Finally!! Yes that really says welcome to Oregon...
Believe it or not, this stretch of the drive was along Lincoln Highway, U.S. Rt 30, and there was no construction!
View looking through the back window toward Longview and the Columbia River. Not bad for a no look point and shoot, eh? And look what else popped into the photo, Mt. St. Helens! I seriously just noticed her as I was posting this...
I continued on for a good hour, and there were multiple parts of the drive where I could have sworn I was driving through the green hills of Pennsylvania. After entering Oregon I set my navigation for Lewis and Clark National Park. Still working the spontaneity front, I had no idea what to expect, and planned on pitching my tent in the park for the night.
I finally reached the town of Astoria, OR, and wow, what a picture perfect scene. The park was on the western side of town, so I headed there first, and after some confusion as to where the park was actually located, and what I was trying to see, I found it.
Since I was flying by the seat of my pants during this leg of the journey, and really just hitting up L&C NP to pitch my tent for the night, I was surprised and disappointed at the same time. The "National Historical Park" wasn't your typical NP with camp sites and such. In fact, Lewis & Clark National Historical Park consists of several smaller State Parks and Historic Sites in OR and WA, and the navigation had taken me to one of these named Fort Clatsop.
Despite the lack of camping at Fort Clatsop, I ventured in to see what was what. For a mere $3 I received the standard NP brochure (plus an extra one for my bud Bradley), and a very well laid out history lesson about Lewis and Clark's exploratory Corps of Discovery. After the education, I walked down to the reconstructed Fort Clatsop where a park ranger, dressed in early 19th century garb, was telling a group of much much older Americans about Thomas Jefferson's Louisiana Purchase and America's Manifest Destiny. How befitting?! I chuckled and walked the nearby trails, snapping a few photos.
These are the canoes that the Corps of Discovery used to explore all the waterways on their journey, including the Columbia River...
If I got my facts straight, these "posts" are actually tree stumps that were used to "corral" the larger timbers from logging...
I saw signs for a trail that ran from the fort all the way to the ocean, and I really had to talk myself out of taking it. It was about 6.5 miles one way, and given the time of day, ~4pm, I knew I'd never make it back before dark. Since I was no longer able to camp in the park, I decided to head back into Astoria and check out this odd looking column, aptly named, Astoria Column. I also knew the house from the Goonies was somewhere in town, so my new plan of attack was to see some more sights, then head south to Seaside and hit up another hotel/motel for the night.
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