Cape Disappointment

We changed our plans and stayed two nights at Cape Disappointment State Park just over the Oregon/Washington border along the Columbia River and the Pacific Ocean. We haven’t seen an ocean since our cruise! We thought it was a Lewis and Clark camp we hadn’t heard about but it was named by a British explorer who floated up the Columbia River, He determined it was not the Columbia and was “disappointed.” If he had tasted the water and found it fresh, not salty, he may have changed his mind!

The park is really nice with hikes to two lighthouses and the ocean beach. There is also a big Coast Guard Station there – the Columbia is a major shipping channel. It is a dangerous area for ships because of the weather and storms along with the tides change the sand bars in the river. There have been many shipwrecks along the coastline. We saw many fisherman in boats in the mouth of the river and along the jetty trying to catch salmon and crabs. We also saw remnants of World War II gun placements/concrete bunkers along the bluffs above the ocean – then called Fort Canby – protecting the mouth of the river. A Japanese submarine a actually fired at the US coastline just south of there in Oregon!

Roger toured one more Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center – I stayed home and read my good book!

Thinking of all the poor people along the eastern coastline along “Irene’s” path. So glad we came west and not east this summer!