Traffic coming towards us on I-5 over the Columbia River at 9:45 a.m. It was heavy going north but bumper-to-bumper going south towards Portland.
Lumber waiting to be loaded onto freighters at the docks at Longview, Washington. We've never seen so much lumber in one place. Probably all going to Japan.
View from US 30 going up Oregon's Columbia River coastline towards Astoria. Looks a bit like home except the trees are all evergreens. Just like in Washington, the vegetation in Oregon is stunning....green and lush and gorgeous.
Coming into Astoria.
Astoria has the distinction of being the first permanent United States settlement on the Pacific Coast and for having the first U.S. post office west of the Rocky Mountains. It was named after John Jacob Astor whose American Fur Company founded Fort Astor on the site in 1811. The town was incorporated in 1876 and now has a population of around 9,500. It gave us the impression of being a lot larger than that on our way in today. It's much bigger than I thought it would be.
We got into our site by around 1:00 p.m. Camp Rilea is a small and quiet Army training camp with not much going on. At least, not much by what we observed today. The campground is a paved parking lot although there are a few more spaces on the grassy area next to it. Every space is wide enough to back into easily and all have full hookups. Unfortunately, the campers are still so close to one another our entire side view is right in our neighbor's windows. At least the area surrounding the campground is wide open. Nothing going on around it except Canada geese by the hundreds. They were drilling on the parade field this evening. You do have to watch where you step.
After lunch we went up to Fort Stevens State Park to check out the beach and the old wreck.
Beach at Fort Stevens State Park looking about 20 miles south to the mountains past the town of Seaside.
1906 wreck of the Peter Iredale.
The Peter Iredale has been on this beach for 110 years. It was blown aground in a storm with no loss of life. It was empty and on its way to Astoria to pick up cargo so the only loss was the ship itself which didn't do the shipping company any good. The company went downhill after that, not entirely as a result of the wreck but because of the transition from sailing to steam power. The wreck was sold for scrap but the company that collected all the iron and steel left part of the hull on the beach. It's a good attraction for children who like to climb on it. Rusting metal is not without its sharp edges though.
Battery Russell - part of the WWII fortifications.
After the beach we checked out Fort Stevens itself. It was originally built towards the end of the Civil War when the North was nervous about the Confederacy getting Britain or the Spanish to join them and attack from the west. Considering the distances involved this really doesn't make any sense. The fort wasn't finished until after the war was over so it wasn't needed for its original purpose. It was rebuilt and refortified during WWII when Japanese submarines were threatening the coast. Unfortunately it had to make do with 1904 weapons for most of the war. The only time it was attacked was by a Japanese sub that thought it was a submarine base. The Fort Stevens soldiers were ordered not to return fire because their weaponry was so old and under-powered they couldn't reach the sub and they didn't want to give away the position of their guns, under-powered or not. The soldiers were livid about not being able to fire a shot but, under threat of everyone being court-martialed if even one shot were fired, they managed to keep quiet. By the time the fort's weaponry had been brought up to date Japan could no longer afford to send subs across the Pacific to harass our coast.
This is the south jetty at the end of Clatsop Spit, a small hook-shaped piece of land at the northwestern corner of Oregon. The jetty protects the southern side of the Columbia River's exit into the Pacific. It was built there to stop sand from being pushed and pulled in and out of the river's mouth which increased already substantial shipping hazards. The jetty has caused nearly a mile of new land to build up around it since it was installed. There's a matching jetty on the north side doing the same job. Between the jetties is a much narrower channel than existed naturally which makes a faster flowing current that helps keep the shipping channel clear.
Looking across the Columbia River from Clatsop Spit to the Washington side. The river is very wide at this point with the Pacific Ocean being just around the corner to the left.
Our final stop of the day was to eat dinner at Warrenton's best rated restaurant on TripAdvisor. It certainly deserved all the praise it had been given. Our seafood dinners were outstanding.
Tomorrow we're planning to visit the Columbia Maritime Museum in Astoria which is said to be the best museum in Oregon.
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