Cape Disappointment and Other Delights

The photo above is actually of Cannon Beach and we were far from disappointed on our trek up and down the coast (at least John and I were not). Upon arriving at the Pacific, we drove to Ecola State Park where we enjoyed the scenic vistas and walked along the beach. The rocks there were so interesting. They seemed like they could be volcanic- maybe. They were black and made up of smaller pieces all fused together. The water was cold when wading, but not unbearably so...like early June ocean water in New England. However, the surfing class there were all in wet suits so...

Part of visiting the Oregon coast was a walk down memory lane so we also stopped at Seaside, a place we had passed through a couple of times when the kids were young. I remembered the big expanse of beach, but did not remember the built up beachy town. Bleh-not my thing. To our amazement, the big expense of beach was taken up by what must have been over 100 volleyball nets for a big tournament. It was fun to walk among the practicing teams.

We continued north and crossed the Columbia over the Astoria- Megler bridge from Oregon to Washington. It is 4 miles in length and features the longest truss bridge section in the U.S. It was a bit nerve wracking for some while others in our party thoroughly enjoyed counting the seagulls surfing the air currents alongside the bridge. From there we stopped by Cape Disappointment so named because an explorer, John Meahy, in 1788 tried to find the entrance to the Columbia and failed. We jaunted out to the Bell's Overlook. The view of the Washington coastline was expansive and beautiful. We could see for miles. We learned that this area of the Washington coast is subject to winter storms that pack hurricane strength winds. The last big one was in 2007 where winds were reported at 140 mph. On the path we noticed that some of the trees (very tall in this area with lots of ferns growing underneath), were growing over another dead tree causing the roots to spread way out. We then drove to the Cape Disappointment lighthouse area. This looked out to where the Columbia and Pacific meet.  At the interpretive center, we chatted with one of the rangers and learned so much about the area. The mouth of the Columbia is one of the most hazardous waterways. It has a narrow mouth with sand bars and cross winds. No big ships can enter without a pilot that is specially trained to navigate the entry from the Pacific into the Columbia river. And even after the ships are through, they then need to get a different pilot onboard to navigate the river. There were two substantial, long jettys to help control the shifting sands. One is being restored by the Army Corp of Engineers. The work vehicles out on the jetty seemed so small, which really gave us a scale of the size of these jettys.  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_Bar

Our last stop of the day was back over the bridge in Astoria, OR where we stopped for dinner at a local brewpub. We sat outside and enjoyed the view of the Columbia and the big cargo ships that were anchored there. We were supposing they would be heading back out to the ocean. On our way south now in search of some big trees tomorrow.