Bedrock, New Fishing Holes Appeared on Oregon Coast Beach Near Newport

Published 9/07/24 at 4:05 a.m.
By Andre' GW Hagestedt, Oregon Coast Beach Connection

(Newport, Oregon) – One spot just south of Newport got a little strange sand action recently, something you do not normally see in summer.(Photo CoastWatch / Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition: it's the only shot of this unique event)

A stretch of central Oregon coast suddenly saw bedrock exposed last month, and it was a weirdly thin, narrow chunk as well. It's not too unusual, according to one geologist, but it doesn't usually happen until winter. Another fun aspect of this: it created extra fishing holes and pools of water that were quite warm.

At the beginning of August, the volunteer group CoastWatch documented bedrock showing at Holiday Beach, a somewhat secret spot just south of South Beach. There's a good chance the curiosity is gone now as one local resident said it was already disappearing back at the end of August. Oregon Coast's Mega-Cool Holiday Beach Near Newport - What You Don't Know

It's winter that generally sees major scouring action like this, where bedrock and other intriguing objects get exposed. Summer always brings in lots of sand rather than removes it, but here it did the opposite. Even so, the sand levels had accumulated in general in this spot. As you can see in the only photographic evidence of it (from CoastWatch), the beach is quite broad – much broader than it is in winter.

So, in this case, only a narrow stretch of tideline got scoured away. Definitely a curiosity.

Charlie Plybon, Senior Oregon Policy Manager for Surfrider Foundation, lives in the area and was watching it. He's seen it from here down to almost Waldport, and agrees it's weird for summer.

Full frame photo from CoastWatch in early August

“Fun tip - these lower beach scours often create deeper pools on the beach at lower tide,” he told Oregon Coast Beach Connection. “This can in turn create great recreation areas, warmer and safe pools to play in than the ocean. At a rising tide as the ocean covers up these scoured areas of the beach, those deeper areas near the beach tend to attract feeding surf perch and those that like to fish them.”

They were showing up from Thiel Creek down to Lost Creek Beach, Plybon said.

“I saw many of these areas start to fill back in with sand, but you're right, we typically don't see this type of scouring in the summer months,” he said

Oregon State Parks and Recreation Department (OPRD) said they believed people were seeing minus tides showing the mud shelf and reef getting exposed.

“Right now there is a lot of sand from the vegetation line to 50 yards west and when the tide is extremely low they are seeing the reef,” OPRD told Oregon Coast Beach Connection. “But I am sure it has something to do with the currents.”

What this beach normally looks like

Newport geologist Jonathan Allan, with Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries (DOGAMI), said it's not too unusual for this to happen this time of year, though it's not common until later.

That stuff you're seeing exposed is Nye Mudstone, a formation that lies on top of the usual Astoria Formation that's seen exposed around northern Newport in the winters. That one yields fossils, said Plybon and Allan.

Allan wasn't sure exactly what was going on, but there's a few possibilities.

One reason: “The site had simply not fully recovered from the past winter (this is dependent on the summer wave climate), he said.

Second: “There has been above average along shore sediment transport resulting in hotspots.”

Third: “Rip current embayments may have formed, resulting in localized scour (hotspot) of the beach at these locations.”

And fourth: “There have not been sufficient winds out of the northwest this summer to drive sand back southward (one would have to evaluate based on surveys of the beach both updrift and downdrift of these areas that have been exposed).”

Plybon is leaning towards some kind of recent scouring action since he's some bigger wave action in the area.

Allan said the layers of sand here and on the north Oregon coast are quite thin.

“Exposure of the shore (rocky) platforms is not unusual on the central coast,” Allan said. “Of note, unlike the north coast, large parts of the central coast consist of a thin (several ft thick) veneer of sand on top of the shore platform.”

During summer Holiday Beach is normally a flat beach with no slope

Maybe not UFO category unusual: but it isn't the usual thing in summer, that's for sure. It is certainly fleeting. Plybon said after being around for a few weeks it's already starting to disappear.

In any case, sand levels were still high in the general area: the ghost forests (4,000-year-old trees) of this stretch are not showing. It just appears as if a narrow stretch of beach has been eroded.

It's also true that Allan can't be certain why it happened and admits more studying of this area needs to be done by DOGAMI.

“This time of year, beach widths are certainly at their widest, especially when you see it on a very low tide as we have been having of late,” Allan said. “Minor shifts in sand can fully expose the rock like this. Again, this is probably simply related to recent wave activity coupled with sand movement. We haven’t surveyed in this area for a few years and I’m hoping to get down there sometime soon. With data and an actual look at the area I could provide a more definitive perspective.”

Perhaps most important is the kooky fun this new features allows: a new fishing spot, and those pools get filled up with warm water that Plybon says are quite a kick. It isn't just humans that love it.

“My dogs love to play in them,” he said.

It's very temporary, however.

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