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A romp in a giant Northwest sandbox

Visit the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area for sandy fun

Sandboarding is the latest craze in the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. Photo credit: Joan Brown

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The towering natural sandbox that is the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area is the only place in the world where you can marvel at dunes that thrust as high as 500 feet into the sky, an ocean at their feet, festooned with coastal forests and tree islands. But they're not just standing there looking beautiful. The dunes are active formations, migrating east six to 12 feet a year. Their spectacular majesty even inspired Frank Herbert's sci-fi book, Dune.

Stretching 54 miles along the central Oregon coast, this playground has been well over 100,000 years in the making. As glaciers turned rock into sand high in the Cascade and Coast ranges, rivers swept the gritty load out to sea. There it was pushed back onto the beaches and sculpted by waves and wind to form the 32,000 acres of dunes that band the coast, from Florence to Coos Bay, in a two-mile-wide seaside Sahara.

Do the Dunes Your Way
It's refreshing to revert to childhood atop a one-of-a-kind sand pile, humongous enough to be a playing field for dinosaurs, that kids of all ages can climb up and roll down to their heart's content. Among the many ways to explore the area are dune buggies, ATV's, or guided tours. In addition, there are 41 miles of ocean beaches, 32 freshwater lakes, three rivers, three streams, 15 campgrounds, 30+ miles of hiking trails to check out, all within the National Recreation Area.

History and Visitor Information
Stop in at the Oregon Dunes Visitors' Information Center in Reedsport where Highways 101 and 38 meet, to see a film on dune history and ecology and pick up a guide to hiking trails and other free brochures.  The center is open 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Saturday in the Summers; otherwise Monday through Friday. For more information, call 541.271.6000.

You can also learn more about the impact that land, water, and people have had on one another here over the years at Reedsport's Umpqua Discovery Center, 541.271.4816

Wildlife Abounds
Bird-watching in the dunes is spectacular, particularly in the fall and winter. In addition to Canadian geese and ducks that winter over, look for arctic tundra swans from the South Jetty Parking area. The 10-thousand acres of seasonal wetlands also support migrating and wintering pintails, mallards, widgeon, and cinnamon and blue-winged teal. Watching the annual migration of California gray whales as they trek south in November-December and back north around March is also a major attraction.

Be sure to pay an early morning or just before dusk visit to The Dean Creek Elk Viewing Area, just east of Reedsport off of Hwy. 38 to see some of their 100 roaming Roosevelt elk. By now, the mothers and their babies should be visible.

Angler's Paradise
Year-round fishing, the best on the coast, makes the area around Reedsport, Gardiner, and Winchester Bay an angler's paradise as well, with the best catch ratio in Oregon. One visitor called it "sports fishing on steroids!" Take your pick of estuary, lake and pond, river and stream or salt water fishing. The Umpqua River has a good track record for salmon and steelhead. Boat moorage, landing, and bait, as well as charter vessels, are available in Winchester Bay, Florence and the Coos Bay area.

Sea Lion Caves
Just north of Florence and the dunes region you will find the Sea Lion Caves, the largest sea grotto in the world and year-round subterranean home and refuge to wild Steller sea lions and fascinating sea birds. Comparable to the famous Mediterranean Blue Grotto of Capri, lichens, algae and mineral deposits paint the walls with striking montages of greens, blues, purples and other colors. Open daily from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., except Thanksgiving and Christmas.

It takes a little less than six hours to make the trip on I-5S to OR-38 and Reedsport. Or saunter down the coast on Hwy. 101.

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