Shore Acres State Park

Shore Acres is the most spectacular state park on the Oregon coast, and it almost wasn't a park at all. Perched on sandstone cliffs above the churning Pacific, the grounds combine a wild ocean setting with seven acres of manicured formal gardens: rose gardens, a Japanese garden centered on a 100-foot lily pond, and beds of dahlias, rhododendrons, and camellias that bloom in careful succession from spring through autumn.

The ocean view from the cliff edge is as dramatic as anything on the coast. Storm watching is a serious pursuit here in winter — the park sits on a headland where Pacific swells hit the cliffs at their most exposed, sending spray high into the air. From Thanksgiving through New Year's Eve, the gardens are strung with 325,000 holiday lights, drawing visitors from across the state. The park connects via trail to Sunset Bay and Cape Arago, making an excellent half-day walk along the cape.

things to do sight garden
A story
Shore Acres was the private estate of Louis J. Simpson, a Coos County timber baron who spared no expense on formal English and Japanese gardens overlooking the Pacific. When financial losses in the Depression forced him out in the 1930s, the mansion sat empty until the state acquired the property in 1942. The house was demolished, but the gardens — somehow — survived, and volunteers have tended them ever since.