A Beach of Our Own: Hiking the Oceanbay Peninsula Park

Date: July 21, 2026 

Place: Bayocean Peninsula Park, Tillamook, Oregon

Coordinates: 45.520044, -123.947476

Length: 4.9 miles

Level: easy

When I took the chikas and their friend on a road trip in the summer of 2021 I had in mind a trip similar to what we did on the previous summer to Yellowstone, but less improvised and more planned. Well, a road trip like that leaves a lot of room for improvisations even with the best of planning. After our exploration in Washington State the plan was to take three days to drive along the Pacific Coast, on Highway 1, camping along the way wherever we found a place available in one of the coastal campgrounds. 

On the second day of our travel south we reached the town of Tillamook. Tillamook, named for the native nation that inhabits the area, is also the center of a huge dairy industry. We stopped at the creamery where I treated the youth to a local ice cream and myself to a nice sorbet cone. It was interesting to see the line of people for the ice cream window. Very few of them were wearing masks and no one seemed to be concerned with the 6 feet distance signs that were displayed. 

After the ice cream we continued west to Oceanbay State Park for an afternoon coastal hike. 

Our hike as captured by my GPS

There was a trail going straight to the shore but we ignored it and started our hike north along the inner part of the peninsula. 

The elder chika was thrilled that we were seeing birds right away. A Steller's jay was keeping a watchful eye on us as we walked past it. 

Steller's Jay

The inner (eastern) part of the trail was a wide, comfortable dirt road. We walked at a leisurely pace, enjoying the mild weather of Oregon's coast. 

The sky was overcast when we started our hike but the temperatures were ambient and a light breeze kept the air from getting too warm. Despite the breeze, the Tillamook Bay was very calm, with hardly any ripples. 

On good portion of that trail we had a nice view of the muddy shore of the bay. On the muddy shore were a few birds and the elder chika quickly spotted a gull of a species not common in the Bay Area - a glaucus-winged gull.

Glaucus-winged Gull

A juvenile cliff swallow was perched on a try blackberry twig, swaying gently wit the breeze. There were other swallows about, but the others were flying too fast to be caught on camera. 

Cliff Swallow, juvenile

We continued on the trail, scanning the muddy bay shore whenever the vegetation along the trail allowed it. It looked that we were there during low tide time because much of the mud was exposed. 

Tillamook Bay

The elder chika spotted a group of terns on the mud so we paused our walk for a while to look at the birds and to take some photos. 

Caspian Tern

While the chika was focused n the terns I turned my attention to the nearby trees. In particular, I liked the spruce that was so cone laden that its boughs were drooping dangerously low. 

Sitka Spruce, Picea sitchensis

We came upon an information sign that told us about the old town of Bayocean that used to be on the spit of land that we were now walking on. We didn't see any remains or relics of that town and I thought that this spot probably wasn't the best place for a year-round residence place for humans. 

In the more pen parts of the trail I saw quite a few wildflowers. The were not blooming in huge numbers but there were a good many species that were in bloom. 

Greater Bird's-foot Trefoil, Lotus peduncularis

Brambles were prevalent along the trail and all of them were in a bloom or early fruiting stage. We saw no ripe berries on the thorny vines. 

Blackberry, Rubus procerus

I was glad t have seen salal blooming there. We already encountered salal bushes in southwest Washington and also in Fort Clatsop where we visited the day before. Here the salal was also mostly in the blooming phase but we did see some ripe berries that we could enjoy. 

Salal, Gaultheria shallon

There were quite a few foxglove plants blooming near the trail. The foxglove is an introduced species, one that has been and still is being used to treat heart conditions. 

Purple Foxglove, Digitalis purpurea

Where there are berries to enjoy n can expect to find berry-eating birds. Indeed, we spotted the cedar waxwings there, checking out the berry bounty at Bayocean. 

Cedar Waxwing

Further north the trail separated from the muddy shore of the Tillamook Bay and curved into the peninsula, where it was flanked on both sides by tall conifers and thick, green bushes. 

