Lewis and Clark National Park

The last couple of days we have been exploring another National Park. Actually, we have been in and out of parts of the park for the entire week we have been here. On our first day in the area, we visited Cape Disappointment and that was a part of the Lewis and Clark story.

Last night Mike and I got a wild hair and decided to go for a drive in the evening. We started by going downtown Seaside where I bought a fleece vest - can't have enough warm clothes in this part of the country this time of the year. Besides it was on sale!

In the heart of the downtown area is this sign and statue which commemorates "The End of The Trail" for Lewis and Clark.

After walking on the local beach for awhile, Mike thought it might be fun to head north. We ended up at "the shipwreck". The Peter Iredale was a magnificent sailing vessel that was built in 1890 and sailed the seas until 1905 when it was destroyed by storms. It has graced the beach ever since. At low tide it makes for a memorable landmark. This is what it looked like in its glory.

And this is what it looked like last night.

When we left the wreck, we headed to the south jetty. As we were leaving the park, we had a pretty cool encounter with 5 elk who were out for an evening stroll. Light and location lead to a pretty poor photo.

Today we teamed up with the neighbors and again visited the south jetty. This was an amazing human feat. Between 1885 and 1895, a rail was built that carried a train that hauled huge rocks out into the ocean from the Oregon side of the Columbia River. The purpose was to divert the Columbia and prevent shoreline from washing away. This picture shows what is left of the railroad bed.

And this is the jetty they built. Pictures just can't give you an idea of the size of the jetty or the size of the individual boulders with which it was built. Trust me, there are some BIG rocks!

A sign at this observation point told us that since Lewis and Clark landed here, one mile of land has been built from sand deposits. The land they saw from their canoe is now one mile from the ocean. That just seems unreal; in just 200 years a full mile of silt and sand, which now is growing brush and trees and other plants. I'm not sure I explained that well, but hopefully you get the idea.



After walking on the beach and looking for driftwood, we left the south jetty, and headed to Fort Clatsop. This is where Lewis and Clark wintered in 18o6. The fort is named for the Native Americans that inhabited this area. The interpretive center at the park showed two films that were a very fine depiction of the travels of Lewis and Clark. There is a bronze statue of the travelers, a reproduction of the fort and the canoe, along with many authentic instruments and tools used for navigation and life in the early 1800's. It was easy to spend a couple of hours exploring this section of the Lewis and Clark National Park.

If you enlarge this photo, you will be better able to see this remarkable work of bronze art.

After the park, we headed back to the ocean and showed B and B the shipwreck. And then, we drove on the beach for about 15 miles. Seems this is the first time our neighbors have ever driven on a beach so Mike could not resist doing a few donuts...

And we ended our Lewis and Clark tour back at the monument in downtown Seaside with a coffee and some more shopping. This has been a great place from which to explore the area and it is another place to which I will happily return.