Cape Disappointment

In trying to decide where to go next, we decided to head down the Oregon Coast.  Our last stop in Washington State will be the southwestern tip of the state:  Cape Disappointment State Park.  The sky was clear and beautiful as we began heading down Hwy 101.

Hwy 101 starts at the northern tip of Washington State and goes all the way down through California.  Our drive along Hwy 101 today went beside several bays along the coastline that were at low tide...

 

...and through winding up and down curves of acres and acres and acres of timberland.

 

We reserved our site #126 online through the Washington State Parks website.  With Google satellite maps and the campground map and site picture online, we felt like we picked a pretty good site and we were not disappointed.

From the information marker in the island of the cul-de-sac, that our campsite was on the shore just 133 years ago.  In 1917, the North Jetty was completed causing the build-up of sand and formation of the land where the campground now stands.

In fact, the sea stack to which the "You Are Here" arrow is pointing in the above picture, is in the island in our cul-de-sac.

These "sea stacks" were scattered throughout the campground.

We decided to take a bike ride and explore the park a little bit.  First, we rode our bikes down to the beach behind the campground.  This is the view to the south.

The North Head Lighthouse can be seen to the north.

Logs lined the shore as far as we could see.

I'm not seeing as many flowers now as we had in the summer and spring, but these little guys were poking their heads out between the logs.

Next, we rode our bikes  to where we saw markers for the McKenzie Trailhead.  Without realizing it or planning it, we were at the very spot where Lewis & Clark reached the Pacific Ocean.

How cool is that!  Not only did we see where Captain William Clark signed his name in the rock at Pompeys Pillar in Montana (see 6/25/13 post "A Lewis & Clark Adventure"), but we were where Leiws & Clark reached the Pacific Ocean.

This marker was at the base of the display honoring this event.

We parked our bikes at the base of the trailhead and hiked up to the top of McKensie Head so we too could go to the very spot where Captain Clark had seen the Pacific Ocean.  It was a short but steep climb to the top...

lined with ferns...

..and tall grasses.

From the top, we could see the Pacific Ocean out in front of us.  (Keep in mind that in 1805, the North Jetty was not there and the ocean would have been a lot closer in.)

Two more information signs at the top of the hill had excerpts from William Clark's and John Ordway's (a member of his team) journals:

Captain Clark was an exceptional cartographer (mapmaker).  Below is Clark's map of the Pacific Coastline:

The detail of his map is absolutely amazing!  He drew out this area of the Pacific Coast without GPS, satellite imagery or a laptop.  All he had was a quill, ink and his journal.  It took us a laptop and Google satellite maps just to pick out a campsite!

Another very interesting surprise at the top of McKenzie hill was a huge bunker like the ones we saw at Cape Henlopen in Delaware.  (See 5/26/12 post "Cape May-Lewes Ferry")

What at first glance appeared to be an old fountain...

...was actually where a huge artillery gun formerly sat as evidenced by the gear teeth.

There was no information signs about the bunker.  There were only warning signs about being careful going into the bunker and that the area in and around it could be dangerous.  We were surprised it had not been closed off like the bunkers at Cape Henlopen.

As we headed back down the trail to our bikes, we noticed the Cape Disappointment lighthouse to the south.

We also saw this cute little bunny on the way back down the trail.  His fur made him look like "The Velveteen Rabbit."

After leaving the McKenzie trail, we rode our bikes to Waikiki Beach. 

The beach was named Waikiki Beach for an Hawaiian sailor who died on a ship trying to cross the Columbia River channel.

From here, we had a better view of the Cape Disappointment lighthouse...

...and the waves crashing against the cliffs.

While standing there, I noticed this unique looking piece of driftwood.

As we rode our bikes out towards the North Jetty, we spotted a mama and baby deer in the meadow.

We walked up to the jetty and while Chuck watched some guys fishing, I walked out on it a short distance.  This is the view out towards the Pacific.

This is the view back toward the coast.

I could see the sandy beach going up toward behind the campground to the north...

...and Oregon on the other side of the Columbia River channel to the south.

This is McKenzie Hill that we had just walked to the top of....

...and the Cape Disappointment lighthouse.

When I got back to where Chuck was watching the fishermen, we saw this guy catch a big salmon. 
 

He was holding his rod up with one hand and a big dip net with the other hand...

...all while standing very carefully on the big jetty rocks.

After catching the salmon, he tied it off and placed it between the rocks so neither the sea gulls in the air nor the sea otters in the ocean would take it.

On Thursday, we walked  the 1/2 mile trail out to the Cape Disappointment lighthouse.  The trail went downhill,

by Deadman's Cove,

by this little squirrel...

...and this big fat slimy slug,

and then up a steep concrete driveway to the lighthouse.

From the lighthouse, we could see both the South Jetty on the Oregon side of the river channel...

...and the North Jetty where we rode our bikes yesterday.

We could also see the Lewis & Clark Interpretative Center where we were headed next.

We walked back down the trail and when we reached the Center, the back of it looked kind of like the bunker we saw on McKenzie Hill.

We could see the Columbia River channel from the ocean side of the Center also.

Here, we learned that the Columbia River channel is one of the most hazardous river entrances in the world and that a licensed Columbia River Bar Pilot is required to guide all cargo ships across the bar at the entrance to the channel.

We went into the entrance of the Lewis & Clark Interpretative Center...

...and spent the next hour or so reading the exhibits and journal entries of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark and other members of their team describing the Corps of Discovery expedition commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson across the continent.

At the end of the exhibit was more recent history regarding Cape Disappointment.  All those bunkers we had seen had been used in previous wars and the area had been used as a military reservation since the Civil War.

We wondered how Cape Disappointment got its name.  We thought that maybe it had been given the name by Lewis & Clark because although they had successfully completed their expedition to the Pacific Coast and exploring the Louisiana Territory, they had not found a river or system of rivers as President Jefferson had hoped by which ships and commerce could travel across the United States.

I researched how Cape Disappointment got its name.  In 1788, British fur trader John Meares thought he had only discovered a bay rather than the mouth of a great river described by Spainard Bruno Heceta and named it Cape Disappointment.  Meares, of course, was incorrect, in that he actually had sailed into the Columbia River which was confirmed four years later by an American, Robert Gray.  (Seattle Times, July 19, 2007, "How did these places get depressing names?")

What an interesting couple of days.  Cape Disappointment State Park was not a disappointment at all!