Otter Rock Beach and Little Yet Famous Oregon Coast Village of Otter Rock

Published 06/22/25 at 6:35 a.m.
By Oregon Coast Beach Connection Staff

(Otter Rock, Oregon) – Not everyone knows it by the same name. Indeed, the fact the tiny community between Newport and Depoe Bay was once called a few different things at once probably doesn't help. Officially, the little town on this headland is called Otter Rock and the surfing hotspot below it is called Otter Rock Beach, but people tend to know it all collectively as Devil's Punchbowl. (All photos Oregon Coast Beach Connection)

And it gets even more complex from there.

A bitchin' beach is a bitchin' beach by any other name, and Otter Beach, Otter Rock and the Devil's Punchbowl State Scenic Natural Area boast a ton of fun in all directions. That includes a rather gnarly stairway to the sands, which is an absolute bear to get back up. There's a ghost forest stump here, a tree in a rather strange spot on a protruding rock, some quirky history, there's Otter Crest and even an Otter Crest Beach, and of course the massive and craggy Devil's Punchbowl.

And oh yeah, there's a marine reserve here that's an important part of the Oregon coast's ecological makeup. Inside Devil's Punchbowl

Head down these strenuous steps from the south side of the Devil's Punchbowl / Otter Rock headland, and you'll quickly find they're a bit taxing. Just wait 'till you get back up: you'll be thankful for the flat section or two that offer a brief respite.

On any given fair weather day, the place is filled with surfers darting in and out along those breakers. They're easier to watch from the lofty viewpoint facing south, next to the Punchbowl. From here, it's the long stretch of sandy beach that soon becomes Beverly Beach. On sunny days, the water can be almost a pristine blue and if conditions are right you can see the reef beneath.

This lookout spot hosts something else rather remarkable: look straight down and you may notice a spider-like, intricate chunk of wood. That's no mere bit of Oregon coast flotsam. This is a 4,000-year-old root system from a ghost forest that was broken apart a few decades ago. The ghost stump has a twin of sorts just down the road at the beach access of Beverly Beach. The story goes it also washed up here from somewhere else, just like the one on display at Beverly. Exactly what happened here or which set of ghost forest stumps it belongs to is lost to time, however.

There are several ghost forest patches in the Newport area that are around 4,000 years old. How to Find Other Ghost Forests of the Oregon Coast

This stump has been known to disappear beneath the sands in recent years. Up close it's even more spectacular, as are the crusty, jagged rocks at the bottom of the cliff. It's also special because it's only one of three Oregon coast ghost forests you can see year-round (or mostly). The other is the set at Neskowin. [Neskowin Ghost Forest, 2,000 year old stumps]

The line and boundary between Beverly Beach and Devil's Punchbowl State Scenic Natural Area's Otter Rock Beach is a bit hazy. It's apparently several hundred feet away from the stairway. The Punchbowl state park also includes what is called Otter Crest Beach by some, but more correctly it's known as the marine gardens area of the park. That's on the other side of the Punchbowl, to the north.

The tiny town of Otter Rock is an unincorporated one, originally inhabited by the Siletz tribe, who supposedly called the area The Rock. That may only be white settler invention, however. Either way, when the town was getting started, locals and even their media could not decide what to call it. Newspaper articles and accounts from 1894 into the '30s had it called The Punchbowl, “Punch Bowl” and Otter Rock, among other things. Surprise History of Otter Rock

The story goes that a man named Joe Biggs shot the last otter on the Oregon coast right around here back in 1906. [Sources: Statesman Journal in 1980s, documents from Lincoln County Historical Society]

Parking is in the main parking lot of the state park and Otter Rock. There are restrooms as well. Do not go down those stairs in stormy conditions: there isn't a lot of room for a safety margin on Otter Rock Beach or the marine gardens.

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