Grant's Getaways by Grant McOmie

Author:Grant McOmie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: West Margin Press
Published: 2013-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Wind-shorn and wave-battered cliffs mark the coastline at Shore Acres State Park.

A mile away, a much different environment waits for you at Shore Acres State Park. Here, the wildness is tamed at a parkland that puts a smile on your face. You see, Shore Acres is the state park system’s only botanical garden.

My first visit to Shore Acres State Park, a mile south of Sunset Bay, is shrouded in a foggy mist that time often lends to an adult’s childhood memories. I couldn’t have been more than six or seven, but I remember wandering and then wondering who in the world pulled the weeds and mowed the acres of endless green grass. (You see, this was my duty at home, so I always turned an envious eye to manicured yards in well-groomed neighborhoods.)

Shore Acres, built in 1906, was once a private estate famed for gardens of flowering trees, plants, and shrubs brought from around the world aboard the sailing ships of pioneer lumberman and shipbuilder Louis B. Simpson, as well as a one-acre pond and shimmering waterfall. Simpson developed the summer home into a showplace capped by the towering presence of a three-story mansion. The grounds originally contained five acres of formal gardens, but fire destroyed the mansion in 1921.

Simpson began to build an even larger replacement; however, financial losses caused both house and grounds to fall into disrepair in the 1930s. The State of Oregon purchased Shore Acres as a park in 1942. The park offers hundreds of different plant species for you to enjoy as you stroll across seven acres of garden. Preson noted that the park continues to amaze and impress even lifelong Oregon residents: “Folks come in the gate and they say, ‘What’s that?’ And they step in and they’re here for hours taking pictures, just oo-ing and ah-ing—and for many it’s ‘we didn’t even know this place was here.’”

A short but easy one-mile hike south takes you to Cape Arago, famous as a resort for Steller sea lions. Well, perhaps “resort” is a bit of a stretch, but the fact is that Shell Island (adjacent to the cape) is the largest Steller haul-out and calving site along the entire West Coast. “It is critical habitat for these federally protected, endangered marine mammals that can weigh more than a ton,” noted local eco-tourism guide, Marty Giles, owner/operator of Wavecrest Discoveries. She said that more than three thousand sea lions will haul out on Simpson Reef and Shell Island and that they put on quite a show. “Imagine a group of anxious kids in the back seat of a car on a long trip—you’re in my way, you’re over my line, move, you touched me—and you can see that kind of behavior going on—they walk over one another and grump at each other and move around.”

Any time is a fine time to visit the many viewpoints along Cape Arago’s main hiking path overlooking Shell Island, but keep in mind that the offshore rocks, islands, and reefs are part of the Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge system, which is closed to public access.

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