South of Florence on the Oregon coast is the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. We did a 4.8 mile loop hike starting and ending at the Oregon Dunes Day Use area. There’s no overall elevation gain, but you do go up and down a bit on sandy dunes.
The hike starts in the forest.
You soon come to the start of the dunes.
Leena gives a sense of the scale here.
Here’s one of the trail markers.
After more than a mile going up and down dunes you come to an area of trees, dense vegetation, and some swampy areas.
Fortunately there’s a raised path through the swamp.
You go through a final stretch in grasses before reaching the beach.
The loop back to the parking lot opens up to a few more open areas in the middle of the forest.
