Indian Sands
Brookings, OR
Indian Sands is the strangest landscape in the Samuel H. Boardman corridor, a stretch of wind sculpted sandstone dunes that looks more like a high desert than the Oregon coast, reached by a roughly 1.8 mile loop trail through coastal forest. It sits close to Secret Beach, already published on this site, so the two are often visited as a single stop.
A genuinely strange, memorable landscape unlike anywhere else on the coast, though it's a dune formation to explore rather than a beach to relax on.
How we score beachesPair this with Secret Beach on the same trip, since the trailheads sit close together along Highway 101 and the terrain contrast between the two is worth seeing back to back.
Free pullout parking along Highway 101 at the Indian Sands trailhead.
A roughly 1.8 mile loop trail crosses forest and open dune sand; not accessible for strollers or wheelchairs.
Summer, June through September, offers the driest trail conditions through the sandstone dunes.
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