5 min
Overview
The lovely looping Siltcoos River winds through a landscape of forested dunes and deposits itself in the Pacific Ocean at a secluded beach, which is off limits to ATVs on either side of the river mouth. The main trail here is the Waxmyrtle Trail, which will take you above the river, offering a pretty vista over its estuary, and on through shore pine woods and a marshy deflation plain to reach the sea. You can do two other short loops to bookmark this hike and make a decent outing of it. Begin your excursion by taking the Waxmyrtle Beach Trail, which leads past the kiosk on the left side of the parking area. Pass through a thicket of salal and evergreen huckleberry before reaching the entrance road. Cross the road to begin the Lagoon Trail. There’s a boardwalk to begin the walk and interpretive signs all along the loop to explain the ecology of the “lagoon.” In fact this oxbow lake, once a meander in the Siltcoos River, was created when the beach road was constructed in the 1930s, effectively straightening the Siltcoos and creating this backwater. Two notable invasive species, both from South America, have thrived in this environment. One is the nutria (Myocastor coypus), a large aquatic rodent that was imported into Oregon in the 1930s to be reared for its fur; you may notice their runways through the sedges. The other unwelcome resident is an aquatic plant from the Amazon, the parrotfeather (Myriophyllum aquaticum), which plays havoc with the ecosystem by shading out native algae that are at the bottom of the food chain. At the junction that closes the loop, keep left. The trail passes along the edge of the forest with views out to the oxbow. In the wet season, it can be flooded in places, so watch your step! Shore pine, waxmyrtle, and willow form a canopy, with spiraea and slough sedge lining the lagoon. Look for great blue herons, buffleheads, and grebes. If you’re lucky, you may also see otters gliding smoothly along the forested edge of the backwater, which is slowly filling in and converting to marsh
Trail Stats
0.0 km
27 m
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Photos
400px-SiltcoosRiverMap
400px-SiltcoosRiverMap
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250px-Shore_pine_woods%2C_Waxmyrtle_Trail%2C_Siltcoos_River
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250px-Great_blue_heron%2C_Siltcoos_Lagoon
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250px-Oxbow_Lake%2C_Lagoon_Trail%2C_Siltcoos_River
250px-Pacific_Labrador_tea_%28Ledum_glandulosum_columbianum%29%2C_Siltcoos_Lagoon
250px-Pacific_Labrador_tea_%28Ledum_glandulosum_columbianum%29%2C_Siltcoos_Lagoon
400px-Siltcoos_estuary%2C_Oregon_Dunes_NRA
400px-Siltcoos_estuary%2C_Oregon_Dunes_NRA