4 min
Overview
Nestucca Spit, now Bob Straub State Park, was the site of one of Oregon’s classic environmental battles in the late 1960s. Governor Tom McCall supported the construction of a Highway 101 “freeway” straight down the spit and across the narrow mouth of Nestucca Bay. State Treasurer (later Governor) Bob Straub opposed it and his side, obviously, won the day. The loop hike here takes you south along Kiwanda Beach to the Nestucca Bay Mouth and then along the bayshore and inland into a wonderful wooded strip of stunted, lichen-draped trees above a spongy carpet of moss and kinnikinnick. For a hike about 1.5 miles shorter, you can begin at the Bob Straub State Park Trailhead. A couple of notes: The higher the tide, the narrower the strip of beach that can be hiked and, on the bay side, there is no exposed beach at all at high tide. The interior of the spit has a wetland that can be under water during the rainy season. Trails leading through the forest on the east side of the spit have multiple unsigned junctions, so keep your bearings and orient carefully. Walk out onto the beach and get views north to Haystack Rock, Cape Kiwanda, and the Great Dune. These destinations are described in the Cape Kiwanda Hike. Turn south and head along the beach, which you will also share with vehicles. Cascade Head looms on the southern horizon and soon enough the cliffs at Porter Point at the Nestucca Bay Mouth will also become visible. After the last beach house, you will enter state park territory. You can find a trail through the beach grass along the crest of the dunes and alternate walking up here with hiking the wave line. At the latter, there will almost always be small flocks of sanderlings scuttling about, sometimes mixed with western sandpipers in winter. Closer to the end of the spit, watch for seals gawking at you from the surf. From the dune crest, look across the broad sweep of the spit, with its shallow marshes and clumps of shore pine, Sitka spruce, and invasive Scots broom. In three miles, reach the Nestucca Bay
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