Beaver Creek Loop Hike

Overview

Beaver Creek's 375 acres were added to the Oregon State Park system in 2010 after the land here was purchased with state lottery funds and federal dollars from a Fish and Wildlife Service Coastal Wetland Grant. The home on the property was remodeled to become a small visitor center, and a short loop trail leads from here to a viewpoint over the expansive marshes below. Another trail leads from the visitor center through a band of spruce forest. After a short stint on Beaver Creek Road, you can pick up the Beaver Marsh Trail from the Kayak Slough Trailhead. This leads across the marsh to a network of trails around the forested knoll at Snaggy Point. The connection across the marshes is only open seasonally when water levels drop, so during the height of the wet season (late fall into spring), you need to park at the Beaver Creek Winter Trailhead to access the Snaggy Point trails. In 2013, the Beaver Creek State Natural Area was combined with the state park at Ona Beach to form the new Brian Booth State Park, named after the first Chair of the Oregon State Parks and Recreation Commission. First, stop in at the visitor center, open only during the afternoons seven days a week. Exhibits tell about the wildlife, plants, and ecology of the marshes. Bird feeders attract a variety of colorful species, especially in the spring and fall. From the visitor center, walk southwest past the parking area to pick up the short Overlook Loop, which arrives at an interpretive viewpoint over the wetlands. Return to the parking area and take the Beaver Marsh Trail down the slope through salal thickets. You'll pass pass an abandoned connector trail and walk under powerlines to enter a Sitka spruce/hemlock/alder forest on a chip trail bordered by skunk-cabbage. Soon reach Beaver Creek Road, where you need to go right and follow the road verge down to the Kayak Slough Trailhead. Pick up a grassy path that tunnels through willows and passes over a spiraea-lined channel. Next, you'll reach Kayak Slough, with its canoe launch deck. Conti

Trail Stats

Photos

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