 miles into the Pacific southwest of Tillamook. On its south side, the cliff base drops to the dive area below sea cliffs rising to about 200 feet. Access is boat only; there is no shore route to the south face. Divers commonly launch small boats from the Netarts Bay Boat Ramp and round the south end of the Netarts spit, or charter out of Garibaldi to the north. Bull kelp anchors at about 15 feet along the base of the cliff and grows up through the water column to the surface, and surge below the site has been documented to 50 feet.

Cape Lookout State Park sits on the sand spit north of the cape, with the Cape Trail climbing to the tip; the south face itself is a boat approach only. The stewardship-based Cape Lookout Marine Conservation Area covers roughly 2 miles of cliffs, rocky intertidal, and subtidal reef on the south side and tip of the cape. Management here relies on stewardship and education rather than regulatory restrictions.

At the base of the south face, bull kelp forms one of the only kelp beds on the Oregon north coast, giving the site a kelp forest biome. Below the kelp canopy, the basalt cliff base is a rocky reef biome, with cliff-face structure that carries rockfish and lingcod. Scuba divers and spearfishermen work the site for both. The south-facing orientation makes the site a wind bailout when the north and northwest wind is blowing; south swell knocks the site out just as reliably.

Access is boat-only, so parking depends on the launch used. Small-boat access runs from the Netarts Bay Boat Ramp; Garibaldi to the north is the charter option. Subtidal kelp harvest is prohibited inside the Cape Lookout Marine Conservation Area, and intertidal invertebrate take is prohibited except for clams, Dungeness crab, red rock crab, mussels, piddocks, scallops, and shrimp, with those prohibitions enforced. Statewide finfish regulations otherwise apply, so spearfishing is legal under standard Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife rules, with the 2026 Ocean Endorsement required for ocean spearfishing.