Travelogue

Lolo Hiking the Oregon Dunes National Recreation AreaWe had two days and 440 miles to cover to get to Seattle to scoop up Tommy from work on Friday to begin our Washington State adventure. That didn’t exactly give us time to do justice to the Oregon Coast Highway, so we would have to be quite selective in our stops.

I had picked up a copy of the Oregon Coast Mile-by-Mile Guide at a visitor center and was finding it very useful in efficiently plotting our day. It gave an excessively detailed milepost by milepost breakdown of sights along the Highway. After quickly flipping through its pages, I selected two must sees: the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area and Heceta Head Lighthouse.

Figuring out how to visit Oregon Dunes NRA was not as easy as it seemed, as there were only a few places where the dunes were accessible. These were serious dunes. In fact, they are the largest expanse of coastal dunes in all of North America, extending for more than 40 miles along the coast. However, the Milepost guide helped me find the Oregon Dunes Overlook at Milepost 200.8 – this guide was great! Its mileposts even went down to the decimal point.

A short walk from the parking lot brought us to a platform that looked out over the dunes and to the Pacific. Usually we are not easily satisfied with just looking, so Herb and I decided to hike the down through the dunes and out to the ocean and back – 2.3 miles in total. It was very definitely worth the time and effort invested.

Description

Oregon Dunes National Recreation AreaThe Oregon Dunes Overlook is located at milepost 200.8, about 40 miles north of Coos Bay and 10 miles south of Florence. A short walk from the parking lot are viewing platforms high atop a forested sand dune that overlook a portion of the vast expanse of dunes that comprises the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area.

A 3 ½ mile loop trail leads from the Overlook through the dunes and out to the ocean.

These dunes, which were formed by millions of years of wind and rain erosion, are the largest expanse of coastal sand dunes in North America.