37 min
Overview
About half of the trail along the south shore of Eel Lake is on state park land; the other half is on private timberland with a conservation easement. You will see clearcuts, but they can longer come down all the way to the lake shore. When land parcels were transferred to state parks in the 1960s and 1970s, the State Game Commission had to clear out all the logging debris from Eel Lake, which has now become a popular destination for bass and trout fishermen. Eel Lake itself was formed from a combination of geomorphological circumstances. Rising sea levels after the last ice age drowned river valleys all along the Pacific Coast, in this case the lower valleys of Clear Creek and Eel Creek. Later, a barrier of sand dunes formed along the coastline, effectively damming the creeks and forming the barrage lake you see today with its two distinct arms. The trail itself undulates along the south and east shores of the lake, offering direct access only at a couple of spots. It’s a shady walk in the woods among native coastal vegetation, but one of the lengthier outings in the area. The Eel Lake Trail is the main trail in William M. Tugman State Park. Tugman (1894-1961) was a journalist and first head of the State Park Advisory Committee. The lake itself is named after the Pacific lamprey, a primitive jawless fish that looks like an eel. Lampreys, like salmon, are anadromous: they spawn in fresh water, but migrate to the ocean, where they will spend one to three years as parasites attached to a variety of fish species. Lampreys migrate back to fresh water to spawn, but unlike salmon, will spend up to one year inland before doing so. From the day-use area, walk towards the shore of Eel Lake, where you can see up the Clear Creek Arm, and then head east towards the outlet of Eel Creek. You’ll reach a small building, the Eel Lake Trap, constructed to boost the almost extinct coho runs that once made this area the most abundant coho spawning ground on the Oregon Coast. While coho populations are much healthier now, the tr
Trail Stats
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187 m
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