Take a breath
Yachats trails offer fresh perspectives
Story & photos by Gretchen Ammerman
Oregon Coast TODAY
Just north of the main streets of Yachats, as a nice alternative to the somewhat hulking Cape Perpetua Scenic Area that lies to the south, is a charming loop trail — actually three trails that can be woven together to form a triple crown of natural beauty. The 804, Ya’Xaik and Gerdemann Botanic Preserve trails are made up of a rocky coastline, a healthy coastal forest and a cultivated botanical garden, all sprinkled with signs both historical and memorial.
At less than two miles, the full loop can be easily traversed in one trip. Or you can take the sections one or two at a time, especially if you are ambling with a canine companion, as dogs are not allowed in the Gerdemann Botanic Preserve.
The easiest place to start is the Smelt Sands trailhead; a sign on the west side of Highway 101 alerts you to the turn, which takes you to the parking area and restroom. Parking spots are limited but you can usually find a spot during the off season.
The Yachats 804 Trail
As you reach the beach following a short walk from the parking lot, you can stop and appreciate a sobering reminder of the power of the ocean and the importance of never turning your back on the waves: the memorial to Eugene High School seniors Jack Harnsongkram and Connor Ausland, who were swept off a nearby rock and drowned by a sneaker wave in 2011.
You can go either way along this scenic rocky shoreline. If you head south, the trail winds past coastal neighborhoods and hotels, skirting Yachats and ending up at a connection for Cape Perpetua. But to take the loop trail, you will head north above the rock shelf, keeping an eye out for a natural arch over a cleft through which waves explode during incoming tides. As you near the Village Gift Gallery, you’ll see a small trail sign for the Yachats 804-Ya’Xaik Trail Junction.
Turn up this path to the parking lot of the Overleaf Lodge and continue along the edge of the parking area to where the trail resumes in a spruce woodland. Follow the trail to Overleaf Lodge Lane and walk out to your right, cutting across the parking area for the Overleaf Event Center to reach Highway 101. Cross the highway to Diversity Lane. At the top of the lane is the start of the Ya’Xaik Trail, where there are also some places to park if you decide to start your hike here.
Ya’Xaik Trail
At the start of this trail are three large signs that tell different parts of the tale of more than 20 Native American coastal tribes, forced in the 1800s onto a reservation that started with more than a million acres but was gradually reduced until what was left was the roughly 5.8-square-mile reservation and town of Siletz. Now the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Indians, the tribes, each with unique individual histories and cultures, include Clatsop, Chinook, Klickitat, Molala, Kalapuya, Tillamook, Alsea, Siuslaw/Lower Umpqua, Coos, Coquelle, Upper Umpqua, Tututni, Chetco, Tolowa, Takelma, Galice/Applegate and Shasta.
The name Ya’Xaik honors the Alsea pronunciation of the area although, since the Alsea were mostly wiped out by European-transmitted diseases before anyone recorded a native speaker, this is only an approximation.
Once past the signs, which include historic photos and artwork, the trail plunges into a lush forest with healthy stands of native, though not old growth, trees. The trail is dotted with ghosts of the massive trees that once thrived here; many of which serve as “nurse logs,” where new trees have taken root and grown using the dying stumps as nutrition. Some of the roots drape down the old stumps, creating an appealing sight that negates some of the sadness of the loss of the grand old trees.
The primarily Sitka spruce and Western hemlock forest includes alders and tall salal bushes, salmonberry, elderberry and many varieties of ferns. The trail heads northwest before crossing little Mitchell Creek. Drop down to the right at an old junction to reach the gate at the Ya’Xaik-Gerdemann Botanic Preserve Trail Junction.
If hiking with a dog, you might choose to extend your trip with an out-and-back along the Starr Creek Trail. If not, go through the charming wooden gate and follow the trail along Mitchell Creek through this private property that allows public access.
Gerdemann Botanic Preserve
The preserve began life in the early 1980s as a test garden for plant hardiness that blossomed into a serene place to view healthy native plant species thrive among rare and unusual plants from all over the world, including eclectic collections of magnolia, camellia and rhododendron species and hybrids.
Named after founders Jim and Janice Gerdemann, the 3.5-acre preserve includes hand-crossed tropical vireya rhododendrons in a glasshouse, a huge-leaved Gunnera manicata from Brazil and large-leaved Himalayan rhododendrons. Small signs provide information about some of the more noteworthy plants.
Towering over the bushes are local and exotic species of trees, including the grand, towering “Grandmother Spruce,” that spans a creek and is estimated to be at least 300 hundred years old; and “Big Ent,” a hemlock that grew on a spruce nurse log.
The Gerdemanns had been part of what is known as the “804 Ten:” local residents who initiated the fight to renew public access to the area that would become the 804 Trail. It took a 10-year fight that went all the way to the Oregon Supreme Court, but they won in 1990 with the help of Lincoln County and the Thousand Friends of Oregon. Jim passed away in 2008, and Janice just this September at the age of 95.
The preserve is open to the public year-round. Should you want to do this part alone, you can reach it by a footpath found behind the Earthworks Gallery. Appointments to experience the park with a docent are currently on hiatus, but you can stay updated on when they, and the occasional free group walks that previously took place throughout the year, will start back up again by going to the Gerdemann Botanic Preserve Facebook page.
To get back to the start of the loop after you’ve passed through the exit gate from the garden and made it to the highway, you will turn left, pass a couple of art galleries and then hike about 150 yards, passing Ocean Wayside Lane, until you’re opposite Overleaf Lodge Lane. Cross the highway and return to the trailhead the way you came.
All three sections of the loop are fairly rugged, especially the Ya’Xaik and Gerdemann sections, so are not recommended for wheelchairs, though strollers with off-road tires could probably fare just fine.