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CoastWatch Mile 156 County Douglas Description Oregon Dunes NRA, over dunes from Tahkenitch Creek Boundaries N 43° 49.059', W 124° 10.009' to N 43° 48.285', W 124° 10.202' Google Maps Nearby Roads, Directions to/from, Google photos, Satellite image, Terrain overlay OPRD Map Siltcoos to Tahkenitch Creek (2), to Threemile Cr Vehicles • Motor vehicle travel is prohibited from the Lane County-Douglas County line (43° 51.8604', Mile 160), southerly to approximately one mile south of the mouth of Tahkenitch Creek (43° 47.4330', Mile 155). Weather Current Weather Conditions at nearby stations (may take a minute or two on a dialup connection) Tides The NOAA Tide Predictions site may be found here. Click on the station nearest to your location to see predicted tides in graphical and tabular formats. Photo Mile 156 looking north   10/8/10 oldMGguy

7 REPORTS FOR MILE 156: JELong Jun 20, 2012 12:00 PM   The entire length of mile 156 is now a protected nesting zone for Snowy Plovers. It has been roped off from behind the fore-dune to approximately 10 feet above the summer mean high tide line. This encompasses the top 60 to 70 feet of the beach and is where the majority of objects have been stranded. Unless one were to violate the "do-not-enter" rule, it is not possible to closely exam most items behind the rope. Fortunately, we did not notice any debris or large objects of interest that we felt needed to be investigated in any detail. Whereas this is great the for nesting Plovers, it makes for a very boring mile report.   MORE  oldMGguy Oct 8, 2010 1:00 PM   Due to the nice weather, I hiked the entire 4.5- mile US Forest Service's Oregon Dunes Overlook Loop Trail #1334. From the parking lot, it's a short mile to the beach, then 1.1 miles down the beach to the southwest loop trailhead that loops back to the parking lot via a sand trail thru dunes, a tree island, and deflation plain. If you want to have a mile of Oregon beach entirely to yourself, do this hike on a weekday! Nothing out of the ordinary to report, except there's quite a pile of floats, crab pot rope, styrofoam, plastic bottles, etc at both beach trailheads that hikers have pulled off the beach and deposited back behind the first dune line.   MORE    Mile 156 looking north    Mile 156 looking south    Date: Oct 8, 2010 12:00 AM Nothing like having a mile of Oregon beach entirely to yourself!    JELong Sep 8, 2010 1:00 PM   Not much out of the ordinary for this stretch of beach. The summer winds had blown sand back onto the beach and filled in along the base of the foredune, covering a lot of the more permanent old driftwood stumps and logs as well as other debris. The only evidence of humans were the tire tracks of the Forest Service truck that the biologists use to monitor the Snowy Plover nesting area on the sand spit north of the mouth of Tahkenitch Creek.   MORE  JELong Mar 23, 2010 12:00 PM   What a great March day on the Oregon Coast! Almost still in the morning, no clouds or wind, temp around 60, just my dear friend Bonnie and I hiking the dunes and the beach north of the mouth of Tahkenitch Creek. Man, it just doesn't get much better than that! Although the wind picked up quite a bit in the afternoon, it didn't deter us from our appointed rounds. We got in our 5 mile loop hike as always. The lack of any shore birds, either dead or alive, was somewhat of a surprise although I haven't seen many for quite a long time. Perhaps they just don't hang out on mile 156 anymore. The large volume of beach sand this time of year was also surprising. There was virtually no erosion of the foredune or beach. As usual, this is a pretty quiet mile of the coast, very few people, no development, no vehicles, not much disturbance of any kind, save for the Plover closure fencing and monitoring activity. Just the way I like it!   MORE    Crab molt with both eyes    Date: Mar 23, 2010 12:00 AM JELong Jun 21, 2008 12:00 PM   We saw very little wildife activity, only a few small shorebirds and the one eagle. There were extremely few items of any kind washed ashore, they had probably already been buried under the influx of sand that has washed ashore.   MORE  JELong Mar 8, 2008 12:30 PM   I hiked with my friend Bonnie on her mile, 157, then we headed south down my mile, 156. We both noted the almost total absence of foredune erosion or sand scouring on the upper beach. Although the sandy beach was about 1/3 to 1/2 narrower then in mid-summer, the sand on the remaining beach was as deep as I remember seeing it during the winter. There was an almost complete lack of debris except for a few plastic bottles, one tire and one styrofoam float. In light of the old shipwrecks and cannons that had been uncovered at other sections of the Oregon coast this winter, we were quite surprised (and highly disappointed) that we had no new buried treasures to discover on our miles. But we found a really great lunch spot out of the wind and the turkey sandwiches were quite good, so we got over it.   MORE  JELong May 26, 2007 12:00 PM   I saw more people on my mile this time than ever. I believe this was because it was Memorial Day weekend, and a group of about 8 people had hiked in and camped on one of the oxbows of Tahkenitch creek, less than a 1/2 mile walk out to the beach. Also, the creek was low enough to wade across very easily, so some folks may have accessed my mile from the south from Tahkentich Lake campground trailhead. Otherwise there was nothing of any significance except for the unusual dead fish skeletons.   MORE