The Yaquina River ( ) is a stream, long, on the

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

coast of the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

. It drains an area of the

Central Oregon Coast Range The Central Oregon Coast Range is the middle section of the Oregon Coast Range, in the Pacific Coast Ranges physiographic region, and located in the west-central portion of the state of Oregon, United States roughly between the Salmon River and ...

west of the

Willamette Valley The Willamette Valley ( ) is a long valley in Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The Willamette River flows the entire length of the valley and is surrounded by mountains on three sides: the Cascade Range to the east, ...

near Newport. It rises in the mountains west of Corvallis along the county line between Benton and

Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincol ...

counties. It flows south, then generally west, in a highly serpentine course, past Eddyville,

Chitwood Chitwood is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Bill Chitwood (1890–1961), American fiddler * Christina Chitwood (born 1990), American ice dancer *Joie Chitwood (1912–1988), American racing driver and businessman * May Belle Hu ...

, Toledo, and Elk City, and enters the Pacific in Yaquina Bay, a broad

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environment ...

at Newport. When

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised g ...

was lower than today, the Yaquina River reached to Stonewall Bank, which is split by a rocky channel.

U.S. Route 20 U.S. Route 20 or U.S. Highway 20 (US 20) is an east–west United States Numbered Highway that stretches from the Pacific Northwest east to New England. The "0" in its route number indicates that US 20 is a major coast-to-coast route. S ...

, the Corvallis–Newport highway, follows the river from Eddyville, at the confluence of the river with Little Elk Creek, to slightly downstream of Chitwood. Near the mouth of Yaquina Bay, the river passes under

Yaquina Bay Bridge The Yaquina Bay Bridge is an arch bridge that spans Yaquina Bay south of Newport, Oregon. It is one of the most recognizable of the U.S. Route 101 bridges designed by Conde McCullough and one of eleven major bridges on the Oregon Coast Highway d ...

, which carries

U.S. Route 101 U.S. Route 101, or U.S. Highway 101 (US 101), is a north–south United States Numbered Highway that runs through the states of California, Oregon, and Washington, on the West Coast of the United States. It is also known as (The Royal Roa ...

. Other bridges over the river include the Chitwood Covered Bridge at Chitwood. The

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditio ...

's Pacific Marine Center and the

Hatfield Marine Science Center The Hatfield Marine Science Center (HMSC) is a marine science research and education center next to Yaquina Bay of the Pacific Ocean in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is operated by Oregon State University in cooperation with five state and federa ...

are both along Yaquina Bay. Adjacent to the Hatfield Center is the

Oregon Coast Aquarium __NOTOC__ The Oregon Coast Aquarium is an aquarium in Newport in the U.S. state of Oregon. Opened in 1992, the facility sits on along Yaquina Bay near the Pacific Ocean. The aquarium was home to Keiko, the orca who starred in the movie ''Free ...

. The Yaquina Bay Lighthouse, contained within the Yaquina Bay State Recreation Site, is on the coast near the mouth of the river.

Fishing

A large charter fishing fleet operates out of Newport in search of

halibut Halibut is the common name for three flatfish in the genera '' Hippoglossus'' and ''Reinhardtius'' from the family of right-eye flounders and, in some regions, and less commonly, other species of large flatfish. The word is derived from ''h ...

, salmon, and other fish found in the nearby ocean. Species within the bay include

cabezon Cabezón is the Spanish word for "stubborn" or "big-headed". In Chile, cabezon means intelligent. Cabezon or cabezón may refer to: Fish species * Cabezon (fish) (''Scorpaenichthys marmoratus''), a species of fish in the family Cottidae * '' Cach ...

, striped

perch Perch is a common name for fish of the genus ''Perca'', freshwater gamefish belonging to the family Percidae. The perch, of which three species occur in different geographical areas, lend their name to a large order of vertebrates: the Percif ...

, rockfish,

greenling Hexagrammidae, the greenlings, is a family of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the suborder Cottoidei in the order Scorpaeniformes. These fishes are found in the North Pacific Ocean. Taxonomy Hexagrammidae was first proposed as a family i ...

, salmon,

sturgeon Sturgeon is the common name for the 27 species of fish belonging to the family Acipenseridae. The earliest sturgeon fossils date to the Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretace ...

herring Herring are forage fish, mostly belonging to the family of Clupeidae. Herring often move in large schools around fishing banks and near the coast, found particularly in shallow, temperate waters of the North Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans, i ...

, and crabs. The river upstream of the bay supports populations of salmon,

steelhead Steelhead, or occasionally steelhead trout, is the common name of the anadromous form of the coastal rainbow trout or redband trout (O. m. gairdneri). Steelhead are native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific basin in Northeast Asia and ...

, and

cutthroat trout The cutthroat trout is a fish species of the family Salmonidae native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific Ocean, Rocky Mountains, and Great Basin in North America. As a member of the genus '' Oncorhynchus'', it is one of the Pacific tro ...

. The river and bay are also fished from the banks in places and from small boats. Boat-launching ramps are available along the lower river and the bay.

Tributaries

Named tributaries of the Yaquina River from source to mouth begin with Bailey Creek and the Little Yaquina River followed by Splide, Humphrey, Young, Felton, Davis, Randall, Stony, Bryant, and Buttermilk creeks. Then come Bales, Trout, Little Elk, Eddy, Peterson, Hayes, Whitney, Crystal, Cougar, and Thornton creeks. Then Trapp, Simpson, Sloop, Martin, Bear, Little Carlisle, Carlisle, Big Elk, Blair, Abbey, and Mill creeks. Along the lower reaches of the river are Olalla and Depot sloughs; Babcock and Montgomery creeks, and Nute, Boone, Blind, Flesher, Johnson, Poole, McCaffery, Parker, King, and Sallys sloughs.

References

{{authority control Rivers of Oregon Rivers of Benton County, Oregon Rivers of Lincoln County, Oregon

Fishing

Tributaries

See also

References