By Laura Swanson
Nehalem Bay State Park has been closed to the public since November of 2024, but there’s a lot going on throughout the park. On a recent tour, we encountered a group of locals (the park elk herd) taking advantage of the open sites. Local residents have wondered on social media – what’s going on? – and would love to get back on their state park’s trails. From moving the day use permit station to the entrance intersection to connecting the southern day use restroom to the sewer system, adding interpretative areas, upgrading the horse camping, new restrooms and upgrading plumbing and utilities to 150 sites, and new staff housing there are over a dozen active construction sites throughout the parks acreage. The construction is “on schedule” but awaiting equipment supplies. “We’ll have a better idea about re-opening dates in a few weeks,” said Nehalem Bay Sate Park Manager Ben Cox. “There are so many moving parts and challenges with a project of this scope. We’re just as anxious to get areas of the park re-opened to the public as soon as possible.” The park is still on schedule for re-opening July 1st; recently announced that reservations wouldn’t be taken until after August 1st. “We don’t want to set unrealistic expectations, and it’s easier to open reservations on a rolling basis, earlier than to open it up and have to cancel them,” said Cox. Lessons were learned from the Beverly Beach State Park construction projects last year. “Our hope is to open ahead of schedule,” added Cox.
The park’s full-time staff have also been busy with a variety of clean up projects – throughout the district with hundreds of trees needing removal after winter storms. Park staff will also assist with the re-roofing of the restroom in the A Loop. “We’ll take care of the tear off, and have the roofing contractor come in for the roofing, and then we’ll take care of the finish work,” explained Cox.
The first visible sign of the construction is the widening of the main intersection inside the park, where the permit pay station will be relocated to the west side of the roadway. The pay station had been located near the end of the road near the south day use area.
In the south day use area, the rest room which had been on a septic tank, was connected to the park’s sewer system. During the excavations in this area, it was determined that instead of using drill boring for the water lines, excavation was required due to the “cobble.”
During the digging, some chunks of beeswax were uncovered. Prior to this construction, the state park was required to do a “cultural resources” survey and report. The state park is located in areas known to have cultural significance – site of the beeswax shipwreck as well as other shipwrecks, and the location of indigenous peoples’ camps and villages. A state archivist and archeologist have been on site to observe and archive any other finds. Visitors to the park are reminded that any items of cultural significance should be left where they are found, location recorded and reported to park rangers.
One of the exciting new features the construction has added to the park is a cluster of five cabins for seasonal workers housing. “We all know how tight the housing market is here,” said Cox. “Having these tiny homes available for our workers is a game changer for attracting employees.” The workers will rent the approximately 400 square foot cabins with living area, kitchen, bathroom and bedroom at below market rate (to be determined) from the state park.
Why have they had to have the whole park closed? Why can’t we have access to the trails/day use area? In one word – insurance – and public safety. To have allowed public access, the state would have been required to have a much higher liability policy, flaggers would have been needed in some areas, it simply made economic and public safety sense, as well as for access for the contractors to have the park on a full closure.
That said, there is the possibility that the day use area could be opened earlier, before July 1st. Stay tuned …
Here are more details about the Nehalem Bay State Park project:
Nehalem Bay State Park was closed in December 2024 to install new water lines, electrical lines and restroom and shower buildings, among many other tasks as part of this work is part of the GO Bond projects which include improvements at nine parks around the state. The closure is for the entire park, including the campground, day-use area, airport and trails into/out of the community.
The goal is to reopen the park July 1, 2025. We will notify visitors when reservations reopen for summer camping.
General Obligation Bonds Overview: The 2021 Oregon Legislature passed SB 5506 that approved general obligation bonds to revitalize parks and campgrounds. The Oregon State Parks and Recreation Commission approved a preliminary list of projects in November 2021. The project at Nehalem Bay State Park was one of the projects approved to receive funds from bond sales.
Project
- Upgrade existing utilities within the camp loops
- Add a new restrooms/shower building to serve C and D Loops.
- Renovate and add additional accessible campsites
- Repave and add traffic calming to the park entry road from the Garey Street entrance to the airport intersection.
Visitor impacts
The park is closed to camping and day use during construction to ensure public safety. The park closure for the utility and road improvements is anticipated to be from November 1, 2024 through summer 2025.
The Nehalem Bay State Airport (Airport) will have temporary limitations while the Nehalem Bay State Park (Park) undergoes construction in the fall of 2024 through the summer of 2025.
- The campground, the Horizon Lane park entrance, and day-use areas west of the main park entry road will be closed November 1 through June 30.
- The day-use area including the main Garey Street entrance, will be closed December 1 through June 30. The day use area closure will be delayed one month to allow use of the boat ramp and the trails on the east side of the main entry road. Water and electricity may be intermittent in the day use areas in November as construction gets underway.
- The beach will remain open for walk in use from outside of the park during construction.
During the Park closure:
- The Airport will remain open, but prior permission will be required for full-stop landings
- There will be no drinking water, restrooms, or solid waste facilities available
- Trails and roads, including beach access will be closed to all traffic
- Camping will be allowed “under the wing”
- All refuse must be flown out. If you bring it in, please take it with you on your way out
- All portions of the Park outside of the Airport will be off limits
- Touch and go traffic will not require prior permission
- Airport users may encounter contractors on the west edge of the airstrip during weekdays
Milestones
- Final wetland delineation report complete and approved.
- Cultural resources report complete and approved
- Cultural resources survey
- Final design for utility and road improvement project is complete
- Conditional use land use approval for other future projects (boat ramp area improvements, dump station relocation, additional camping loops). (in progress)
- County Building Permit for Restroom Building (in progress)
- Bidding
Next steps
- Construction for the utility and road improvements.
The current general bond obligation is $10-12 million.