The Oregon Country, November 23-25, 2000
 
 
Day 1
 
Thanksgiving Day... Foggy Bellevue... lunch at the Eating Factory Japanese Buffet...
 
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Meanwhile, back in Charlotte... click here...
 
 
Leaving Bellevue...
 
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Through Seattle... and Tacoma...
 
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I drove from Seattle, through Tacoma and Olympia, through Aberdeen, and straight for the Pacific Ocean, between Westport and Grayland...
 
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The mighty Pacific Ocean, just south of Westport, Washington.  Chilly, windy, foggy, rainy... dark and desolate... and beautiful...
 
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Crossing the Lewis and Clark Trail, where the Columbia River reaches the Pacific Ocean, on the Washington side of the Astoria Bridge... and then Oregon, where I reached the entrance of Ft. Clatsop, near Astoria. Ft. Clatsop was the camp constructed by the Lewis and Clark expedition upon reaching the Pacific and is where they spent the winter of 1805 / 1806. I'm spending the night at the Red Lion Inn, in nearby Astoria, Oregon. My room is literally on the edge of the mouth of the great Columbia River and a mere couple of hundred yards west of the Astoria Bridge. I'll have a nice view from my balcony in the morning...
 
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Day 2
 
My early morning view of the Columbia River and the Astoria Bridge...
 
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The Lewis and Clark Expedition constructed Ft. Clatsop, near Astoria, upon reaching the great western ocean... here they spent the winter of 1805 / 1806...
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www.nps.gov/focl
 
Click here to see my pictures of Ft. Mandan, in South Dakota, where the expedition spent the winter of 1804 / 1805...
 
 
 
The Lewis and Clark Saltworks, at Seaside, Oregon. This site is about 10 miles south of Ft. Clatsop and is where where members of the Expedition produced salt for the return trip to St. Louis. I first read the Lewis and Clark journals at Catawba College in 1978 and I've imagined a thousand times what it must have been like to cross the Bitterroot Range in Idaho...  to descend the great Columbia River in Washington and Oregon...  carving out Ft. Clatsop where the Columbia empties into the Pacific...  and making salt from the Pacific Ocean at what is now Seaside... 
 
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Ecola and Cannon Beach, just south of Seaside...
 
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I'm spending the night tonight at Seaside (link below), within a few hundred yards of the Saltworks, and I can hear the roar of the Pacific Ocean even as I write these words...
 
www.edgewaterinnontheprom.com
 
 
Day 3
 
Saturday morning in Seaside, Oregon...
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Ft. Stevens State Park...  the mouth of the Columbia River, and the stormy Pacific Ocean. This is the extreme northwestern corner of Oregon. Conditions on the Pacific (at South Jetty) were harsh. It was cold and rainy, and the wind was blowing at 40 mph sustained, with gusts up to 55 mph. It was considerably calmer just a couple of miles inland...
 
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Back through Astoria, Oregon...
 
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Back on the Washington side of the Columbia. The Astoria Bridge over the Columbia River is 4.5 miles long...
 
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Upon reaching the Pacific in November of 1805, Lewis and Clark first camped on the northern (Washington) side of the Columbia River, at this spot. This camp was short lived and on the advice of the local Chinook Indians the expedition crossed over to the southern (Oregon) side of the Columbia and constructed Ft. Clatsop as winter quarters...
 
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Back through coastal Washington... to Seattle...
 
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