Indian Sands Trail in Brookings, Oregon

There are so many little nooks and crannies we have yet to discover in Southern Oregon. One of our favorite day trips is to Brookings, the southernmost coastal city in Oregon. We like to go there for a quick visit to the beach, hiking, and even camping.

The time we happened across a turnoff just north of Brookings labeled “Indian Sands”. As we pulled into the large circular parking area, we saw some people descending from a hiking train on the Southern Side (opposite where there was an info board and no visible trail on the North side of the lot). We decided to follow their path, and started up the hill onto a wide, well-worn trail.

We kept seeing little side paths branch out from there, but we stuck to the main path for the meantime. About 10 minutes later we ran across a fisherman who said he’d been fishing this area since he was a little boy, and he gave us a recommendation on which trail to follow. After the trail went up and over a hill, it started descending out of the woods, and he recommended we go right (Northwest, towards the ocean), instead of left which would take us along the long Oregon Coastal hiking trail. Upon turning right, we soon came upon a huge sandy area!

To say the kids had fun sliding down and climbing up the giant sand dune would be an understatement.

 

 

I can’t get enough of this baby face!

From the dunes we could see the cliff side and big drops down to the ocean. We stayed clear of those, but still enjoyed the beauty.

Eli happily fell asleep in the backpack as the bigger kids explored. We found some parts of the sand weathered and marked by visitors.

I’m usually a “don’t leave a mark” kind of visitor…but this time I relented. It’s sand. I figured it would would wear down soon, anyways. Therefore, Ella left her mark.

We walked over a ridge and around the corner, and came across a beautiful vista.

After everyone was starting to wear out in the heat of the sun (and the kids had sand in every nook and cranny), we decided to head back up the mountain trail to our van.

We will definitely be back to this spot…with friends!