Ona Beach's Pristine, Graceful Yet Alien Curiosities: Near Central Oregon Coast's Seal Rock

Published 11/26/24 at 4:55 p.m.
By Oregon Coast Beach Connection Staff

(Waldport, Oregon) – A mere mile north of Seal Rock and about ten miles south of Newport, the surprises arise from behind a sizable cliff. Yet even that is hidden from view from the highway: although this is where you see the sign for and the green grounds of the state park called Ona Beach. (All photos Oregon Coast Beach Connection)

Technically it's called Ona Beach State Park.

It's a somewhat secretive favorite for many, lying tucked away – and full of multiple layers. Right here, now part of Brian Booth State Park's greater environs, Ona Beach is a bit of central Oregon coast wonder within a larger wonder. While much of of Brian Booth State Park is waterway and dense forest, its beachy side is this sprawling curiosity.

The entrance hovers in the middle of a tight, winding curve, going over the bridge that passes above Beaver Creek. This one can get slippery late at night when conditions get around freezing in winter.

From here, Beaver Creek cuts through the grassy, graceful park with its picnic tables and forms a small bay as it reaches the ocean. Wander through this lovely pastoral setting, enclosed by a thick forest canopy, and you'll come to a rising footbridge that allows you to cross this small river and head though the woods, into an untouched sandy spot called Ona Beach.

At least it's sandy in the beginning. It all starts off with fluffy piles of whitish sands, but they soon hint at the wild and wondrous landscape to come. Sprinkled through this section of the beach are little oddities of rock, some looking like the spine of a dinosaur fossil.

Other times, they are green goo-covered roundish stones with pools around them.

Soon, as you head south along the cliffs here, you may or may not realize this is the typical sandstone you encounter along this part of the central Oregon coast, those colorful structures that rise and drop along your beach stroll. You soon come to a startling landscape of strange slabs and surreal sights. There are a myriad of puzzling shapes sticking out of the sand, meandering in puzzling forms that sometimes look like Dr. Suess illustrations taken to a whole new level.

Sometimes the confounding forms are rounded and knobby in nature.

Other times they stick upwards and look a bit like a mushroom that became confused in its growth process.

At other moments, you'll find tiny little arches, or maybe chunks of objects that defy description.

Periodically, the strange slab structures stop, then suddenly start up again. They seem to continue on for miles, but they actually do stop less than a half mile down the beach, and a bit further down you start to run into Seal Rock and its varied scenery.

Those slabs come and go a bit depending on sand levels. During the summer they disappear almost entirely. During the winter, when sand levels get quite low, you see even more of them and more of the bedrock beneath.

This is also an area often rich in agates – but it's well known for this, so it's likely the place could be well picked over by the time you get there.

Other sights found at Ona Beach? Oregon Coast Beach Connection has encountered dendritic lines in the sand – a distinctly cool detail found everywhere on Earth (even on Mars). It's just that here they add a particular atmosphere to the region's beaches. There are sets of 4,000-year-old ghost forests nearby as well.

Ona Beach is also a short drive from Yachats and very quick to Waldport.

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