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Thor's Well, Secret Beach and Blue Pool are three Oregon sites that have gained renown on social media. But visitors can do better checking out other equally beautiful — but way less crowded — spots nearby.
When out-of-state guests show up to visit Oregon, I’ve been surprised how often they ask to see Thor’s Well.
In a world of social media memes, Oregon has become famous online — not for Crater Lake — but rather for Secret Beach, Blue Pool and Thor’s Well.
As a guidebook author, I can tell you that each of these popular destinations is indeed scenic. But they are all problematic, a little dangerous and often not as cool as overlooked places nearby. I’ll give you the lowdown on all three. First, let’s find Thor’s Well.
Thor’s Well is a tidepool at Cape Perpetua, on the coast between Florence and Yachats. I remember noticing years ago that this particular pool is a little unusual. Because it is linked to the sea by a hidden tunnel, the water in the pool rises and falls with each wave. It’s basically a spouting horn that doesn’t spout. Instead it surges mysteriously.
The rocky shore at Cape Perpetua is spectacular during the stormy high tides of spring. To find Thor’s Well, drive north on Highway 101 for 23 miles from Florence. Between mileposts 168 and 169, stop at a parking pullout on the left, immediately after a bridge over Cook’s Chasm and just before the turnoff to the Cape Perpetua visitor center.
A small wooden “Thor’s Well” pointer aims you down a paved trail. The path’s switchbacks are gentle enough even for wheelchairs. After 300 feet a railed viewpoint overlooks Cook’s Chasm on the left, where waves churn through a slot, launching 80-foot plumes of spray from a spouting horn.
Thor’s Well is visible 300 feet to the right, on a rocky flat by the edge of the open ocean. Signs warn not to leave the paved trail — and this is in fact the real danger. If you venture across the rocky flat for a closer look at the surging tide pool, you will have nowhere to run when a larger wave hits. Then you may be sucked into the well.
Part of the tide pool’s mystique is the Norse legend behind its Internet name. According to a myth recorded by an Icelandic cleric in the 13th century, the thunder god, Thor, was challenged by a notorious Frost Giant to a drinking game. Could he drink a giant bowl of ale in a single draft?
Thor tried, but didn’t seem to change the level in the bowl at all. He tried again and still failed. When he managed to lower the level a little with his third attempt, Thor admitted that he’d done poorly. The Frost Giant, however, backed away in fear. “If I had known how powerful you are I wouldn’t have dared to challenge you. I used magic to connect the bowl to the oceans of the world. From now on, the tides that lower the ocean will be known as Thor’s Draught.”
If you aren’t sucked in, your visit to Thor’s Well will take only a few minutes. Round out the day by visiting less famous sites nearby that are just as interesting: the Devil’s Churn, the Giant Spruce, the stone lookout shelter atop the cape, the Amanda statue on the Oregon Coast Trail south of Yachats, the Styx, Stones ’n Bones rock shop in Yachats, the Darlingtonia wayside south of Florence and the hidden coves between Strawberry Hill and the Neptune viewpoint.
Not-so-secret Secret Beach
Speaking of hidden coves, where is Secret Beach? When I was hiking the Oregon Coast Trail north of Brookings recently, I met dozens of people asking the same thing, often with Japanese or German accents: “Where is Secret Beach?”
About 100 cars were parked beside Highway 101 near the Thunder Rock Cove pullout of the Boardman State Scenic Corridor. Crowds had beaten a confusion of trails down through the woods, sometimes to dead ends at dangerous cliffs, in search of the beach with Internet fame.
The irony here is that the 12-mile section of the Oregon Coast Trail through the Boardman Corridor passes a dozen secluded beaches, all of them fantastically beautiful. The only one spoiled by crowds is Secret Beach.
To find Secret Beach, drive Highway 101 to the Thunder Rock Cove Trailhead, a signed pullout between mileposts 345 and 346. Follow the Oregon Coast Trail down to the right for 0.6 mile to a junction where a spur to the left leads a few hundred feet down to the heavily overused beach.
To find a less crowded beach nearby, drive Highway 101 another 1.1 miles south, park at a pullout on the right, and hike 0.3 mile down to China Beach.
Blue Pool
Blue Pool is the closest to Eugene of the outdoor attractions with Internet fame. If you’ve hiked along the McKenzie River you’ve probably been to the dry waterfall where the entire river appears to emerge from a turquoise lake by magic.
This is actually Tamolitch Falls, not Blue Pool. Tamolitch is the native Chinook jargon word for “bucket.” A lava flow 3,000 years ago buried the McKenzie River below Clear Lake. A three-mile stretch of the river now usually flows underground through lava tubes. The water emerges in the bucket-shaped pool below Tamolitch Falls.
The problem at Blue Pool is that someone dies there almost every month in summer. On hot days, people attracted by photos on the Internet jump into the pool’s clear, deep water to cool off. But the water is 37 degrees, just above freezing.
The shock causes some swimmers to cramp and struggle. Rescue helicopters cannot land in the rugged terrain nearby. Sheriff crews have to hike in 2 miles. Among the dead have been well-known athletes, UO students, local kids and tourists.
Blue Pool has become the most troublesome site administered by the McKenzie Ranger District. In response, the Forest Service is expected to close the traditional 2.1-mile trail to the pool on the west side of the river this summer. That path will be obliterated and revegetated. A new parking lot has already been built on the opposite side of the river. This summer, crews will finish constructing a new path from that trailhead to a railed viewpoint. Rangers and warning signs will tell people to look but not swim.
Will people then visit Koosah Falls, Rainbow Falls, Carpenter Mountain and other overlooked destinations nearby instead? Probably not.
At least we can hope that the Forest Service will drop the Internet’s Blue Pool name. Oregon has hundreds of Blue Pools. One of them is a few miles downstream on the McKenzie River itself. Another is near McCredie Hot Springs at Blue Pool Campground. But there is only one Tamolitch Falls.
Fame for travel destinations is a strange thing, often most puzzling to the people who live nearby. As an outdoor writer with a conscience, I try not to send crowds to fragile or dangerous destinations. I encourage people to discover interesting places off the beaten path.
When your cousin’s acquaintance from France insists that he wants to see Thor’s Well, tell him that’s just fine. Take him there. Please, stop him from being sucked into the tidepool to drown. And then show him all the other cool things to see and do nearby.