Sunset Bay State Park
View from the south end of the beach
Sunset Bay State Park is located in Oregon
Sunset Bay State Park
Sunset Bay State Park is located in the United States
Sunset Bay State Park
TypePublic, state
Nearest cityCoos Bay
Coordinates43°20′3.70″N 124°22′14.73″W / 43.3343611°N 124.3707583°W / 43.3343611; -124.3707583[1]
Area405 acres (164 ha)[2]
Created1948
Operated byOregon Parks and Recreation Department
VisitorsDay-use: about 1.4 million annually. Overnight: about 70,000.[2]
StatusOpen all year
The bay from above

Sunset Bay State Park is a state park in the U.S. state of Oregon. Administered by the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department, it is about 0.4 miles (0.6 km) south of Cape Arago Lighthouse and 2.5 miles (4.0 km) outside the town of Charleston on Coos Bay. The park offers a crescent shaped beach, tide pools, hiking trails and a year-round campground.[3]

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 1 mile (1.6 km) north of Shore Acres State Park and about 2 miles (3 km) north of Cape Arago State Park.[4] A hiking trail links Sunset Bay to Shore Acres.[5]

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 405 acres (164 ha).[2]

Sunset Bay is home to one of Oregon's ghost forests, created by an earthquake on the Cascadia subduction zone that dropped the shoreline about 1,200 years ago. The shoreline contains stumps of drowned spruce trees.

Climate

Located on the Oregon Coast, 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 65 inches (1,700 mm) 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 40 °F (4 °C) or above 70 °F (21 °C) are uncommon, while snowfall is fairly rare. The record high temperature at Sunset Bay State Park is 82 °F (28 °C), which was observed on both October 10, 1991 and February 8, 2016, while the record low is 15 °F (−9 °C), which was observed on December 21, 1990.

Climate data for Sunset Bay State Park
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Record high °F (°C) 67
(19)		 82
(28)		 69
(21)		 79
(26)		 81
(27)		 69
(21)		 69
(21)		 75
(24)		 76
(24)		 82
(28)		 67
(19)		 64
(18)		 82
(28)
Mean daily maximum °F (°C) 52
(11)		 52
(11)		 52
(11)		 53
(12)		 56
(13)		 58
(14)		 59
(15)		 61
(16)		 59
(15)		 58
(14)		 55
(13)		 52
(11)		 56
(13)
Mean daily minimum °F (°C) 44
(7)		 44
(7)		 45
(7)		 46
(8)		 49
(9)		 51
(11)		 53
(12)		 53
(12)		 52
(11)		 50
(10)		 47
(8)		 44
(7)		 48
(9)
Record low °F (°C) 28
(−2)		 18
(−8)		 32
(0)		 35
(2)		 39
(4)		 45
(7)		 43
(6)		 45
(7)		 43
(6)		 39
(4)		 32
(0)		 15
(−9)		 15
(−9)
Average precipitation inches (mm) 7.7
(200)		 9.3
(240)		 9.4
(240)		 6.1
(150)		 2.8
(71)		 2.0
(51)		 0.4
(10)		 0.5
(13)		 1.7
(43)		 5.3
(130)		 8.9
(230)		 10.6
(270)		 64.7
(1,640)
Average snowfall inches (cm) 0.5
(1.3)		 0.2
(0.51)		 0
(0)		 0
(0)		 0
(0)		 0
(0)		 0
(0)		 0
(0)		 0
(0)		 0
(0)		 0.1
(0.25)		 0.2
(0.51)		 1.0
(2.5)
Average relative humidity (%) 81 82 81 82 85 88 93 95 94 89 86 83 87
Source: [6]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Sunset Bay State Park". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior. Retrieved June 6, 2011.
  2. 1 2 3 "Park History". Oregon Parks and Recreation Department. Retrieved May 15, 2016.
  3. ↑ "Sunset Bay State Park". Oregon State Parks and Recreation. Retrieved October 17, 2012.
  4. ↑ "Shore Acres State Park" (PDF). Oregon Parks and Recreation Department. Retrieved May 15, 2016.
  5. ↑ "Sunset Bay" (PDF). Oregon Parks and Recreation Department. Retrieved May 15, 2016.
  6. ↑ "Sunset Bay Golf Course Climate History". www.myweather2.com. Retrieved July 9, 2021.


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