NPSO 2022 Annual Meeting

May 20 - 22     Spirit Mountain Lodge, Grand Ronde, Oregon

Field Trips

Saturday May 21, 2022    9 a.m. - 4 p.m.                    Field Trip # 28

Difficulty:     Easy  (about 0.5 mile)

Group Size Limit:     12, maximum of 3 vehicles

Trip Description:     Nestled between two basalt headlands (Cascade Head to the north and High Meadow to the south), Camp Westwind serves as a natural sanctuary. It sits in a beautiful bay beside the Salmon River Estuary. The 529-acre camp was founded in 1936 and is a component of the UNESCO Cascade Head Biosphere Reserve. It is now owned by the Westwind Stewardship Group whose mission is to permanently protect the site as an educational retreat and camp.

Isolated and well-protected, the site harbors a wide diversity of habitats and flora: an extensive beach with both yellow and pink sandverbena (Abronia latifolia and A. umbellata var. breviflora), which are state listed as endangered and federally listed as species of concern; dunes with both American dunegrass (Leymus mollis) and European beachgrass (Ammophila arenaria); a forest on older, now stabilized, dunes with shore pine (Pinus contorta var. contorta) and an understory of rattlesnake plantain (Goodyera oblongifolia) and false lily-of-the-valley (Maianthemum dilatatum); dramatic cliffsides with Bolander's packera (Packera bolanderi var. bolanderi), Tracy's mistmaiden (Romanzoffia tracyi), and Oregon stonecrop (Sedum oreganum).

The optional High Meadow hike includes a forest of Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis), Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla) and Pacific rhododendron (Rhododendron macrophyllum). At the top, a meadow overlooks the ocean, with Oregon iris (Iris tenax) and hairy stemmed checkermallow (Sidalcea hirtipes).

We are offering two field trips to this spectacular site: one focuses on the beach, dunes and shore pine forest and, if time allows, an option to hike to High Meadow; the second involves a short, but steep, hike through the forest to Lost Lake and High Meadow and, if time allows, a visit to the beach and dunes.

Camp Westwind's Land Acknowledgment: "We are gathered on Tillamook and Siletz land, represented today by the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde and the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Indians. With gratitude, we pay our respects to the land, and the Indigenous peoples who have stewarded it for generations and continue to hold a sacred relationship to this day. With honor, we recognize the opportunity for the collective of Camp Westwind to learn, study, and hold community on this land. We respectfully acknowledge the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Tillamook and Siletz people, and honor all past, present, and future Indigenous Westwind community members."

Appropriate Clothing and Footwear:     Appropriate for walking on soft sand and in the dune forest; hiking poles advisable.

Special Considerations:     Gated entrance, accessible to public only with prior arrangements. The coast can be cold and windy.

Meeting Place and Time:     Trip # 28 leaves at 9 a.m. from Spirit Mountain Lodge entrance. Plan to arrive 30 minutes before departure time to meet your group and arrange carpools.

Alternate Meeting:     Participants may also meet the trip at 9:20 a.m at gated entrance to the Camp, 7500 N Fraser Road, Otis, Oregon. If you choose this option, be sure to notify your trip leader in advance.

Driving Miles and Time from Spirit Mountain Lodge:     22 miles, 20 minutes, last 2.5 miles on narrow but good gravel road.

Driving Directions:     Trip leader will provide detailed driving instructions.

Leader:       Kareen Sturgeon

Cheahmill Chapter

Plant Lists and Other Information:     Clink on the links below for more information about this trip.

Photo: Kareen Sturgeon
Sand dunes with European beachgrass and American dunegrass

Camp Westwind Access Map

Photo: Kareen Sturgeon
Springbank clover (Trifolium wormskjoldii)

Photo: Kareen Sturgeon
Tunnel, wave, and sea stack on the beach at Camp Westwind

Camp Westwind map of trails