Natural Bridges Cove, Oregon Coast Trail

Natural Bridges Cove, Oregon Coast Trail

by | Aug 28, 2023

Natural Bridges Cove is an ancient punchbowl, or littoral sinkhole, along the Oregon Coast Trail in Samuel H. Boardman State Park, about 10.5 miles (17 km) northwest of Brookings and 6.5 miles (10.5 km) south-southeast of Pistol River, Oregon. The punchbowl is about 250 feet (76 m) in diameter and has seven arches that were part of one long sea cave before the roof collapsed to create the sinkhole.

Samuel H. Boardman State Scenic Corridor is a linear state park along 12 miles (19 km) of thickly forested and rugged coastline with a few small sandy beaches. It is named after Samuel H. Boardman, the first Oregon Parks superintendent. The Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge and Oregon Islands Wilderness protect wildlife and habitat on all of the approximately 130 rocks and islands along the corridor’s shore.

The Oregon Coast Trail, a long-distance hiking route from the mouth of the Columbia River to the California border, meanders for about 27 miles (43 km) through the park among 300-year-old Sitka spruce trees and several natural arches and bridges. The trail was envisioned in 1959 by Samuel N. Dicken, a University of Oregon geography professor, and developed and managed by the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department as part of the state park system of Oregon. The exact length of the trail varies depending on the route chosen but is about 425 miles (680 km) if no ferries are used. Read more here and here. Explore more of Natural Bridges Cove here:

About the background graphic

This ‘warming stripe’ graphic is a visual representation of the change in global temperature from 1850 (top) to 2022 (bottom). Each stripe represents the average global temperature for one year. The average temperature from 1971-2000 is set as the boundary between blue and red. The color scale goes from -0.7°C to +0.7°C. The data are from the UK Met Office HadCRUT4.6 dataset. 

Credit: Professor Ed Hawkins (University of Reading). Click here for more information about the #warmingstripes.

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