Secret Beach
Following the Oregon Coast Trail will take you down to Thunder Rock Cove before it loops back up the hill, crosses the upper part of a shallow coast valley, then drops down to Secret Beach. You can cut out the Thunder Rock Cove trail section by taking the short cut trail to the right shortly after leaving the parking lot.
After crossing a bridge over a small stream, another trail will cross the OCT from the R or uphill side. Uphill this is a shortcut trail to a very small, unofficial parking area on the road, downhill it leads to Secret Beach. The OCT continues uphill to the north, but you have to look for it, since there are several scramble trails here.
Secret Beach seen fro trail
The trail to Secret Beach drops down to a rock at the edge of the ocean which you can climb down to the 1st beach. The view from above the rock you is beautiful! The near shore rocks & on shore rocks with the sand & trees are fantastic! This is only one of the reasons this is my favorite beach. Hopefully you will understand the other reasons from my description.
Entry rock centered
The climb down isn’t too bad, just wear shoes with soft soles & good support, & watch your step. You’ll see that the stream you crossed on the bridge is an approx. 25 ft tall waterfall dropping down to the beach. This stream at the foot of the rock flows thru beach sand. Its path varies. Sometimes it flows against the base of the rock, making it difficult to access the beach without getting your feet wet. In summer, just wear shorts & jump in, its not deep. It can also be difficult to cross with dry feet even if its channel is away from the rock. I always plan on getting my feet wet when I visit Secret Beach.
The 1st beach is very nice with a sort of gateway between 2 large rocks leading to the 2nd beach at its south end. I like to sit between these rocks with my back to the shoreward rock & watch the wave action on both beaches. There is another stream flowing across this beach flowing out of a small canyon. This interesting canyon can be explored a short ways.
From this beach, during the summer, you will often be able to see a small herd of Sea Lions sunning their selfs on a rock ledge north of the rock you climbed down to get to Secret Beach. A pair of binoculars will help.
The south end of this beach narrows between rocks & stops at a rock wall approx 15 ft. high. This wall bars the way to the 3rd & 4th beaches & is the reason this is called Secret Beach. There are a couple of ways to access these beaches. 1st, you can watch the tide charts for negative low tides, then scramble around the end of this rock wall. At really low tides, you may not even get your feet wet. Once around the wall it is a short climb to the beach. The other way is to climb over the rock wall. This is a pretty easy climb up, but can be somewhat difficult climbing back down. Long legs really help & you can see the foot holds when climbing down, but it is straight down with jagged rock at the bottom. Note: you can see a natural tunnel in the large rock near the shore, but you would have to get very wet to get to it.
4th Beach looking back toward entry
Once on the 3rd beach, you can access this tunnel from the beach. Some times what I call 3rd & 4th beaches are combined. The reason I call them 3rd & 4th beaches is because most times there is a low rock ridge, that juts out into the ocean, up to 6 ft. tall separating them. But sometimes this ridge is buried under drifting sand. They are easy to scramble over at any height.
Rounding a rock point you will see a large opening in the rock wall to the south. This rock wall is the tableland described in the Thunder Rock Cove post. You can climb onto the rock inside this tunnel & watch the waves push thru the other sea tunnels into Thunder Rock Cove, very cool! This tunnel is also the tunnel that makes the thunder sound during storms as the waves wash thru it.
The cave with Thunder Cove in background.
Waves surging thru this cave during storms give Thunder Cove its name.
The way out of Secret Beach is to back track the way you came. I hope once you visit this series of beaches, you will understand why this is my favorite beach.
The last recommendation in the Samuel H. Boardman State Scenic Corridor is Arch Rock. This is accessed via a parking lot with restrooms on Rt 101. Short walks to fenced cliff tops will take you to views of Arch Rock & the coast. The reason for the fences is because stupid people & dogs often fell from these cliffs. In addition to the places I’ve described, there are miles of good hiking all along this coast.
Enjoy the next post. Pistol River
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