The Boy Scout Tree Trail and Harris Beach State Park

Funny thing about sand. It’s a thing not things. It’s a whole, without parts. A grain of sand has no identity on it’s own. If you take it away it’s just a small, beat up quartz crystal. With the proper training you can tell whether it came from a beach or a dune. Which beach, or which dune. It’s forever marked by being part of the collective. You can add them indefinitely and never have too many. It’s hard to think of other things like that, the smallest unit is the collective, with no related individual identity. Perhaps, just a family.

Either way, the boys love sand. They aren’t particular about beach or dune, though they appreciate the differences. This time we’re at Harris Beach State Park in Brookings Oregon, just a few miles north of Redwoods State and National Parks where we camped for the week.

This is a nice beach with paved parking, easy access, bathrooms and outdoor [cold] shower. The beach is beautiful and stretches from Harris Creek at the north end to Arch Rock on the south. There’s lots of driftwood and nice sand. Lots and lots of sand. Some days I’m envious of the childish abandon that doesn’t plan for the eventual infiltration of sand into every bodily crevice. I remember those times though. Playing and having fun in the moment, not thinking about the abrasive chafing walk up to the cold punishing shower nozzle. The squishy scuff of wet sandy shoes.

Harris Beach State Park is a lovely place to spend a few hours. Even on a cold and cloudy fall day.

The fact that the boys made it completely under their own power out to the Boy Scout Tree and back is a testament to the inspiring forest the 2.6 mile trail wanters through. Redwood trees tower over you the whole way and ferns and plants utterly alien to us desert dwellers flag the path at every turn.

The trail is not difficult or particularly strenuous. There are many small hills, some steep and rooty, some with wood block stairs, but none of them are very long or high. The boys both made it out to the Boy Scout Tree, a particularly impressive Redwood Tree. It’s absolutely worth the hike and worth goading your kids to complete, carrying them if necessary and coaxing them over the finish line back to the car with gummy bears, chocolate bars, and promises of ice creams back in town.