Sunset Bay State Park is a state park in 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 sove ...

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...

. Administered by the

Oregon Parks and Recreation Department The Oregon Parks and Recreation Department (OPRD), officially known (in state law) as the State Parks and Recreation Department, is the government agency of the U.S. state of Oregon which operates its system of state parks. In addition, it has pro ...

, it is about south of Cape Arago Lighthouse and outside the town of Charleston on

Coos Bay Coos Bay is an estuary where the Coos River enters the Pacific Ocean, the estuary is approximately 12 miles long and up to two miles wide. It is the largest estuary completely within Oregon state lines. The Coos Bay watershed covers an area of abou ...

. The park offers a crescent shaped beach,

tide pools A tide pool or rock pool is a shallow pool of seawater that forms on the rocky intertidal shore. Many of these pools exist as separate bodies of water only at low tide. Many tide pool habitats are home to especially adaptable animals that ...

, hiking trails and a year-round campground. The park is one of three along the Cape Arago Highway, which runs along the Pacific Ocean west of U.S. Route 101. Sunset Bay State Park is about north of

Shore Acres State Park Shore Acres State Park is a state park south of Coos Bay in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is one of three state parks along the Cape Arago Highway, which runs along the Pacific Ocean west of U.S. Route 101. Sunset Bay State Park is about nor ...

and about north of

Cape Arago State Park Cape Arago State Park is a state park in the U.S. state of Oregon, administered by the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department. Cape Arago is north of Bandon and 15 miles southwest of Coos Bay on Cape Arago Highway in Coos County. History In 15 ...

. A hiking trail links Sunset Bay to Shore Acres. Land for the park was acquired in stages through 1984. Coos County donated the original tract to the state in 1948. In 1954, Ralph Barker donated a parcel with a water supply. The Bureau of Land Management later added tracts through a grant to the state, which also bought, exchanged, or otherwise acquired land from private owners. The combined size of the parcels is about . Sunset Bay is home to one of Oregon's ghost forests, created by an earthquake on the

Cascadia subduction zone The Cascadia subduction zone is a convergent plate boundary that stretches from northern Vancouver Island in Canada to Northern California in the United States. It is a very long, sloping subduction zone where the Explorer, Juan de Fuca, a ...

that dropped the shoreline about 1,200 years ago. The shoreline contains stumps of drowned spruce trees.

Climate

Located on the

Oregon Coast The Oregon Coast is a coastal region of the U.S. state of Oregon. It is bordered by the Pacific Ocean to its west and the Oregon Coast Range to the east, and stretches approximately from the California state border in the south to the Columbia ...

, Sunset Bay State Park has a mild oceanic climate (''Cfb''), with minimal temperature variation throughout the year. As is typical of coastal locations in Oregon, Sunset Bay is very wet, with nearly of annual precipitation, the vast majority of it falling between the months of October and May. Summers are dry, but still cool, partly-to-mostly cloudy and foggy. Temperatures below or above are uncommon, while snowfall is fairly rare. The record high temperature at Sunset Bay State Park is , which was observed on both October 10, 1991 and February 8, 2016, while the record low is , which was observed on December 21, 1990.

References

External links

* http://www.yelp.com/biz/sunset-bay-state-park-charleston Parks in Coos County, Oregon State parks of Oregon {{CoosCountyOR-geo-stub

Climate

See also

References

External links