Miles: 4.8 miles RT (from campground, a half mile longer from trailhead on HWY 101)
Elevation Gain/Highest: 140ft/147ft (expect a lot of up and down, though, over the dunes)
Map: Forest Service Map, My GAIA
Favorite Eats After Hike: Pelican Pub & Brewery, Pacific Kitchen at Nye Beach, Rogue Ales, Kyra’s Bakery, Bierly Brewing Company, or just Pack A Cooler. You can learn more about these places in my Must Hike Must Eat Eating Out Guide. The Safeway in Reedsport has a pretty decent selection of organic and whole foods.
Find out current conditions and as always, practice Leave No Trace. Pretty please.
Hike details:
The John Dellenback Dunes Trail is the longest sand dune trail on the Oregon Coast and a part of the Oregon Dunes NRA and Siuslaw National Forest. The trail itself is defined by wooden markers that run from near the Eel Creek Campground along HWY 101 towards the Pacific Ocean. If you start at the trailhead on HWY 101, the trail first crosses Eel Creek and offers a 1 mile interpretive loop before continuing on to the dunes.
You start out in the forest on a wide, sandy path and soon breakout onto the rolling sand dunes. The wooden markers are reassuring but simply taking a westerly direction between the two islands of trees on your left and right (more to the left) will have you arrive at the forest that forms a wall between the dunes and the beach. Look for hiker signs that take you north and through a tunnel of trees, including salal and twin berry, and onto a boardwalk over a marsh. From there the trail breaks out into coastal grasses and shrub before dropping down onto the shoreline.
This trail has restrictions March 15th-September 15th to protect the snowy dover that makes its home here. Check the forest service website for details. The main restriction is that dogs are not allowed on the beach itself.
My trip reports:
8/5-6/2021
My family did some camping at Eel Creek Campground and I had a chance to visit the dunes in a different season than winter (see detailed trip below). Summer brings lupine and beach strawberry to the sand and abundant berries to the salal and twinberry to the coastal forest.
I snapped a picture this time of the island of trees to head towards, the trail drops down from the dunes just to the right of it.
The upper section of the beach was marked off for the snowy plover but there was plenty of wet sand to wander down the shore and find a seat to enjoy the waves. It was disappointing to see so many dog owners not heeding the signs, there are dog friendly beaches nearby. We watched the waves lap and snacked before returning the way we had come.
I also took the 1 mile interpretive loop that starts at the trailhead and circles up to the dunes, through the campground, past a quaint pond and back. This is a great alternative if you don’t have time for the trek to the beach and want to get a taste of the dunes landscape.
11/22/2020
We were heading down the Oregon Coast for a winter road trip and when it was late enough to pullover for the night, we came upon the Eel Creek Campground and reserved ourselves a spot online. There were only a few other cars so we had our pick.
After settling in, I checked GPS and our Day Hiking The Oregon Coast book and realized we had a trail right from the campground! It wasn’t part of our plan but we decided to get up before dawn and head out to explore it in the dark so we could be back and on the road by 9am.
Leaving from a trailhead on the backside of the northern loop with our headlamps on, we started up sand choked stairs and through a downed tree to break out onto the dunes. There were a few sets of tracks to follow but we just opted for a direct route towards the ocean. I chose not to run a track to the beach, just on the way back. It was part eerie and part fascinating as we made our way across the dunes in the dark. The light from our headlamps carried far so we could see each other in the distance but would soon disappear when one of us dropped down over a hill. The sky was bright with stars but the moon was faint.
It took about an hour to get across the 1.75 miles worth of dunes to where they drop down into coastal forest again and along a boardwalk. This short quarter mile tunnel of vegetation was interesting as there were spots on the boardwalk where downed trees had to be navigated and the planks were slick from early morning frost.
It was still dark when we left the forest and out onto the grassy folds before the seashore. The shoreline sign lit up with florescence as we approached and dropped down to the beach. The wind was up so we retraced our steps to the grass and made some warm drinks and ate breakfast as the sun began to rise behind us.
We spent about 15-20 minutes walking north on the beach picking up trash and enjoying the cotton candy skies before heading back to the dunes trail around 7:30 am.
Daylight made our walk back entirely different, noticing bright red mushrooms and the tiny tracks of wildlife.
Once we were back across the boardwalk and out from the line of coastal trees, my hubby took a route back that went up and down more of the hills, while I followed the trail marked with tall wooden posts with a blue strip and with my GPS. You can tell some of the dunes have shifted and to follow the posts exactly is not the most intuitive path to take. As long as you head east and between the two islands of trees, you will find the trail out.
Once on the other side of the dunes, there were signs marked for the trailhead or the campground, we followed the trail north through the forest and back to our campsite by 8:45am.
Directions: From Reedsport, Oregon travel 10.5 miles south on Highway 101. Trailhead is on the west side of highway near mile marker 222 just 1/4 mile south of the Eel Creek Campground. You can also find trailhead access from within the campground as I did. A Northwest Forest Pass is needed and day passes are available at the Oregon Dunes Visitor Center in Reedsport. The parking lot for the trailhead has privies, picnic tables and room for about 20 cars to park.
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