The US West Coast has roughly 78 active lighthouses, plus dozens of decommissioned ones and around 52 more up the shore in British Columbia. A new roundup pulls out the ten most striking ones to visit — and a few you can actually sleep in.
Starting at the top: Alaska's Eldred Rock Lighthouse, the state's oldest, built in 1906 on North Lynn Canal, North America's deepest fjord. Day cruises from Haines run past it, and after a major renovation it has opened to tours and overnight guests. In Canada, the 1915 Amphitrite Point Lighthouse near Ucluelet on Vancouver Island looks like a stepped pagoda against the Pacific — and the two-mile Lighthouse Loop of the Wild Pacific Trail is an easy walk with constant ocean views.
Washington contributes two strong picks. Lime Kiln Lighthouse (1919) on San Juan Island sits inside a state park that's one of the world's best shore-based orca-watching spots, with porpoises, otters and bald eagles as a bonus. North Head Lighthouse, built in 1893 near the mouth of the Columbia River, anchors Cape Disappointment State Park, and you can book the Victorian Lighthouse Keepers' Residences if camping looks too damp.
Oregon's pair are drama-heavy. "Terrible Tilly" — the 1881 Tillamook Rock Lighthouse — perches on a sea stack best viewed from Ecola State Park near the cheese town of Tillamook; it was abandoned in 1957 and is now a wildlife refuge. Yaquina Head in Newport, at 93 feet the state's tallest, has thick five-foot base walls, a paved path along the headland and Cobble Beach tidepools at its feet.
California gets four. Point Arena on the Mendocino Coast is a 115-foot tower on the Whale Trail, with gray whales passing November through May, cottage rentals and full-moon night climbs. Anacapa Island Light Station (1932), in Channel Islands National Park, takes a boat from Oxnard and a 157-step climb, with just seven campsites if you want sunrise and sunset. Point Reyes Lighthouse, dating to 1870, means descending more than 300 steps — often into atmospheric fog. And East Brother Light Station in San Pablo Bay is an 1873 Victorian B&B on its own island, a short shuttle boat from Richmond, with five rooms, hosted meals and views of Mt Tam and the San Francisco skyline.
Not everything made the list: Point Bonita near the Golden Gate is currently off-limits because its suspension bridge access is closed, and Alcatraz's lighthouse is overshadowed by the island's bigger draw.
Why it matters: lighthouses are an easy way to structure a coastal road trip — each of these comes with trails, wildlife or a state park attached, and two of them (Eldred Rock and East Brother) double as unusual places to spend the night. The US Lighthouse Society keeps a fuller list of stay-over lighthouses, and bookalighthouse.com covers options worldwide. Pick a stretch of coast, cluster two or three lights, and you've got a weekend planned.
