Our second day on the Oregon Coast started with a hike south to Fivemile Point from the Seven Devils State Recreation Area just north of Bandon. The attraction here is a long, long stretch of broad sandy beach and the chance to find agates exposed by the waves. The day was once again nicely sunny and, happily, a little less windy. This made for a pleasant stroll out-and-back along the beach.
The tide was out and this gave various shorebirds a chance to gorge themselves on sandcrabs. The torn carcasses of these small, ovoid invertebrates littered the beach like the aftermath of some battle. Every once in a while we’d come upon a crab that was either playing dead or was unable to burrow to safety in the hard-packed sand. We did “crab rescue” by dropping them into the remaining pools where, after a short stint of disorientation, they’d swim for the bottom and quickly bury themselves in the sand. These were our good deeds for the day. Yes, they’re just crabs, but we want credit anyway. 😉
After our 2.6 mile hike to the point, we repaired to lunch at the iconic Tony’s Crab Shack in Bandon, then made the short journey to Bullards Beach State Park, just across the Coquille River to the north. This state park is a peninsula between the ocean and the river, so we got to experience both seawater and freshwater environments. We started our four mile loop around the peninsula at the beach parking lot, went south along the beach to the old lighthouse, and then back along the Coquille River to the lot.
BOOTS on the TRAIL 