One of our most memorable hikes was hiking to Secret Beach in Harbor Oregon. Although the beach has amazing rock formations that you can explore; what made it so memorable is the hike itself. We took so many wrong turns and questioned ourselves so many times before we actually arrived at the beach. Our plan was to explore the Thunder Cove Trail and other coves in this area in addition to Secret Beach. However, the hikes to the coves were not clearly defined and we did not find Thunder Cove.
There is a small parking lot just a little ways north on Interstate 101 from Natural Bridges, Oregon. However, you could just hike it from the Natural Bridges parking lot also. The trails for Thunder Cove and Secret Beach were not well marked and Jessica, as she usually does, just started hiking down several trails without knowing exactly where she was headed. We saw a sign that simply said “Beach” but it looked to go more inland, so we disregarded it at first.
The sign marked “Beach”, however, was the correct trail to Secret Beach. There are many smaller trails off the main hiking trail that people have created that adds to the confusion. This is where we made several wrong turns. We eventually made it to the beautiful secret beach and spent several hours just playing. Some of the most fun is just flying by the seat of your pants and simply trying. Usually, it works out better than you imagined! If you see a sign to your right that says “Beach”, follow that trail. You have to go inland and hike around to eventually access the beach. Click the link to go to our Secret Beach YouTube video and check out this gorgeous beach.
