Muriel O. Ponsler Memorial State Scenic Viewpoint is located near milepost 175 on US 101. The wayside offers a dozen parking spaces and a few picnic tables, but no rest room. A paved path leads through wind-tortured scrub trees and salal, disintegrating as it meets a sandy beach.
China Creek flows across the beach here year-round, just south of the beach access. I crossed on driftwood logs piled in the ravine upstream from the beach. A mile or so south on the broad, flat sandy beach is the access at Carl G. Washburne State Park's day use area. The beach continues southward to Hobbit Beach.
To the north, the beach narrows and basaltic shelf rock intrudes. It's half a mile to Big Creek.
This stretch of highway between Cape Perpetua in Lincoln County and Heceta Head in Lane County isn't far from Yachats or Florence, but it feels remote, with marginal to no wireless service, wild headlands and beaches, and lots of parks and waysides.
Read more at 101 Steps, Outdoor Project, and Wikipedia. Google Image Search.