Indian Sands Trailhead — Attraction in Brookings

Very popular trail, so we added it to our "definite hike" list. Truly gorgeous trail, with remarkably varied terrain -- which adds to the beauty and allure. The trails are not clear, and local cell reception is sporadic, so definitely download an All Trails map before hitting the trailhead. Even then, there are spots where multiple trails have been worn through the ground cover, and the All Trails map doesn't really help in a few spots (hence the 4 stars).

My comments below are for the first time visitor, since once you've made this famous loop, familiarity will cure my rookie issues. If you're headed out for your first hike here, my trial-by-fire recommendations:

• Prepare for a decent amount of elevation change, starting right away down substantially to the sand, cliffs and water views. Gorgeous once you break through to the cliffs. Break here to take in the view and rest for the sand and climb back to the trailhead. Not "difficult", but the sand adds a factor.

• Wear hiking pants and boots (vs shorts), as you will spend a bit of time walking through low brush and sand. The terrain is dirt/root trail, sand, brush, more sand, rock cliffs, ground brush, and dunes. Yes, dunes.

• We made the mistake of following a secondary parallel worn trail when heading away from the cliffs, through the flowering ground cover that led us to a large sand dune (which we could have avoided by taking the primary trail -- not super obvious). If you've never climbed a sand dune, bring an ATV or skip it.

Overall a truly beautiful and diverse trail, with tree tunnels, cliffs, dunes, wildflowers and gorgeous views all along. I'm looking forward to a...

I thoroughly enjoyed this hike because 1) it's a loop 2) there's such diversity in the terrain 3) beautiful views of the coast. There is quite a steep descent and ascent, so wear good shoes (but not too crazy). The loop itself is pretty short and can be done under an hour for sure. When you get to the sands part, it's true that there is no marked path, but keep on going and you'll find the path pretty easily, and it's not that easy to get lost. Warning, when you do reach the sandy part, the sand is so fine and the wind is so strong that if you're wearing shorts, it's going to hurt quite a bit. Also if you have expensive camera equipment, I suggest you put that away as some of the sand did get into my camera but luckily not too much where I couldn't...

Beautiful views, but you gotta get there. It seemed so much easier when I looked at the map. This hike is too much for beginners. I'm a beginner and almost died. Well, I'm fat and don't exercise enough. The hike back up is the killer. The path is clean, but it felt like I was walking up 90 degrees, probably 45-60 degrees. And it kept going and going. The walk down was fun. The cliffs was too much for me. I got vertigo. But I stayed back. I even prayed a little when going by one cliff next to trail. It was so beautiful though. We spent around 2 hours here, maybe more and all walking. Wear good shoes. We gave up on trail half way and went back in loop. It would have been a lot farther and we had more too do. I would suggest spending 4+ hours here...