Friday, July 04, 2014

Beverly Beach




Beverly Beach lies along the beach that extends between Cape Foulweather on the north and Yaquina Head on the south. Oregon's coast is divided into many of these littoral cells by rocky headlands that extend out from the coast and preclude, or at least limit, the amount of sediment that can move around their ends. They might be thought of as pocket beaches, but are generally larger and more complicated than the smaller beaches we usually put in that category. Seasonal and inter-annual variation in the direction of wave action can shift beach sediment back and forth within these cells, causing erosion at one end and accretion at the other.  Streams and eroding bluffs add sediment. No doubt in some cells sediment is lost offshore to deep water. And in several places on the Oregon coast, winds push beach sand onshore forming dunes and removing it, at least temporarily, from the beach system.

AERIAL VIEW

 Beverly Beach campground lies at the lower end of Spencer Creek, which empties out under Highway 101. The beach is broad, sandy, and flat with a cobble storm berm.  But where the stream runs across the beach, it shows a layer of beach (or stream) cobble just below the surface.






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