The End of the Trail

A continuing theme along our trip West was following the Lewis and Clark Trail along the Missouri and Columbia Rivers. We had seen the Mandam Village where they stopped and visited with the Native Americans. We saw Pompey's Pillar, which was a site they came upon on their return trip and where the only physical evidence of their passing still exists; William Clark's signature carved into the side of the cliff. Cape Disappointment, named because of the difficulty and sometimes impossibility of navigating the channel into the Columbia River from the Pacific Ocean in the early 1800's, was where the trail for Lewis and Clark ended as they finally reached their destination. We stayed here for 3days.

Day 1: We drove most of the day along the northern shore of the Columbia River and at one point stopped to watch a very large ship making its way down the river towards the Pacific Ocean. We noted the name, Global Sentinel, and later looked it up to find it is a cable laying ship used to place underwater cable for transmitting power and other signals across bodies of water.

Day 2: We explored around Cape Disappointment State Park and visited Waikiki Beach, named in honor of a Hawaiian sailor who died near there in a shipwreck. We also visited Long Beach and bicycled on a trail which runs along it. We also visited "Clark's Tree".


Day 3: We visited the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center on Cape Disappointment and again visited Long Beach and flew our kites in the wind there.


The next day we left Cape Disappointment State Park and drove across the river to Astoria, OR. Here we parked the RV in a convenient parking lot and took the car to visit some local spots.

• Astoria Column - this is a tall column on the top of a prominent hill in Astoria which has paintings and wording depicting the history of that area of the country from before the arrival of the White Man to the arrival of the railroads. Geoff climbed the staircase inside the column and took pictures from the top.
• Fort Clatsop: Named for a Native American tribe in that region, the original fort was built by Lewis and Clark as a winter haven from the time they arrived until the spring when they could begin the return trip to Virginia.
• The Salt Works: In Seaside, this is where members of the L&C team boiled sea water to extract the salt for use in preserving meat for their return trip.

After returning to the RV in Astoria, we continued our journey along the Columbia River to Portland, Oregon.