Oregon Coast Sand Dollars
Find sand dollars and how to clean sand dollars
Where is the best place to find Sand Dollars? It’s hard to imagine a better place to find unbroken sand dollars than along the northern coast of Oregon. Finding an unbroken sand dollar had been on my bucket list for a while. I love the ocean, the water, the waves, and the life that it brings with it. It’s a whole new ecosystem that we know little about compared to what we see above the surface.
Background
We were planning our spring break trip with the kids along the Oregon coast. My wife and I had been there together once after we were first married, but it was a fast trip. To give you an idea of my mindset for adventure, I will give you the short story of this first trip.
My wife and I had been married for a couple years. We were both going to college and both had full time jobs. We rarely had a day off together but for some reason we were faced with two full days without having to work or go to school. I didn’t realize it until the day before we were scheduled for this two-day break. I asked her what we should do and she told me to think of something. Going to see the Oregon coast was something I had wanted to do for a long time. I took a few minutes looking up some distances and cities along the coast and if we played our cards right, sacrificing some sleep, we could run a quick trip in about 50 hours there and back. Home at the time was near Ogden, UT. I let her know and we left when she got off at work about 10pm. We drove through the night taking turns. This was not a trip for detours. We both had places to be about the time we were expected to be back home. We went to Portland and drove to Newport down to northern California to Reno and back home. The trip was 2300 miles in what I believe was 52 hours. We got home in time to go to work when we got back. We saw things we had never seen before, but missed a lot too. It left an itch to go explore more in depth.
Over 10 years and three kids later, it was time to take a trip back up. I was doing some research of things to do along the Oregon coast and came across an article about sand dollars. This stuck out to me as I never thought that sand dollars would be located in cooler waters. For some reason, my mind took me to the Caribbean whenever I thought about sand dollars. To make thing more interesting, I never knew that sand dollars are the skeletal remains of a type of sea urchin. As I read on, I found that there was a large colony of sand dollars that hung out south of the mouth of the Columbia River, which was exactly where we were planning on going.
The Start Of Another Adventure
We left one morning and arrived in Pendleton, OR late at night. I have never been one to get reservations to a hotel and have never had any issues in the past in finding a room. I also am someone who doesn’t mind sleeping in my truck if I need to in some parking lot or off a beaten path, but it is different when your wife and kids are with you. We got into Pendleton and pulled off and started looking for a room. The town was just about all the way booked. It was crazy. Keep in mind, this is about the time that most people were getting over the Covid-19 craziness. People were ready to go places and we had found this to be the case. We luckily found a room and gladly took it. We spoke with a couple other people the next day and they had all mentioned the same thing. Some had even said that Pendleton never is booked, but on this trip, that was not the case. This experience caused us to start booking our rooms at least the night before we were planning on arriving to our next destination. This also caused us to be less flexible in our travels as we needed to be in certain places at certain times now that we were trying to get hotel rooms by reservation.
We had hoped that we would be able to be more flexible and slower as we wanted to detour in random places. I generally have an idea of a main path I want to take but some of the best adventures have come from detours to places that I would have never expected. When we left Pendleton it was time to go to Astoria, OR. We were able to enjoy a few places in the Columbia River Gorge along the way, but those places will be a post for another day. As the day passed on, the rain came in and we got into the fun little town of Astoria, OR. I was looking forward to the next day as that is when we were going to see if we could track some sand dollars down with the kids.
Sand Dollar Day!
We woke up the next day early. We wanted to be one of the first ones along the beach that morning in hopes to find what the waves and tide had left behind. The sun was rising which was what we had hoped for since the weather was rainy and gloomy the prior afternoon. We packed in the car and headed south. We were headed to a beach near Seaside or Gearhart. We did not seek a specific beach, but just the area itself. You can find a few places near this area to get beach access and you can actually drive your vehicle along these sandy beaches for miles. We took a turn toward the ocean and came up over a hill and the powerful waves of the ocean were pushing water probably 30-40 yards in and out. It was awesome to see and fun to see the kids’ expressions as they were experiencing the ocean for the first time.
We found a spot that looked like there wasn’t many people around and got out. The wind was blowing a lot and it was a chilly sunny morning. We had some wind breakers which really helped as we went off to see what the ocean had left for us. To make things better, we had timed it just right to be there as the tide was going out. The tide going out would help us to locate anything the water pushed up over the night without us having to worry about anyone picking through any of the sand dollars. The conditions felt good.
We started walking along the water line, observing the waves at all times. This time of year can bring some pretty intense sneaker waves that come out of nowhere and can knock people off their feet if their not paying attention. Even worse, if you are not watching your little ones, the waves might try to swipe them away so stay close to the little ones and pay attention to the ocean. It wasn’t long and we had found our first sand dollar. It was awesome to see the white skeleton with the beautiful five leaf mark left over the top. There were a ton of broken ones all over. We knew there had to be more with the number of pieces we were seeing, so we spread out and kept looking.
The kids all found some too which is what we were hoping for. We managed to find over 40 whole sand dollars of various sizes within a couple hours. It was a neat experience to share with the family and one I won’t forget. The sounds of the waves added to the experience and were relaxing as we searched. Every once in a while, the waves would chase us up to higher ground. The kids thought it was fun when we ran away from the waves and I enjoyed their laughter and excitement. We did take the kids back up to the car a couple of times for them to warm up as the water from the waves on your feet and in the air did make it chilly. As the tide was coming back up, we decided it was time to wrap it up.
How To Clean A Sand Dollar
What were we going to do with these fresh sand dollars with over a thousand miles more to drive? I knew they would stink if we didn’t get them aired out. We ran over to Walmart afterward and grabbed a plastic shoebox and a towel to place the sand dollars in for transport to prevent them from breaking. It worked very well. As we made our hotel that evening, we opened up the box and let them air out. We got them home and found a way to clean them up. I had to take them outside and try and rinse and shake all the sand out of them as you will find that they carry quite a bit of sand within their interiors. I made a solution of bleach and water. I would start out with the sand dollars in a plastic bin. Keep track of how much water you put in. I would then add 1 part bleach to every 10 parts of water making a solution of about 10% bleach. Bleach is strong stuff, especially when used on bones and it will eat away at the bone if you add too much bleach or leave the sand dollars in too long.
I would leave them in about 20-30 minutes for an average sized sand dollar. If you have smaller sand dollars, they will take less time and will be the first to get eaten up by the bleach so keep an eye on them. I would recommend about 10 minutes for smaller sand dollars. Once they have been soaked in the solution, some may still appear to have some darker stains and not look super white. That is okay. Rinse them off in a separate container or under a hose and then leave them outside in the sun until they dry. You need to rinse them off to get as much bleach off of them as possible. It won’t take long, but the bleach will continue to eat at the sand dollar if you don’t rinse them off. You will be surprised how much whiter they will get when left out in the sun. It will not work the same if they are left in shade, the sun reacts with the bleach to make them whiter. We all picked a couple after they were cleaned and have them on our dressers or another safe place where we hope they will not break. We gave away some to our extended family and we also saved a few for other projects.
This was a super fun experience with the family and I would expect anyone that has a good attitude would enjoy this. It’s a way to experience the outdoors in a different setting if you are not used to going to the ocean like me. You may find other things like different shells, tiny sea creatures, old glass fishing floats, among other things. You never know what the waves will bring in which is part of the excitement.