Into the Rainforest: Oswald West State Park

This trail leading into the
park used to be the access
path for the campground,
closed since 2008. 

A small beach town...

          Manzanita, Oregon: a quiet beach-side community on the northern Oregon Coast along US Route 101. It's a pretty typical beach community with cedar-shingled houses, gift shops and coffee joints. For those who prefer the outdoors, Nehalem Bay State Park, and Oswald West State Park are also close by.

          Beyond the town, forested headlands form an imposing backdrop: blue-green unspoiled forest ending in sheer cliffs over the frigid waters of the Pacific Ocean. Rich and unspoiled, these headlands spark the imagination of any eager traveler. The forests are taller and darker than the surrounding areas, logged many times over. To this day, this stretch of forest is still protected, and easily accessible to those willing to go in search of them. A few miles north on US Route 101, a traveler will enter Oswald West State Park.

          Founded in 1931, the park gradually expanded to its current size of 2,484 acres, and was renamed in 1958 in honor of Oregon Governor Oswald West who opened the Oregon coastline for public use. I was surprised to learn this, having suspected the park was one of two units. Thus ends the search for the mythical "Oswald East." But I digress: the park was founded to preserve a stretch of old-growth spruce which still stands to this day, and features a day-use beach, hikes through the  old-growth spruce, and the remains of a unique campground.

A Rather Unique Campground...

Looking over Short Sand Creek down 
the beach of the same name to the
water fall and tide-pools

          Since the campground has been closed for ten years, only the most well-researched traveler will know about. The campground was built among the spruces only fifty feet or so above sea level, making it inaccessible by car. To reach their campsites, campers parked their vehicles off US 101, and trucked their goods down to the campground by hand using a fleet of wheelbarrows, provided by the park. This practice continued until 2008. Ultimately, the same spruces that the park was founded to preserve proved a liability when an 11-foot wide specimen fell across a number of thankfully vacant campsites forcing the state's hand: the campground was closed indefinitely. The wheelbarrows disappeared, and the campsites are overgrown. A sign for the former walk-in campground still stands over 101, but the word “Campground” is blanked out. I vaguely remember these wheelbarrows, but the details are lost to time. Those who never camped there might not know that was ever an option.

We parked in the same lot campers once used, you walk down the trail once plied by wheelbarrows full of camping gear s'mores makings and children with backpacks. Yet while the campground has been converted to day use, what drew them to this park is still very much alive. Water covers everything: raindrops and dew coat trees, leaves and moss, flowing in creeks and brooks. Plants seem to grow in layers: ground cover like false lily of the valley and twayblade underneath huckleberry bushes salal and ferns. These in turn are shaded by smaller trees which in turn are shaded by the spruces.

And a forest of Giants

          The spruces stand like the feet of giants from fairytales: many are a modest 3-5 feet in diameter but some have more to brag about: ten feet in diameter and upwards of a hundred feet high. Despite their size, even these giants manage to blend into the forest, somehow remaining hidden amongst the greenery until they are right in front of you. Some of these monsters are alive, but others have died: nothing but snags. Yet even while still standing the dead spruces become homes for new life: decaying matter makes homes for ferns, huckleberry bushes, moss-- even a hemlock sapling occasionally settles into the penthouse of this living city. It's full of life, and the scene makes it clear why these are called temperate rainforests. In spring the whole forest is permeated by birdsong and the running water from the creek nearby. Shy of the beach , the trail splits. Take the suspension bridge to your right over the rushing creek, or head straight to Short Sand Beach. The bridge can get you to the beach as well, if you are ok wading back across the creek through knee deep, swift moving water. I learned this part the hard way.

Down by the waters

The waterfall at the far
end of Short Sand Beach,
near a collection of
tide-pools

          For the smart beachgoers who take the easy route the trail ultimately leaves the forest and emerges at Short Sand Beach on Smuggler's Cove. It's a typical Oregon Coast beach: the forest ends at a field of basalt cobbles which give way to sand, all traversed by tiny creeks. The beach even has a field of tidepools with a waterfall and even a small cave.

Returning back from the beach, you walk through an area with a locked restroom building (something about a water main) and a number of familiar clearings lining a wide path, just wide enough for a wheelbarrow. The campsites are full of debris, shrubs and even a few Douglas Fir saplings sprout where tents were once pitched. But if you close your eyes, you can imagine a family packing up their gear into a wheelbarrow, ready to head home. And so, our visit concludes, as we follow our ghost campers as they haul their gear  back up the hill to the parking area where they, like their campsites, have been lost to time. But the park is still there for those who want to visit, and like much of the Oregon Coast, it is the perfect pit stop year round, for a quick stroll or a day at the beach. 

          And when I return, after my hike, I might just stay in the area a few more hours. I still haven't given up on finding "Oswald East State Park." -KP

Sources:
Oregon State Parks Website: Oswald West State Park "Park Info" and "FAQs" sections:

• https://oregonstateparks.org/index.cfm?do=parkPage.dsp_parkPage&parkId=139
• https://oregonstateparks.org/index.cfm?do=parkPage.dsp_parkHistory&parkId=139