Tillamook Rock Lighthouse sits on a basalt sea stack a mile offshore from Tillamook Head, visible from Seaside beach on clear days as a small white tower on a dark rock. You cannot visit it — there is no dock, no safe landing, and it is private property. Its appeal is entirely visual and historical, which turns out to be considerable.
The lighthouse was built in 1881 under genuinely difficult conditions, constructed on an isolated wave-washed rock in the Pacific with no sheltered anchorage and constant Atlantic swell. Mariners called it "Terrible Tilly." The light guided ships into the Columbia River and down the Oregon coast for 76 years before automation made manned lighthouses obsolete. It is most dramatic seen from the upper viewpoints on the Tillamook Head Trail in winter, when the Pacific swell is running and spray visibly washes over the rock.