Many of these bushes were salal, bearing large quantities of ripe berries. Salal is a wild relative of blueberries and they taste intensely sweet and tart, and is also quite waxy. The Chinook hosts of the Lewis and Clark expedition have  treated their guests to salal preserve. On the way to our campsite that evening I purchased sugar and mason jars. We harvested much salal berries near the campground and I cooked some salal preserve that evening. It gelled very well. Too well, I'd say, because it was really hard to spread it once it cooled off. 

Salal, Gaultheria shallon

When the trail neared the bay again we were treated to a a nice view of a great blue heron as it stood in ambush, waiting for little critters to come swimming by. 

Great Blue Heron

Other common wildflowers we saw blooming were of the angelica family. Many of them are so similar to one another that I have a difficult time identifying the species. I have used the iNaturalist App to identify this one. 

Queen Anne's Lace, Daucus carota

The common St. John's wort is also an introduced species with medicinal properties. I guess it wasn't too surprising to find it blooming where there used to be an early settlement of Europeans. 

Common St. John's Wort, Hypericum perforatum

I was also not surprised to see many thistles thriving along the trail, pretty much all of them invasive species. The thistles have become already an important food source for local insects. 

Bumblebee on Bull Thistle

While some insects provide pollination services fr the flowers they visit, other insects simply devower them. 

Caterpillars of Cinnabar Moth 

There was a movement in the bushes. A small chipmunk was there, munching at something. The little creature was half hidden and soon disappeared altogether. It was the only wild mammal we saw on that hike. 

Townsend's Chipmunk

The trail changed from a dirt road to a narrow sandy path. Now it was much more obvious that we were hiking on coastal terrain. 

A cute little white-crowned sparrow welcomed us, boldly perched on a dead tree branch. White-crowned sparrows are of the most common species of birds but they are always fun to see. 

White-crowned Sparrow

The trail started curving west, leaving the bay and leading us towards the ocean shore. The soil we were walking on was definitely coastal sand and the wildflowers blooming there were coastal plants. 

Coast Goldenrod, Solidago spathulata

Coastal plants growing on sandy soil have their own adaptation to a substrate that is shifting with the winds and trains water allt oo quickly. Near the coast they also deal with the salt that is brought in with the wind. 

Hairy Hawkbit, Leontodon saxatilis

Sandy soil however, can also retain water below the surface. We crossed an area that was a good place for damp-loving plants such as the ladies' tresses orchids. I was very thrilled to see this orchid blooming on this hike. 

Hooded Ladies' Tresses, Spiranthes ramazoffiana

Other, less fancy-looking coastal plants were blooming also. The beach knotweed, a relative of the buckwheat was one such plant. 

Beach Knotweed, Polygonum paronychia

Although we didn't experience rain during our hike I could tell by the thick vegetation that precipitation was plentiful in this part of the country. The vegetation certainly resembled a jungle in some places. 

I was quite amazed by the thickness of vegetation in this thin coastal peninsula. We crossed a small opening in the woods - perhaps there was the old town settlement, or at least part of it.  

The Pacific silverweed that bloomed there in the open grassy area I did recognize from numerous hikes along the coast in Northern California. 

Pacific Silverweed, Argentina pacifica

I saw a wildflower that I mistook for another  ladies' tresses orchid. It was no orchid though, but a plantain plant that only looked similar. 

Western Rattlesnake Plantain, Goodyera oblongifolia

Again the vegetation closed in on us, and we walked through a tunnel of lush, green bushes, climbing up a small slope of loose sand. 

Just as we broke out of the thick bushes and into the open coastal dunes I spotted the long, red vines of the beach strawberry plants. This little bueaty deals with the shifting sands by stretching long vines  above ground and long root holds in places where the vines get covered by the sand. Thus the beach strawberry has several ground holds and supporting root bundles. 

Beach Strawberry, Fragaria chiloensis 

The coastal dunes, like in nearly all of the northwest beaches I visited over the years, were over taken by the invasive European beachgrass. 

European Beachgrass, Ammophila arenaria

We crossed the beachgrass coastal covered dunes and descended to the beach of the Pacific Ocean. The breeze remained light but the clouds that overcast the sky earlier were quickly dissipating, letting the afternoon sun wash the beach and us. 

