Beach Access With No Name on Central Oregon Coast Leads to Other Yachats Mysteries

Published 03/16/26 at 6:55 a.m.
By Oregon Coast Beach Connection Staff

(Yachats, Oregon) – In the middle of a kind of Oregon coast nowhere, and literally hiding in plain sight, there's a beach access at Yachats you've missed. You've likely driven past it a hundred times (if you've driven through Yachats that many times), and quite possibly not have noticed. Or maybe you have and not thought much of it. (All photos Oregon Coast Beach Connection)

This little beach access with no name is not the most exciting stretch of sand on the coast, but it's the only access for a good half a mile or more. Even if there's a few people around – and there usually isn't – it's guaranteed you can get to a patch of sand with not a soul. Probably rather quickly.

All you see from the road is a gravel pullout, one of a few along this part of Highway 101. Most of the others lead absolutely nowhere. They're just a spot by the highway. Coming from the north, you're not quite within city boundaries yet, but to the landward side you may see Vingie St. – but more likely Brubaker St. as that one is more visible. NE Brubaker is just a tad too south, however. Yet kitty corner from it, there's this gravel patch.

It's larger than most, and if you look carefully there's a hole in that tree-lined patch of brush and bramble. Head in there and it's a tunnel of sorts: a green and darker stretch that blocks out the sun pretty firmly. It feels a bit mystical, like something out of LOST or maybe hearkening to ye olde Hobbit Trail nearly 20 miles to the south.

You emerge onto a fairly vast beach not unlike the layout and feel of Tillicum just a few miles to the north. Yellow, soft sandstone cliffs line almost white sands, and these piles of granules are soft and thick. This Beach Access With No Name Across from Vingie St. (sure, let's call it that for the moment) sees something interesting happening with those sandstone structures: they curiously flatten out and round out near the entrance. Some kinds of erosion don't seem to have taken place here, as much of the beach has rather abrupt cuts of cliff face, as if sliced by humankind.

It wasn't, for the record. Several areas between here and Florence have that look.

Then there's the beach – and there's lots of it. And not unlike the areas of Yachats just north of here around Oregon St., little concave areas exist where the cliff suddenly retreats – like small coves. These are great when winds are heavier and you want to get out of the gusts a tad.

People have gotten inventive here on occasion as well, clearly with lots of time to just veg out on this kickback stretch. Some interesting driftwood forts have been created at times.

During summers, the beach extends quite a ways out, thanks to all the sand that gets brought in by the tides. In winter, it's smaller and not always hospitable. Since it's far from any public structure and with no quick egress if the tides hit hard, this isn't a place where you want to be during high tide events. You could get pinned up against those cliffs.

To the north, it's almost a mile to the nearest access (and Oregon St.), and to the south almost half a mile to the Spencer St. access.

Just north of the Access With No Name, but a similar look in the cliffs

Northward, there's a bit of a mystery too. It's barely marked in the area, but you'll see the name San Marine on signs near here. Indeed, there's a San Marine State Park that's listed on some maps. Yet on the Oregon State Parks website there is no such listing. You'll also notice there's no beach accesses for quite a ways along this section of coastline.

So what is this mystery land called San Marine just north of the Yachats Beach Access With No Name?

OPRD's Stephanie Knowlton talked to Oregon Coast Beach Connection in 2025 (she's now with another organization.)

“The park is a non-developed park that consists of several land parcels acquired in the ‘60s with the idea of public beach access,” she said. “Upon review, the land was better suited for conservation so it is not developed.”

It is, in essence, a small wildlife preserve. Hence the lack of a beach access for nearly a mile north of the Access With No Name.

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