Thomas Boyd/The Oregonian

We here at The Oregonian/OregonLive are gearing up to release a beautiful new book this summer, "Oregon's Natural Treasures," that will showcase the natural wonder of our state. In advance of publication, we're posting previews of each of the chapters online. But be sure to pre-order a copy of the full book before it's released on July 27.



If you stand on a headland overlooking the Pacific Ocean and gaze up and down the Oregon coast, you'll find a rugged, teeming land as wild as the Pacific.



Amid picture-book beaches and high-sloping capes, tide pools brim with sea stars and colorful anemone. Sea lions lounge in bays, barking and feasting on runs of salmon making their annual pilgrimage to the Pacific. Gray whales pass by every winter and spring, and some stick around for summer and fall, finding mysid shrimp aplenty in kelp beds offshore. Flocks of birds find respite in the nooks and crannies of cliffs carved through millions of years of geological unrest.

Some 36 million years of volcanic eruption, tectonic shifts and erosion shaped today’s Oregon coastline. In the north, silt from the Columbia River created long sandy beaches. To their south, cliffs of brittle sandstone and rough basalt rose before giving way to a long stretch of dunes made of sand that rivers once carried to the ocean. Rocky cliffs and sea stacks formed in the coast’s southernmost reaches, to be slowly eroded by punishing waves and wind.

By the time the first humans arrived in the Americas, around 20,000 years ago, the coastline looked much as it does today. The newcomers found arched rocks, sea caves, spouting horns and rough-cut chasms. There were river mouths, sneaker waves, king tides and long spits. Some stretches of sand and rugged ocean were unfit for human trespass – but perfect for bald eagles, orcas and sharks.

Today, nearly 30 million people a year visit more than 75 coastal state park sites and the 362 miles of coastline made public by Oregon’s 1967 Beach Bill. But this is still a place that nature carved over millions of years, where human occupation is but a footprint in the sand.

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Bruce Ely/The Oregonian

1. Haystack Rock

A rainbow over Cannon Beach ends at Haystack Rock as a wind storm approaches the Oregon coast. The rock, formed millions of years ago by lava flows, is a habitat for puffins, gulls and intertidal life, while also serving as one of the most recognizable landmarks on the coast. This Haystack Rock is one of several similarly shaped sea stacks with the same name, including one 46 miles south at Cape Kiwanda.

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Terry Richard/The Oregonian

2. Neahkahnie Mountain

Hikers take in the view from atop Neahkahnie Mountain on the northern Oregon coast. One of the highest points on the coast at nearly 1,700 feet, the mountain overlooks Nehalem Bay and the town of Manzanita to the south, and Cape Falcon to the north. Its name comes from the Tillamook language, though there’s debate over whether Neahkahnie is the name of a deity or a precipice overlooking the abode of a deity.

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Terry Richard/The Oregonian

3. Tide pools

A sea star clings to the sides of the Seal Rock tide pools south of Newport. Also called starfish, sea stars have hundreds of tubes on each arm that they use to move and capture prey. Intertidal life – also including anemone, urchins, mussels, fish, barnacles and crabs – teems in tide pools along the Oregon coast. In 2014, a wasting disease nearly decimated Oregon’s sea stars, but since then the animals have staged a comeback.

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Terry Richard/The Oregonian

4. Gray whales

A gray whale’s tail – called a fluke – emerges from the ocean as the whale dives into shallows near the town of Depoe Bay on the central Oregon coast. Gray whales migrate annually past the Oregon coast between their breeding grounds in Mexico and feeding grounds in Alaska, but about 200 “residents” stick around, feeding off mysid shrimp in kelp beds. The whales grow as long as 50 feet and can be spotted in large pods just offshore.

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

5. Thor's Well

Ocean water sprays from within Thor's Well, a circular bowl carved out of the basalt shoreline at Cape Perpetua on the central Oregon coast. At low tide, water bursts out of the bowl. At high tide, the ocean covers Thor’s Well and appears to drain through it. In the age of social media, the feature has become one of the area’s most popular attractions.

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Terry Richard/The Oregonian

6. Oregon Dunes

The Umpqua Dunes, on the southern Oregon coast, are part of the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area, a 40-mile complex of sand dunes – the largest dune system on the West Coast. The sand, once-sedimentary rock, comes from rivers in the nearby Coast Range. Wind constantly shifts the shape of the dunes, while river currents and ocean tides deposit more sand. Nevertheless, the area is crisscrossed with hiking trails.

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

7. Boardman Corridor

Sea stacks and turquoise waters greet visitors on a balmy winter hike near the Thunder Rock Cove pullout in the Samuel H. Boardman State Scenic Corridor on the southern Oregon coast. The viewpoint is one of dozens along the 12-mile corridor, once slated to become a national park but instead incorporated into the state park system in the 1950s. Samuel Boardman was the first Oregon Parks superintendent and is considered the father of Oregon’s state parks.

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Thomas Boyd/The Oregonian

8. Sea lions

A California sea lion strikes a pose on a dock in Newport's Yaquina Bay. Sea lions use the docks to rest, frolic and bark, and while some see them as a nuisance, they are a big tourism draw. California sea lions tend to visit the Oregon coast seasonally, but Steller sea lions – which are bigger and lighter in color – live there year-round. They're well-known for their rookery at the massive Sea Lion Caves near Florence.

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

9. Harris Beach

The sun rises over Harris Beach State Park near Brookings on the southern Oregon coast. While much of the beach is sandy, it includes large rocks and towering sea stacks. Massive pieces of driftwood often wash up alongside buoys, agates and shells. The park is also known for its tide pools, which pockmark the rocky shores.

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

10. Coast Range

Ferns thrive in the lush Drift Creek Wilderness, found in the central part of the Oregon Coast Range. While most of the small mountain range has been logged, stands of tall trees and thick underbrush remain in some places, evidence of the enormous growth potential in the coastal rain forest. Drift Creek, which encompasses nearly 6,000 acres, gets as much as 120 inches of rain each year.

--Jamie Hale | jhale@oregonian.com | @HaleJamesB