SILTCOOS, Ore. — There's something special about seeing the great outdoors from a river’s point of view, and visit to Oregon's southern coast provides an opportunity to explore a river that is filled with wonder and surprise.
A paddle trip from freshwater to the ocean along the Siltcoos River Canoe Trail passes through the heart of the Oregon Dunes. Local paddler Marty Giles of Wavecrest Discoveries says the outdoor life doesn’t get much simpler than a kayak, a paddle and a life jacket to travel the trail.
The Silltcoos River offers an easy-going sort of adventure with little current and no rapids, Giles says. It’s a three-and-a-half mile protected water trail that can be paddled in half a day.
"It flows through the heart of the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area," he says. "People come from all over to experience 32,000 acres of sand, forest, rivers and lakes amid the only temperate sand dunes in North America."
The Dunes National Recreation Area stretches more than 42 miles from Florence to Coos Bay, and it's an Oregon landmark for outdoor recreation.
But where did all that dune sand come from?
"It came from the mountains – the mountains in the Cascade Range," says US Forest Service spokesperson Gayle Gill. "Thousands and thousands of years ago, glaciers melted and carried the debris – sand sediments – to the ocean and deposited them out there. There are no rocky headlands to prevent the sand from coming back out of the ocean, and so the waves and wind pushed it back up on the land, and that’s what we have today."
Many visitors plan part of their vacation time at Jesse Honeyman State Park, one of the oldest parklands in the state, located just south of Florence.
The tradition of camping in the park reaches back nearly 80 years, to the days of the Civilian Conservation Corps. Thousands of young men from the east coast joined the Corps and built the park in 1933.
Our river journey
We began our trip at the US Forest Service Lodgepole Wayside, a day site along the Siltcoos River and just a stone’s throw from Honeyman State Park. Yet along the Siltcoos River, it felt a million miles away from human hubbub and noise.
The river zigs and zags sharply at low tide, and many of the river bends are framed by huge sandbanks. At ebb tide, we watched for logs and branches that were silent and sobering reminders that we were on an adventurous trail.
"It courses from a narrow freshwater stream environment out to the estuary and close to ocean," Giles said. "The character of the riverway changes quite a bit – like most coastal streams, there will be a lot of branches and logs and woody debris in the stream."
Cyndy Williams and her husband JC Campos had never done anything like this trip before, but they loved every minute of it. The couple traveled from their home in Portland to be our guests on the daylong adventure.
As the pair paddled, they soon discovered that the Siltcoos River offered intimate moments where nature’s touch can restore the soul.
"Ohhh, I am hooked,” Campos said with a smile. "Kayaking is now one of our new choices to get around Oregon."
Before long, our downriver journey slowed across a much wider waterway with tall sedge grasses that seemed to wave us along from shore.
We noticed important warning signs along the estuary shore – roped areas that marked a beach closure in effect from March 15 to September 15. It’s an important nesting area for small shorebirds called Snowy Plovers that are protected as an endangered species.
We were soon three miles from the start and in the heart of the estuary. It was a view that offered sneak peeks across the sand of the crashing ocean surf. We also noted varied shorebird species that were probing muck of the marshes – often right by our sides.
It's the sort of adventure guaranteed to set your clock back and leave you refreshed and ready for more adventures. The Siltcoos River Canoe Trail is open anytime.
No permits are required to paddle the Siltcoos River Trail but a US Forest Service Northwest Forest Pass – available for day or annual purchase – is required at Lodgepole Wayside. Siltcoos River Resort rents boats, paddles and life jackets.
RELATED: Grant's Getaways: Kids 'n Cricks
Be sure to follow my Oregon adventures via the new Grant’s Getaways Podcast. Each segment is a story-telling session where I relate behind-the-scenes stories from four decades of travel and television reporting.
You can also learn more about many of my favorite Oregon travels and adventures in the Grant’s Getaways book series, including:
- "Grants Getaways I," Photography by Steve Terrill
- "Grant's Getaways II," Photography by Steve Terrill
- “Grant’s Getaways: 101 Oregon Adventures,” Photography by Jeff Kastner
- “Grant’s Getaways: Guide to Wildlife Watching in Oregon,” Photography by Jeff Kastner
- “Grant’s Getaways: Oregon Adventures with the Kids,” Photography by Jeff Kastner
The collection offers hundreds of outdoor activities across Oregon and promises to engage a kid of any age.
My next book, "Grant’s Getaways: Another 101 Oregon Adventures" will be published in November.