We pulled into Cape Disappointment State Park on Friday September 17. This state park is located at the farthest south point of the Long Beach Peninsula, on the farthest south point of Washington. There are 2 lighthouses on the peninsula, North Head and Cape Disappointment. Cape Disappointment received its’ name in an odd/sad way. Explorers were searching for an entrance to the Columbia River and finally stopped here, disappointed they were not going to find it. Turned out they were there, and never knew it!
It is hard to pick our favourite state park in Washington or Oregon, as they are all unique on their own, but this one ranks high. All the sites are no more than 3 minute walk to the ocean beach. If you aren’t backed on to the ocean you are across from it. And the beach is a perfect walking spot, rain or shine.
We can’t claim we did anything the first few days we were here. Usually at the beginning of a holiday of this length, we are rushing to see and do everything, then the pace slows down and we relax. We are definitely in full relax mode. We started Friday and Saturday in a non serviced site, and spent a lot of time driving around and renewing ourselves with the area. Although we enjoyed some ocean beach walking time, it rained continuously, so no fires and long walks. On Sunday our reservation expired and we had to decide where to go and for how long. Ron and Bev were on their way to meet us, arriving Monday, so we decided to stay here and took a full service site for two more nights. That was a great choice as having the electric heat on really took the damp out of the trailer.
Ron and Bev arrived Monday and we started the explore/tourist thing again. We have shown them our favourite haunts, including the outlet mall in Seaside, and the oyster store in Oysterville! I must admit the photo of the Oysterville store is from old stock. This building is no longer used and a new replica is built beside it.
Another landmark here is the Astoria Bridge. Completed in 1966, the bridge joined Washington and Oregon on Highway 101 for the first time. It is built to span ships, and is more than 5 miles miles long. I don’t have a photo – it is one of those things I bought a postcard for.
The rain stopped on Monday and we had two glorious days for sitting at the fire at night, walking the beach every morning and in general just enjoying ourselves. Today we are headed 150 km down Hwy 101, into Oregon and Cape Lookout State Park. We have reservations for 3 nights there. That will conclude our “planned” part of the route, so the rest is as we feel.
The next stop includes Tillamook, home of the famous Tillamook cheese. Not so famous to you, but we try to buy enough stock for a couple of months when we are anywhere close. And Don may have Ron hooked now too!
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