Northern Oregon Coast

After camping at Timothy Lake the girls went to Gramma Camp 2022! Andrew and I took advantage of the time for just the two of us and stayed on the northern Oregon coast as a belated celebration of our dating anniversary (30 years for anyone who’s counting!). Once upon a time, Andrew spent two summers in this area, mapping it as part of his geology studies in college. And I hadn’t been in the area since I was begging for quarters to play at the arcade in Seaside! Undoubtedly much has changed and it was really fun to get to know some of the history of the region and wander about Astoria.

Astoria

Astoria, Oregon is positioned near the mouth of the mighty Columbia River where it empties into the Pacific Ocean. Given its location it is steeped in history revolving around trade routes, shipping/boating mishaps, and military outposts. It was the land of the Clatsop People before being claimed by various factions of explorers and settlers. For all you forth grade history buffs, you’ll also recall this as the end of the road for the Lewis and Clark expedition (or the halfway point if you count their return trip).

Visiting the Forts

We visited the Fort Clatsop replica at the Lewis & Clark National Historical Park, where Lewis, Clark, and crew wintered in 1805/06. It’s a neat historical park complete with interactive activities and trails, though admittedly we didn’t try any of them. Not surprisingly to anyone who’s lived on that part of the coast, the journals of William Clark describe their rainy winter there, in part, as “the most disagreeable time I have experienced.” Maybe also not surprisingly, it rained on us the entire time we were there!

Of all of the tourist traps we visited my favorite was probably the Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria. It’s perfectly sized and filled with fascinating and diverse exhibits. There is a large area dedicated to shipwrecks and I was impressed and humbled learning about what a challenging (harrowing?!) trip it is for sea captains to cross the sand bar where the river merges with the ocean. It is described as, “one of the most dangerous and challenging navigated stretches of water in the world!”

Fun fact: All large ships are required to hire a specially trained and licensed bar pilot to captain their ship into and out of the Columbia River. For the ships that start at sea the pilots are taken out to the vessel by a smaller boat or by helicopter.

When we weren’t hitting all of the tourist hot spots we were still having plenty of fun. We listened to live music by The Senators at Fort George Brewery. The music was really good and made for great driving music on our way out of town a few days later. We went for a scenic run on Cannon Beach on the fourth of July, inadvertently timing it at the same time as the holiday parade and so it wasn’t as busy as it might normally have been. We spent the night of the fourth perched on our van’s roof platform, watching Astoria’s fireworks show directly in front of us. Combine that with the elephant ear and ice cream desert from The Custard King and it was a pretty perfect night!