We had wanted to go to Cascade Head now that it's open again, but wow, it was mobbed! Well, Sunday at the coast, nice weather, hot weather inland, what do you expect? If your answer is full campgrounds, abundant crowds, and minor traffic jams, you're correct!
So, totally at random, since we'd not yet been, it was off to Beaver Creek State Natural Area, between Newport and Waldport, across from Ona Beach.
https://stateparks.oregon.gov/index.cfm ... parkId=191
https://stateparks.oregon.gov/index.cfm ... 090731.pdf
It's been talked about in one trip report so far: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=10485&p=71908
And that's a fairly accurate description, even more than a decade later. The trails are mostly old farm roads and/or paths that are mown or hacked out from the happily encroaching vegetation. This is a pleasant ramble, not a challenging adventure through untamed wilderness to an amazing high-elevation viewpoint. Most of it is through forest, often skirting meadows or marshy areas. There are some ups and downs, but nothing extreme. The main loop is 3-4 miles, depending on which connector trail you use, and the crisscrossing trails and smaller loops are all on the order of a mile or less. The park claims to have 6 miles of trails, for whatever that's worth. Trail junctions are mostly marked but they are sometimes easy to overlook.
However, it was deserted! We saw one other small group of people (with dogs properly leashed) near the end of the hike, and that was it. No one was parked in any of the parking lots when we got there, and only the one other car in the lot when we left. From that aspect alone, I can definitely recommend this as a good hike if you want a bit of solitude on the coast when the more famous/spectacular places are overrun.
The park is quiet and feels remote -- we could hear cars from 101 at a few points on the trail, but mostly it was just the sound of birds and the wind through the trees and grasses. We only walked the so-called "outer loop", the Beaver Loop trail. The Beaver Marsh connector was still under water or mud or both, so we started from the service road off of South Beaver Creek Road.
There were recent reports of elk on the Elk Meadow trail and a mama bear with two cubs on the Snaggy Point trail. We saw frogs and birds, along with prints from either an elk or a large deer, and something that was either a very large dog or a small bear (somewhat indistinct, but claws visible, and yeah, more likely to be a dog than a bear).
The usual summer wildflowers are out, the skunk cabbage is flourishing, the salmonberries are ripe, the elderberries aren't (except for some of the red ones), and everything that should be green is indeed nicely green. From what we could tell, the wetlands are in pretty reasonable shape.
We plan to return again, this time on purpose, and with our kayaks. The creek is apparently a very nice kayaking route (go downstream in the morning to the ocean, then upstream in the afternoon when the ocean breezes kick up; not sure if it should also be timed with the tides). Next time we'll finish exploring the other trails that crisscross the park, and hopefully the seasonal trails will be sufficiently navigable.