Cleawox Lake
From Oregon Hikers Field Guide
- Hikes to this destination:
- Honeyman State Park Loop Hike (TH | <— —> | LOG)
- Weather forecast: NWS/NOAA
- Maps: Oregon Hikers Maps Google Maps
- Latitude, Longitude: 43.9319, -124.1132
- Elevation: 75 feet
Description
Cleawox Lake is really the focus of many activities in Jesse M. Honeyman Memorial State Park. There's a picnic area and dock for canoes here, and Oregon State Parks' second-largest campground is short walk away. The old CCC bathhouse is now a concession building and restroom on the National Register of Historic Places, but there's still a small swimming beach. Across from the bathhouse, you'll see the sandboarding dune.
The lake, like most others in the area, is a barrage lake created after the last ice age, when rising sea waters from melting ice drowned the lower valleys of coastal rivers. Sand dunes dammed the drowned valleys, and numerous multi-limbed lakes were formed. You can see about half of the lake from the state park; the other half is a long narrow arm that is the drowned valley of Buck Creek. Sand dunes moving about 15 to 20 feet a year are filling in the lake little by little. The lake waters are somewhat salty but surprisingly clear, and there is no outlet stream. Cleawox Lake is only 1.5 square miles in area and has a maximum depth of 50 feet.
The word cleawox is from the Siuslaw language, but its meaning is unknown.
More Links
- Cleawox Lake (Lane) (Atlas of Oregon Lakes)
- Cleawox Lake (Pete Heley)
- Cleawox Lake (100 Steps on the Oregon Coast)
Contributors
- bobcat (creator)