I finally, FINALLY, got my feet -- yes, my bare feet -- upon a beach this morning. And as so often happens, after my fruitless driving and hiking in search of a beach, this one is actually within walking distance from home, within the Brookings city limits. Since the morning dawned bright and sunny and fog-free, I satisfied my early-riser instincts and left home around 7:30am for the short walk north on the highway. It can't be more than a mile, door to door, with perhaps only half that actually along the highway. There are paved bike and pedestrian paths for much of the way nearer the park.
This is not a place where one can walk right onto the beach. The parking lot sits on a bluff and you just about have to at least get out of your car to take in the entirety of the view. A paved path travels in switchbacks down the bluff to the beach, but it's fairly steep and takes a good effort to walk back uphill, so if this degree of activity doesn't appeal to you, I'd advise finding another beach. It worked just fine for me.
It's no secret to anyone who's been reading this for awhile that I love the early morning light on a beach. There's a sparkle, a magic, that appeals to me. This was a great beach for walking barefoot -- lots of clean sand, easily avoidable rocks, and while the water temp certainly wouldn't fool anyone into thinking they were in Mexico, an occasional wash of surf against ankles felt good. On the other hand, this area is a marine sanctuary and at the right tide shoes would make tide-pooling more feasible.
Another reason for barefoot beachwalking is the many streams that cross the beach as they funnel out of the hills. Almost always, these are too deep and too wide for crossing without getting wet feet. Mostly, I do it because it just plain feels good.
I could have walked further along this beach in either direction -- it's expansive and varied -- but once I was at least temporarily sated, I retraced my path home. In total, about an hour and 45 minutes of walking that couldn't have been much nicer -- that warm sunshine felt fabulous. And just because this one is so available doesn't stop the quest for others that are less available. It's the search and exploration I enjoy, as much as the fact of actually finding a beach.
I found it interesting that Sullivan characterized this trail as a short hike from the highway. That's a fair description, as far as it goes. At .7 mile each way, it's not a long hike, but with about 345 feet of elevation change over that distance, it is very steep in places with some nasty switchbacks and lots of slippery gravel of the kind that makes me nervous on descents. Not a trail for the inexperienced or out-of-condition hiker, in my opinion. And there's the return trip UP those 345 feet! Beautiful, however, and yes, the reward for my efforts was great.
This shot from near the top of the last ridge, near the highway, shows just how far away that ocean is!
Like all the trails in this area, the scenery is magnificent -- often dark and feeling rather like the forest primeval, other times sun-filtered and equally magical.
Hard to describe the feeling of emerging from the forest to be met with this!
The trail follows this wash up to and across the ridge in the distance, then on to one more ridge before reaching the highway.
This is what it's all about -- impossibly blue water, gentle surf washing ashore, cliffs and rocks and nesting seabirds -- and not another human in sight. Works for me! All in all, with all my wandering on the beach and stopping for photos, the hike took 1 hour and 45 minutes and was not particularly tiring. In fact, I felt great afterwards!
