Yoakam Point

Yoakam Point is a headland past Bastendorff Beach at 90064 Cape Arago Highway (OR 540).  Yoakam Point is also an undeveloped State Natural Area at that location.  For now, the only developments are gravel highway pull-offs providing parking, and an often-muddy trail network.  Follow the trails to the top of a steep ravine path down to a pocket beach south of the headland, with fascinatingly carved sandstone cliffs (Oregon beach access number 134, but if there is a seaward-facing sign, I haven't found it).

Spur trails to the right lead to a network of trails through the spruce forest atop the headland.  The view to the north is of a cove with a pocket beach and a wall-like stone formation beyond it, separating it from Bastendorff Beach.  The south jetty and the mouth of Coos Bay end the beach.  The view to the south is of a fissure, a rock rill, and the ocean beyond.  Pocket beaches separated by ocean-carved stone walls lead to Lighthouse Beach, a larger pocket beach with a controversial lack of easement through bluff-top estates for public access.

Yoakam Point is geologically interesting.  Not a monolithic headland, it more resembles a hand with stone walls resembling fingers reaching out into the ocean.  The rock strata here look to me like sandstone, ancient sedimentary layers now tilted at crazy near- vertical angles by unimaginably vast geologic forces such as those that accreted this land onto the edge of the North American continent.

Yoakam Point is an as-yet-undeveloped State Natural Site, not yet listed on the Oregon State Parks web site.  More at AllTrails, OregonHikers.orgGoogle Image Search.


Written 2022.