New River

Paddling and the boat ramp

The classic experience here is a float. Canoeists and kayakers launch at Floras Lake and drift down the lake outlet and the New River itself, about 8 miles (13 km), to a takeout at the ACEC's Storm Ranch unit, or roughly a mile farther downstream at the Lower Fourmile Road takeout. The water is calm and the current mild, which suits a slow wildlife-and-dunes paddle rather than whitewater.↗

For launching by car, River Road runs from the main parking area down to a boat ramp on the New River. That gravel surface is open to walking, bicycling, and horseback riding as well as vehicles, so the approach road doubles as a scenic corridor. The four units of the ACEC—Storm Ranch, Floras Lake, Fourmile Creek, and Lost Lake—are linked by hiking trails to parking, restrooms, and a Nature Center.↗

Birds, plovers, and the dune habitat

The area between Bandon to the north and Cape Blanco to the south is packed with parks, recreation areas, and wildlife sanctuaries, and the New River ACEC sits right in the middle of these flyways. In spring migration the wetlands draw roughly 20,000 Aleutian cackling geese and close to 100,000 shorebirds, a staggering concentration on an otherwise quiet stretch of coast. Snowy plovers live here year-round.↗

The dune edges are also a notable line for hummingbirds: this is the southernmost area of record where rufous hummingbirds have been observed breeding, and the northernmost for Allen's hummingbirds. Much of the birdlife is most visible in the open wetland and along the banks, so a slow paddle or a walk from the parking areas tends to reward patience and a pair of binoculars.↗

At the river mouth

Where the New River meets the Pacific, the water supports Chinook salmon and other migratory fish. Anglers can fish for Chinook, steelhead, and sea-run cutthroat trout from the banks or from boats without motors; the river is closed to fishing for coho salmon. Surfperch gather near the mouth, making the beach where river and ocean blend a quiet spot to cast a line at sunset.↗

A deep past behind the dunes

Long before the 1890 flood carved the channel, people lived here. Evidence suggests that as early as 8,000 years ago, ancestors of the Siletz and Coquille peoples built large villages near an estuary that once occupied this low ground. On January 26, 1700, a great earthquake off the coast sent a tsunami roughly 30 feet (9 m) high surging inland, destroying the estuary and remaking the landscape; after that catastrophe, blowing sand choked the streams and left the wetlands behind the dunes that the New River still threads through today.↗