View North

The beach was long and beautiful, and we had is all to ourselves. Looking north and south we were walking on a human-free, wildlife rich beach. 

View South

Flocks of birds were flying over the water. Not too many, so each passing flock stood nicely against an otherwise empty sky. 

As the flock of cormorants flew over us the elder chika got a closer image of one of them. These were double-vested cormorants, a species common all along the Pacific Coast. 

Double-crested Cormorant

We took off our shoes and started walking south barefoot along the wide beach. By that time there were very few clouds left in the corner of the sky and the breeze softened considerably.  

We were seeing wildlife throughout our walk. We saw plenty of birds which naturally attracted our attention, but we were seeing also many other beach creatures, and also sea creatures that were washed to shore. 

Egg of Opalescent Inshore Squid

I always held a fascination with crustaceans and over the years if raising my daughters, I passed on this fascination to them as well. Here at the Bayocean beach they were very pleased feeling for these little sand crabs with their toes in the soft muddy sand below the retreating waves. 

Pacific Sand Crab

These sand crabs were so numerous on that beach that we could feel them with our toes on every step we took along the strandline. The youth lifted up a few simply by sticking their fingers under the sand surface. 

Pacific Sand Crab

Being on the top menu for pretty much every shorebird and many other creatures, the sand carbs, or as we commonly clled them, sand diggers, could dig themselves back underground within seconds. 

Pacific Sand Crab

Very long and very gentle low waves lapped at the shore, leaving behind a film of salty water over the muddy sand. It felt very pleasant to our bare feet. 

A bunch of sand diggers would be unearthed with each passing wave, and we could see them under the water, tumbling with the retreating current and quickly digging themselves back in the sand as soon as the wave receded. This is the life on the border zone between the ocean world and the dry land world. 

The youth stopped picking up the sand crabs. I got fascinated with the reflections mirrored back at me from the thin film of water that coated the strandline sand. The light clouds moved in the mirrored image, and I caught the sun in the sand as well - the only way I could have gazed directly at it.  

We slowly approached the south end of the beach. Off the shore were two dome shaped rock islands. They were a bit too far to see if there were any sea birds on them, but I supposed that there must be birds using them for safe roosting and nesting. 

View South

Throughout our walk on the beach the younger chika remained behind, engrossed in her own thoughts. I turned to look north in the direction whence we came and saw her walking slowly to catch up, a sole human on that gorgeous, picturesque shore. 

View North

There were other beach beings we encountered on our beach walk. There was the purple shore crab that was slower in getting away from our inquisitive eyes and my camera. 

Purple Shore Crab

Then there were these tubular forms of sand that turned to be the casing of glassy tubeworm. In some places there were mounds of these tubular casings. 

Glassy Tubeworm

There were also plenty of shells on the shore, although not as many as I haver seen in other beaches of the Pacific Coast. 

Stranded on the shore were the remains of jellyfishes. Some were almost whole, but others were already reduced to a gem-like round mass of jelly. 

Jellyfish

Normally, starfish are residents of tidal zone rocks. It was surprising therefore, to find one stranded, clearly dead, on the sandy beach. 

Ochre Sea Star

A few gulls were floating leisurely in the shallows. The elder chika was already away ahead so I snapped a few shots of the sea birds. 

It is at the very end of the beach walk, just before we were to ascend the dunes again to go east to where we were parked, that we saw the first evidence of other humans having been on this beach - the partly collapsed structure built from driftwood. 

We said our goodbye to the beautiful Bayocean Beach and ascended the dunes again' plunging deep into the beachgrass that covered most of the dunes' surface.  

Ahead of us the Tillamook Bay lay, now blue under the almost clear sky. Now I was at the rear, the youth hurrying down to our parking spot, ready to head out to our next campground and dinner making. 

 

That evening I'd tried my hands in making salal berry preserve. It was an interesting experience, one that I doubt I'd repeat. On the other hnd, I'd love visiting the Tillamook Bay once again, if i'd get the chance.