Four Unique Water Features in the Oregon Dunes

It’s always entertaining when people from the southwest head north to experience the Oregon dunes for the first time. Where they’re typically used to high temperatures and barren desert, the Oregon dunes provide cool temps, lots of greenery and even freshwater right in the dunes themselves. In honor of Dunefest taking place just a couple of weeks ago, we thought we’d highlight four unique water features from the Oregon dunes.

The Waterfall

Stumbling across a waterfall in the middle of hundreds of acres of sand dunes would surely throw most people for a loop. This waterfall was actually created by an underground stream that, for the last several years, has been mostly incognito. Thanks to some severe weather, it resurfaced this year in time for Dunefest and our buddy Jay from Oregon sent us a photo.

The Disappearing River

When the underground spring that feeds the waterfall isn’t exposed, it often times “pops up” out of nowhere before disappearing back into the ground.

Freshwater Lakes

Because of the unique bowls that form around or near the tree islands in the dunes, rainwater can collect and create large freshwater lakes that will remain well into the summer months. This is definitely a wild sight for folks who visit from the hot and arid southwest.

A Slip ‘N Slide

Okay, so this obviously isn’t a natural feature of the dunes, but we’ve wondered for years why someone didn’t make a water slide into one of the freshwater lakes in the dunes. Well, someone finally did and we wish we were there to give it a try.

A post shared by Cole Carpenter (@moist_coleslaw) on Jul 30, 2017 at 11:24pm PDT