Central Oregon Coast: Fishing Rock to Cummins Creek

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bobcat
Posts: 2764
Joined: August 1st, 2011, 7:51 am
Location: SW Portland

Central Oregon Coast: Fishing Rock to Cummins Creek

Post by bobcat » January 8th, 2017, 10:27 am

We spent a few days based in Newport after New Year’s. Our desire was to escape to more tropical climes, and indeed it was positively balmy, with temperatures rising to the high 30s every day.

1. Cummins Creek Loop

I got away for this one on my own. The Cummins Creek Trail runs just outside the Cummins Creek Wilderness, but I took the unofficial spur trail into the wilderness proper and then floundered along the creek among the bogs and big Sitka spruce for about a mile or so before returning to the main trail.
Looking across Cummins Creek, Cummins Creek Wilderness.jpg
The Three Guardians, Cummins Creek Wilderness.jpg
Sitka spruce, Cummins Creek Wilderness.jpg
Bottomland pond, Cummins Creek Wilderness.jpg
I headed up the ridge a reached a grassy hillside below a knoll. A spur trail leads out to a glimpse of the ocean. By this time, at about 1,200 feet, I was in fresh snow, and hiked a wintry scene up to the junction with the Cooks Ridge Trail. This took me below the snow line again, and I returned to the trailhead via the Gwynn Creek Trail: by far the best old-growth trail on the Coast in my opinion. I kept standing in awe to ogle massive Douglas-firs, hemlocks, and Sitka spruce.
Woodsy denizen, Cummins Creek Trail.jpg
View to the Cummins knoll, Cummins Creek Trail.jpg
Ocean view, Cummins Knoll.jpg
Snowy alders, Cummins Creek Trail.jpg
Junction, Cooks Ridge Trail, Cummins Creek Trail.jpg
Douglas-firs, Gwynn Creek Trail.jpg
2. Depoe Bay

We stopped here going and coming to walk the sea wall above the pillow lavas. The narrow entrance to the “world’s smallest harbor” used to be a deep chasm similar to Oneonta Gorge when sea levels were lower during the last ice age. Like that Gorge, the rock here is also composed of Columbia River Basalts. We enjoyed the spouting horn, at its best when the tide is coming in, and I lowered myself by the ropes in place (It was icy) to the pocket beach nestled under a colorful sandstone bluff. The formations here used to be part of a spectacular natural arch that finally eroded away, I think in the late 1950s?
Looking to the harbor, Depoe Bay.jpg
Spouting Horn, Depoe Bay.jpg
Picnic bench and shore pines, Depoe Bay Scenic Park.jpg
Sandstone fingers, Depoe Bay.jpg
Arch Rock Cove, Depoe Bay.jpg
Jetsam, Arch Rock Cove, Depoe Bay.jpg
Striped cliffs, Arch Rock Cove, Depoe Bay.jpg
Remains of Arch Rock, Depoe Bay.jpg
We also walked out to the short trail that leads around the headland north of the bay. Waves also crash against the lava here, and basalt sills protect the sandstone inlet of Pirate Cove.
On Depoe Bay Headland.jpg
Pirate Cove lathered in foam, Depoe Bay Headland.jpg
3. Nye Beach

We awoke one morning to find a couple of inches of snow carpeting the beach. Locals said it was only the second snow in ten years. This called for a stroll up to Agate Beach. While the gulls were shivering, apparently the little mole crabs found it a good time to molt, and their exoskeletons were littering the beach in places.
Concretions, Nye Beach, Newport.jpg
Mole crab exoskeletons, Agate Beach, Newport.jpg
Yaquina Head from Agate Beach, Newport.jpg
Big Creek and Yaquina Head, Agate Beach, Newport.jpg
4. Ona Beach and Seal Rock

Later the same day, we motored down to Ona Beach and walked the wave-cut platform there. The rills and fissures in the sandstone are complemented by rows of rounded concretions composed of harder rock. This area has been a trove for fossil hunters. One of the most prolific was Douglas Emlong, who found the remains of megafuana such as a desmostylian (a hippopotamus-like creature); an ancient sea-lion that resembled its bear-like ancestors; and a whale that possessed both teeth and baleen.
Footbridge over Beaver Creek, Ona Beach.jpg
Icicles, Ona Beach.jpg
Looking north, Ona Beach.jpg
Wave-cut platform, Ona Beach.jpg
Killdeer (Charadrius vociferous), Ona Beach.jpg
It’s two miles from the mouth of Beaver Creek to Seal Rocks. Before the headland a trail leads up the bluff to Highway 101, and then it’s a short distance south to Seal Rock State Park. Grassy Tourist Rock here is a nesting site for birds, especially black oystercatchers. North and south runs a series of stacks, part of a basalt sill. The beach is dominated by Elephant Rock, with its columnar basalt overlying a layer of Yaquina Formation sandstone. The basalts here are the southernmost examples of Columbia River Basalt flows (Wanapum member).
Castle Rock, Seal Rocks, the Giant's Causeway, Seal Rock State Park.jpg
Elephant Rock, Seal Rock State Park.jpg
Refuge sign, Seal Rock State Park.jpg
Elephant Rock and Tourist Rock, Seal Rock State Park.jpg
Offshore rocks,, Seal Rock State Park.jpg
Looking south, Seal Rock State Park.jpg
5. Fishing Rock

Driving back to Portland, we decided to check out Fishing Rock State Park. There’s a gravel parking area just a quarter mile off of Highway 101. Then you tunnel through a dense thicket of Sitka spruce, shore pine, and wax-myrtle (part of the Oregon Coast Trail) to reach a grassy headland with a view down to Fishing Rock, a lava island separated from the mainland by a churning crevasse. Views south take in a set of inaccessible small beaches that are inundated at high tide. Looking north, the sandy beach extends about six miles to the end of Salishan Spit.
Wax-myrtle thicket, Fishing Rock.jpg
Looking south, Fishing Rock.jpg
Grassy headland, Fishing Rock.jpg
Tip of the headland, Fishing Rock.jpg
Looking up Lincoln Beach to Cascade Head, Fishing Rock.jpg
Fishing Rock, Fishing Rock.jpg

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retired jerry
Posts: 14398
Joined: May 28th, 2008, 10:03 pm

Re: Central Oregon Coast: Fishing Rock to Cummins Creek

Post by retired jerry » January 8th, 2017, 12:57 pm

weird to see snow and ice there

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kelkev
Posts: 800
Joined: May 28th, 2008, 10:03 pm
Location: McMinnville, OR

Re: Central Oregon Coast: Fishing Rock to Cummins Creek

Post by kelkev » January 8th, 2017, 3:26 pm

I agree, the old growth on the Cummins Creek trail is pretty grand. Thanks for sharing!
"Going to the mountains is going home."
— John Muir

Jesse
Posts: 103
Joined: June 6th, 2009, 2:48 pm

Re: Central Oregon Coast: Fishing Rock to Cummins Creek

Post by Jesse » January 9th, 2017, 10:17 am

Great post and pictures. I don't know if you realize what a rare treat it is to see snow and ice formations on the coast like that. It doesn't happen very often and you captured it beautifully.

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