Samuel H. Boardman State Scenic Corridor

Samuel H. Boardman served as Oregon's first state parks superintendent from 1929 to 1950, and this coast was the great project of his working life. He looked at the wild, cliff-bound shoreline of Curry County and saw something that should belong to the public, not be carved into private lots, and he set out to make that happen. In the early 1940s he even carried a proposal to the U.S. Secretary of the Interior for a large national park along this coastline.

The national park never came, so Boardman pushed instead for a state park, fighting for more than two decades to acquire the land plot by plot from private owners and, later, from the federal Bureau of Land Management. Much of the corridor came together by purchase between about 1949 and 1957. When he retired the state gave the finished coastal park his name, so that every traveler who stops at these viewpoints is standing on ground one determined man refused to let slip away.

The corridor's most famous stop is Natural Bridges, where a short trail leads to a viewpoint above a pair of sea arches, spans of rock the surf has carved from the cliff so the water flows through into a shaded cove. It is the shot that shows up on countless Oregon coast posters, and it is only the beginning. Nearby, an unmarked trailhead drops steeply to Secret Beach, a hidden strip of sand tucked between headlands with a waterfall spilling onto it, the reward for hikers willing to pick their way down.

Farther along the ribbon of park you can climb the Indian Sands trail through wind-sculpted dunes on the cliff top, look out from Cape Ferrelo over sunsets and passing whales, or wander down to the wide sands and offshore rock at Whaleshead Beach. And at the corridor's north end soars the Thomas Creek Bridge, which lifts Highway 101 some 345 feet over a deep ravine, making it the tallest bridge in Oregon and one of the highest in the country.

The corridor is really a driving park, a series of turnouts and short trails strung along a dozen miles of Highway 101, so the best way to experience it is to give yourself a slow half-day and stop often. From Brookings, head north and watch for the small brown signs and pullouts; some of the finest spots, including the way down to Secret Beach, are barely marked, so it helps to know roughly where you are aiming before you drive.

Bring good shoes, because the trails to the beaches are steep, rooty, and often muddy, and bring layers, because this far-south Oregon coast can flip from sun to wind to sea fog in an hour. Keep well back from the crumbling cliff edges, especially with children. Do it right and you can walk to an arch, scramble down to a hidden beach, eat lunch at a clifftop viewpoint, and watch the sun drop into the Pacific from Cape Ferrelo, all in one unforgettable afternoon.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.