JUNE 2022

Brookings, Oregon

Where:  southern Oregon coast 

Directions: US 101

Good to Know:

*  Dogs are permitted in Azalea Park and the Brookings Botanical Garden.  

Why so good:   

Brookings is the anchor town to the southern Oregon coast. The Crissey Field State Recreation Site is the first place you’ll see crossing into Oregon from California. In addition to picking up some orientation materials there is beach access - the first of 363 miles of public shoreline that is just about all dog-friendly.

THE REDWOODS.

The northern California coast is famous for its redwood groves, containing the tallest trees on earth. Dogs are not welcome on trails in either the redwood state parks or Redwoods National Park there. It can seem like the redwoods obey the dictates of American cartographers and stop growing once they reach the Oregon border. But there are two small redwood groves in Oregon - both tail-friendly. The easiest to drive to is the Redwood Nature Trail in Alfred A. Loeb State Park. Just off the road a mile-long trail winds up and down slopes through some second-growth redwoods in the 200-foot tall range.

Stands of more impressive old-growth redwoods at the very tip of their northern range can be found in the Rogue River-Siskyou National Forest. The four-mile access road from the main road to the Oregon Redwoods trailhead will test your sanity at times but the reward is a two-mile hike with your dog through fern-covered understory shaded by the quiet giants. Some of these natives are over 250 feet tall. If you have toured the California redwoods you may find their Oregon cousins wanting in majesty, but you are walking among them with your dog beside you and not in the car.    

THE BEACHES.

Harris Beach State Park. Harris Beach is the just outside the town of Brookings. There is year-round camping, access to sandy beaches and swimming for your dog, tidal pools, and photogenic sea stacks just off shore.

Samuel H. Boardman State Scenic Corridor. In 1929 Samuel Boardman, 55 years removed from his childhood in Massachusetts, was assigned the new post of Parks Engineer for the Oregon Highway Department. The Great Depression was just beginning to sweep across the land and local governments everywhere were slashing budgets and squirrelling away funds. Boardman saw the financial crisis differently. The Oregon coast had yet to see much development and he knew land prices there would never be so cheap again. he proposed the issuance of $500,000 of state bonds to acquire coastal land.

Boardman received little political support but the zeal with which he spread his conservationist vision inspired an outpouring of private donations and eventually public funding. The State of Oregon had 4,070 acres scattered in 46 small parks when Sam Boardman began his career. When he retired in 1950, the number of parks had increased to 181 and the acreage to 57,195. And every grain of sand along Oregon’s 363 miles of coastline was open to you - and your dog.

A 12-mile slice of the southern Oregon coast - stuffed with craggy cliffs, sea stacks and towering Sitka spruces has been set aside in Boardman’s name. You can hike the shoreline from several trailheads with your dog while ocean views are the stars of other pull-offs. The best hike for your best friend is at the Cape Ferrelo Viewpoint where the narrow dirt trails course through a clifftop prairie. Long ocean views await at every turn. For your dog’s best romp in the surf drop down off US 101 to Whaleshead Beach.