Coos Bay, OR

Address:Coos Bay, Oregon

Coos Bay, in Oregon's Bay Area, is a premier sports fishing harbor, and one of the state's busiest commercial fishing ports. The bay offers a wide variety of outdoor entertainment, including whale watching, crabbing, surfing, boating, camping, cycling and golf. Three beautiful state parks provide plenty of room for relaxation and outdoor activity. The best time to visit Oregon's beaches is autumn, when the summer winds and fog have died down and crowds thin out. The sand and rock beaches are home to many communities of wildlife.

Three parks make the beauty of Coos Bay accessible to visitors. Shore Acres State Park is the former grand estate of a pioneer lumberman and shipbuilder. This park has spectacular sea-side gardens with trees, shrubs and flowering plants from around the world. There's a fully enclosed observation building where you can see magnificent views of towering waves, rugged cliffs and if you're lucky, catch glimpses of migrating whales from December through June. Jutting half a mile into the ocean, Cape Arago offers wild vistas of the water and Oregon's sea stacks. Picnic tables are scattered around the bluffs, and hiking trails lead to numerous tide pools along the beach. This park is also a good place to view marine mammals, including seals, sea lions and whales. The third park, Sunset Bay State Park, is located on the Cape Arago highway and has a small, protected bay surrounded by cliffs. Ocean swimming is often possible from late spring until the end of summer, really a rare treat since there aren't many swimming spots on the Oregon coast. Year-round camping and hiking trails are available in Sunset Bay. If you take the cliff side trail, which begins in Sunset Bay and connects the three parks, be sure to stop and watch the sunset over the ocean. The trail offers breathtaking vistas of the beach, and sightings of birds, whales and sea lions. You can take easy day-hikes and driving tours of the Shore Acres State Park gardens, the twin cascades at Golden and Silver Falls State Park, and South Slough, the nation's first protected estuary.

Sunset Bay State Park has amenities for campers, including fireplaces, tables, hookups for water, sewage, electricity, restrooms and hot showers. Groups of campers can reserve RV and tent sites. Reservations are recommended from July and August when demand peaks. A 9-hole public golf course is just around the corner.

Downtown Coos Bay has an eclectic range of stores selling antiques, collectibles and art. If you're the creative type and are staying in Coos Bay for a few days, stop by The Pottery Company, where you can decorate pottery yourself. The Coos Art Museum is housed in an historic art deco building in downtown Coos Bay that was formerly a U.S. Post Office. The permanent collection includes 350 works of art by major American artists, including Alexander Calder, Warrington Colescott, Red Grooms, Robert Rauschenberg, James Rosenquist and Larry Rivers.

There are very few chain eateries in the area, but the smaller restaurants offer that good old-fashioned service and quality that isn't easily found these days. Seafood is king in town, but if you prefer something else, you will find international choices to suit almost any palate.

Coos Bay is located in southwest Oregon, at the mouth of the Coos River on the Pacific Ocean. It borders on the nearby city of North Bend, together, comprising the area often referred to as Coos Bay-North Bend or the Bay Area.