I spent a couple of days doing a few short hikes on the Coos County coast, all in state parks except for the national estuarine reserve.
1. Yoakam Point
This is an undeveloped state property north of Sunset Bay. There’s a meandering set of wet and rooty user trails around this point, which consists of an upturned marine terrace, once part of a large delta, that now manifests itself as a colorful set of cliffs and islands in vertical ridges of sandstone, siltstone, and shale. This is all part of the 40 million-year-old Coaledo Formation which runs to Cape Arago. The entire profile of Chief’s Island and the Cape Arago Lighthouse is visible from here.
2. Sunset Bay to Shore Acres
I arrived at a tide too high to explore tide pools, but I did examine the big spruce root clusters at the mouth of Big Creek. One of the great Cascadia earthquakes 1,200 years ago sent this forest into the sea. Then I hiked the clifftop trail to get views of the Cape Arago Lighthouse, now the property of the Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw. Along the shoreline are otherworldly honeycomb formations and concretions of the Coaledo Formation. Lastly, I took a stroll around the botanical gardens at Shore Acres, where a few plants are blooming even in January!
3. Cape Arago
I took the old pack trail up to the Arago Peak ridge and then down past the abandoned World War II radar facility. By the time I arrived at the Simpson Reef Overlook, I could hear the braying of sea lions, but it was just past high tide and the few that were out of the water were hauled up under the deep shadow of Shell Island. There are usually four species here: northern elephant seals, California sea lions, Steller sea lions, and harbor seals. Surfers were enjoying the break at South Cove, where you could see all the way down to Cape Blanco and Humbug Mountain.
4. South Slough
There was a time when farmers drained these flats and converted them to pasture, and the hillsides were extensively logged. Now this reserve, established in 1974 and the founding property in the National Estuarine Research Reserve System, has been in the process of restoring these slopes and inlets while also hosting educational and research projects. The loop here drops down slopes of secondary forest to boardwalks and views of the restored estuaries.
5. Fivemile Point
I parked at the Seven Devils State Recreation Site and walked the beach around Fivemile Point to Whiskey Run Creek. Whiskey Run gained instant fame in 1853, when John and Peter Groslius, sons of a French Hudson’s Bay Company fur trapper, discovered gold in the black sands. Within a year, about 2,000 miners were working the deposits and a million dollars worth of placer gold was extracted. The raucous mining town of Randolph was constructed atop the bluffs ¼ mile south of the creek. It all came to an abrupt end during a violent storm in 1854, when the deposits were scoured by wave action and then buried under tons of sand and debris. Later, around 1900, Chinese miners resumed placer activity at Whiskey Run Creek for a short time. Nowadays, people have better luck with the agates. Harlequin ducks and surf scoters bobbed in the surf off Fivemile Point.
6. Bullards Beach
This was also a beach hike along a driftwood strewn beach to the 1896 Coquille River Lighthouse at the mouth of the Coquille River. I attempted to hike the river bank on the river side of the spit, but was eventually thwarted by several deep inlets and a lot of spiny gorse.
Coos Bay to Bandon 1-23 to 1-25-19
Re: Coos Bay to Bandon 1-23 to 1-25-19
Nice report, thx. I always like your posts, nice locations, photos, narrative, a bit of history, interesting geological facts - like an article out of National Geographic.
The future's uncertain and the end is always near.
Re: Coos Bay to Bandon 1-23 to 1-25-19
I always love a Coos/Curry coastal report, thank you. Grew up down there and had many adventures in the tidepools at South Cove (highlight: octopus guarding her eggs) and Sunset Bay (highlight: a pair of orca that delighted me and terrified my mother by their proximity to shore) and paddling down the South Slough to Charleston.
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Re: Coos Bay to Bandon 1-23 to 1-25-19
Nice South Coast tour, John! We traveled through there last September, but were en route to the Redwoods and didn't have much time to explore. It's so very lonely compared to the North Coast!
BTW, hope you were able to stop at Edgewaters in Bandon for some seafood -- a nice, rustic restaurant with an excellent harbor view across to the old Bandon Lighthouse. Part of our ritual when passing thru.
Tom
BTW, hope you were able to stop at Edgewaters in Bandon for some seafood -- a nice, rustic restaurant with an excellent harbor view across to the old Bandon Lighthouse. Part of our ritual when passing thru.
Tom