Most days we follow a well-researched travel itinerary, but
today we just winged it. Based on a
recommendation, we visited Shore
Acres State
Park about 45 minutes south. We heard that the park had a nice garden.
When we arrived, we had lunch on a bench overlooking the
ocean.
Then we serendipitously took a trail hugging the coast giving
view after view of the ocean. The 45-degree tilt in the rocks is caused by the
earth’s plates colliding.
We kept going and going until we were in Sunset Bay State Park and spotted the Cape Arago
Lighthouse. It’s on an island, so that
was about the best view we could get of it.
Backtracking along the trail, we spotted some harbor seals.
A mother and baby were especially cute to watch.
We then went to the garden. Even though it is August, it was
beautiful and had lots of color.
After the garden, we ventured down to Simpson’s Beach – a
small sandy beach in a picturesque cove.
Shore Acres was the private estate of Louis Simpson, a
lumberman and shipbuilder. He acquired the marvelous property and built a grand
house on the bluff with a formal garden. He transferred ownership to the state of
Oregon in
1942 with the intent to make it a public park. The house was later torn down, but
the gardens continued to attract visitors and the property and gardens are now
maintained as a state park.
Bill hiked past the beach to Cape Arago State Park, which afterwards we drove
to. In 1932, Simpson gave 134 acres of the land to Oregon for the park. There is a viewpoint
where you hear the barking of hundreds of sea lions. You can see them on the rocks in the
distance, though they were farther out then the seals we spotted previously.
At another viewpoint we caught glimpses of whales but didn’t
get any good pictures. We’d see spouts
of water, their humped back, and an occasional wave of their tail.
All in all it was a great serendipitous day.
