Sand Lake

Sand Lake is not a lake. It is a tidal inlet that fills from the ocean and empties twice a day, and at low tide most of what you see here is mud.

Most Oregon estuaries are drowned river valleys. This one formed behind a sand bar at the creek mouth instead, and very little fresh water comes down to it. Sand Creek runs eight miles off the Coast Range and drains a watershed under eleven thousand acres, which is why the channels threading inland on this board are so fine. They are creeks, not rivers.

With so little freshwater pressure, the sea runs the place. There are no jetties and no built structures at the mouth, which is unusual on this coast, and the tide moves through the whole system unimpeded. Whalen Island sits in the middle of it and only becomes an island at the highest tides. Paddlers get a couple of hours before the water drains out from under them.