"Ocian in View! O! the joy."
Captain William Clark, 1805
These are the words written in the journal by Captain Clark after traveling over 4000 miles across the continent with Captain Lewis and their party. This is what they saw.
We traveled from our campground over the beautiful Astoria Bridge to Cape Disappointment State Park located near Ilwaco Washington to see this rugged place. This was where Lewis and Clark finally saw the Pacific Ocean. They hacked through this dense area to see their first glimpse.
We spent most of the morning going through the museum located here and taking a hike out to the lighthouse. This is a must stop for anyone interested in these explorers. The museum is top notch and as you descend down the ramp you read about their journey from beginning to end. The displays are excellent and we really had a new appreciation for all that they had accomplished.
Lewis and Clark found this area very inhospitable and spent ten miserable days here. They later journeyed across the Columbia River to Oregon and traveled down what is now the Lewis and Clark River to build a fort for the winter. (Fort Clatsop -more about this later)
A lighthouse can be accessed by taking pretty hike through this lush area. This coast line is extremely dangerous and there have been many shipwrecks here. The Columbia River exits into the Pacific Ocean and dumps lots of silt which make the passage through this area very tricky. All ships need an escort. We saw earlier at the Maritime museum exactly how these river pilots board the ships. Let's just say that is a very risky business.
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| Cape Disappointment Lighthouse |
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| Trail out to lighhouse |
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| Where the Columbia and Pacific Ocean meet |
Afterwards we stopped at a Cranberry Research Foundation to learn everything about cranberries. It was very interesting and I'd love to return and see how they are harvested in the fall.
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| Cranberry test plots |
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| Lewis and Clark River |
The next day we went to see where Lewis and Clark spent the winter at Fort Clatsop. It's a National Park and they have recreated what the fort looked like. It was much smaller than I imagined to have house so many people. There are some nice trails here too. From here the expedition turned back and returned to St. Louis in the spring.
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| Fort Clatsop |
We enjoyed our time in this area very much and it's a very beautiful area. Our next stop was Vancouver Washington for a few days and we stayed at the Elks Lodge. Most of our time was spent shopping and getting ready for Alaska.
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| Bear's new shoe |
One important task was replacing our tires on the motorhome. We have learned through tire safety classes to replace them every five years, regardless of wear or mileage. FMCA (Family Motorcoach Association) has a great program for their members with Michelin Tire. We used this program before in Delaware. The cost of the tire is the same no matter what state you buy them in. However, one way you can save a little more is paying attention to sales taxes. For example, you might want to avoid California. Oregon and Delaware do not have any sales tax. Tires also have birth dates. Who knew? There is a code on each tire which will tell you when it was manufactured. We tried to get the newest ones available because the five year clock starts ticking by the manufacture date, not the date you put them on your motorhome.
FMCA has a link on how to set up your account and find a dealer. We chose Elite Onsite in Portland. I can't necessarily recommend them because they seemed disorganized and we had quite a hassle getting tires with good "birth dates". But eventually it all worked out. We saved $77/tire by going through this program. It's still a big expense ($3058 for the six tires) but we found the price to be almost identical to five years ago.
Thanks for stopping by. Our next post will be about a visit to the rain forest in Washington State, coastal beach hikes, two National Parks, and even a vampire. Check back soon.
