Cleawox Lake (klē' ə woks), is a body of water dammed by sand dunes along the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

coast of the U.S. state of

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

. The lake is about south of

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

along

U.S. Route 101 U.S. Route 101, or U.S. Highway 101 (US 101), is a major north–south highway that traverses the states of California, Oregon, and Washington on the West Coast of the United States. It is part of the United States Numbered Highway Syst ...

. Sharing the lakeshore are private properties as well as

Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area The Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area is located on the Oregon Coast, stretching approximately north of the Coos River in North Bend to the Siuslaw River in Florence, and adjoining Honeyman State Park on the west. It is part of Siuslaw Na ...

and Jessie M. Honeyman Memorial State Park, which also partly fronts on

Woahink Lake Woahink Lake (hō' hingk) extends further below sea level than any other lake dammed by sand dunes along the coast of the U.S. state of Oregon. The lake fills a depression in the Siltcoos River watershed about from the Pacific Ocean south of F ...

. ''Cleawox'' is derived from the Siuslaw name for the lake.

Geology

Cleawox Lake is a submerged remnant of the headwaters of a small coastal stream that existed before the most recent

ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages, and g ...

. The lake formed after melting glaciers caused a rise in sea level that drowned the lower reaches of the stream. Sediments from the sluggish stream formed sand dunes, behind which the lake was dammed. The dunes, estimated to be advancing northward at a year, are encroaching on the lake.

Watershed

Covering only , Cleawox Lake's drainage basin is separate from the nearby Woahink– Siltcoos watershed to the east and south. Water enters Cleawox from small surface streams and by

seepage In soil mechanics, seepage is the movement of water through soil. If fluid pressures in a soil deposit are uniformly increasing with depth according to u = \rho_w g z_w, where z_w is the depth below the water table, then hydrostatic conditions wi ...

, and no surface outflow has been identified. Soils are sandy and well-drained and support mainly

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. ''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as cu ...

s and shrubs. Although the lake is saltier than most other coastal lakes in Oregon, it is also more transparent. About of the lakeshore borders Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area, and about borders Honeyman State Park. The rest borders private property, including vacation homes and girl scout Camp Cleawox.

Recreation

Park visitors use the lake for swimming, canoeing, and fishing for warm-water species and

rainbow A rainbow is an optical phenomenon caused by refraction, internal reflection and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a continuous spectrum of light appearing in the sky. The rainbow takes the form of a multicoloured circular ...

and

coastal cutthroat trout The coastal cutthroat trout (''Oncorhynchus clarkii'', sometimes referred as ''Oncorhynchus clarkii clarkii''), also known as the sea-run cutthroat trout, blue-back trout or harvest trout, is one of the four speciesTrotter, Patrick; Bisson, Pete ...

. In the state park, picnic tables have been set up in sight of the water. No overnight camping is allowed next to the lake, but nearby areas of the state park have many campsites.

References

External links

* {{authority control Lakes of Oregon Lakes of Lane County, Oregon

Geology

Watershed

Recreation

See also

References

External links