OREGON COAST-1
(Last updated 2/8/08)
The Long Beach peninsula (map, left) is actually
on the Washington (north) side of the mouth of the Columbia River.
The 28-mile long strip of sand along its western edge is one of
the world's longest beaches. To the east lies the shallow Willapa
Bay - site of a National Wildlife Refuge teeming with over 200
species of birds, and famous for its oyster beds. The latter fueled
the area's economy in the last half of the 19th century, spawning
towns like Oysterville (now restored and on the National Register
of Historic Places), which became the county seat, and Nahcotta,
the northern terminus of the "Clamshell Railroad" that
operated into the 1920's. Leadbetter Point State Park occupies
the northern tip of the peninsula - looking north across the tidewater
flats towards Cape Shoalwater (center) and east across the low
dunes to the Willapa Hills (right)
The interior of the Park is a forest
of lichen and moss-covered spruce and alder (left); to the west,
less than a mile and a half away, is the ocean, separated from
the beach by low dunes which run the length of the peninsula (right)
Just south of the park, access thru
the dunes allows vehicles onto the beach, a natural highway running
the length of the peninsula - complete with a speed limit of 25
mph. A change in the tides, and what appears to be the entire
population of the peninsula crowds the beach (left) to dig for
clams (right)
Some of the many statues in the city
of Long Beach - the official greeter (left); a bronze of Lewis
and Clark, who first saw the Pacific Ocean just south of here
(center); and a chain-saw log sculpture of Robert Gray of Boston
(right), captain of the trading ship "Columbia Rediviva,"
which he sailed thru the breakers of Meare's "Deception Bay"
on May 11, 1792, to discover, explore, and name the long-sought
river of the west, also establishing U.S. claims to the Northwest
and, in particular, Oregon
The 1700 acres of Fort Canby State
Park - armed with smoothbore cannon in 1862; named in 1875 for
a general killed in the Modoc Indian Wars; and with a WWII artillery
battery at its center - is located just to the south at the mouth
of the Columbia River. On the ocean side lies North Head (left);
the NH Lighthouse (center) was built in 1898 to warn ships coming
from the north of their approach to the River; the Park's Benson
Beach camping area (right) is located below on a square mile of
new and already-forested sand that accumulated in the area after
construction of the 3-mile long North Jetty on the west side of
Cape Disappointment
Now a mile from the ocean because of
Benson Beach, Cape Disappointment was named by British sailing
captain John Meares in 1788 in his anger at not finding the mouth
of the Columbia, which the breakers on the river's shallow bar
led him to mistake for a bay (Deception). In 1792 British Naval
Captain George Vancouver, searching for the river, also mistook
the 7-mile wide mouth for an estuary and sailed on by, only to
be scooped a few days later by Gray. It was also from here that
Lewis & Clark first thought they saw the Pacific (on November
7, 1805), although in fact they were still many days from their
first actual sighting of the ocean. The 53-ft brick tower of the
CD Lighthouse (left) was built in 1856 (it's the oldest lighthouse
on the West Coast still in use), three years after the freighter
carrying the first lighthouse "kit" capsized and sank
two miles offshore. Its Fresnel lens (right), removed in 1938
when the light was converted to an electric beacon, now resides
at the L&C Interpretive Center, which is located on the site
of L&C's November sighting
Finally on the Oregon side of the river
(but not on the coast), the city of Astoria (left), founded by
John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company in 1811 and America's first
permanent settlement west of the Mississippi, is about 5 miles
up the Columbia at the mouth of the Youngs River. Built on steep
hills adorned with picturesque and beautifully preserved 19th
and early 20th century homes (more than 6 dozen are on the National
Register of Historic Places), Astoria has been the location for
movies like "Kindergarten Cop," "Short Circuit,"
"Free Willy," and my personal favorite, Steven Spielberg's
"The Goonies." The city's best viewpoint is the park
at the top of Coxcomb Hill, or even better, from the top of its
centerpiece, the 125-ft Astoria Column (center). Built by the
Great Northern Railroad in 1926 to promote rail tourism, and with
164 steep steps spiraling up its interior, the Column is made
of reinforced concrete and is covered with a spiral frieze illustrating
the history of the region (right)
Looking north from the top of the column,
the start of the Astoria Megler Bridge (1962-6; it replaced a
55-yr old ferry service), which spans the 4.1-miles between the
Oregon and Washington shores of the river, with Cape Disappoinment
on the horizon (left). Looking southeast, the triple peaks of
Saddle Mountain, at 3283 ft the highest point in Oregon's northern
Coast Range (right)
Commissioned in 1863 as a Civil War
fortification and deactivated shortly after WWII, the 11-square
miles of what is now Fort Stevens State Park (Oregon's largest
campground) occupies the peninsula between the Columbia River
and the Pacific. On June 21, 1942, the Fort was the target of
a Japanese submarine, which fired 17 shells in its vicinity; in
spite of gun emplacements like Battery Russell (below), the Fort
did not return fire
View north toward Cape Disappoinment
along the Park's coastline (left), which looks like a slightly
narrower and steeper continuation of the one on Long Beach. Further
south in the Park, the wreck of the "Peter Iredale"
- a huge (278 ft) British 4-masted steel sailing bark that has
decorated the shore since October 25, 1906, although now only
its rusting iron skeleton remains (right)
Ecola State Park is situated on Tillamook
Head, a huge lava bluff that rises 1000 feet above the ocean;
the headland is a remnant of the 15-million-year-old Columbia
River basalt flow that originated in Idaho and flooded down the
Columbia Gorge, finally spreading out along the seashore.
Looking down from the bluff towards Indian Point
and the northern end of Indian Beach (left), just south of the
Head's western tip - note the small creek that flows thru the
driftwood and across the sand into the ocean; a close-up of the
creek mouth (right)
Crossing the creek on a small bridge
along a path leading to the beach (left); view back up the creek
from the beach (right)
The northern part of Indian Beach is
a favorite with board surfers and kayakers - wet suits are required
year round (left); the southern part of the beach is narrow, rocky,
steep, and strewn with giant pieces of driftwood (right)
Just south of Indian, the path to Ecola
Point (left); just off the Point lies Seal Rocks (right), a breeding
ground for the California sea lion
Looking north from the Point towards
Indian Beach and the bulk of Tillamook Head (left), with the town
of Seaside a few miles beyond. About 1 1/4 miles offshore on a
133-ft high basalt rock islet is the 62-ft tower of the Tillamook
Rock Lighthouse (right) - operational from 1881 to 1957 in spite
of waves from winter storms that periodically swept over it, breaking
windows with rocks and sometimes depositing fish in the lantern
room over 150 ft above sea level
Looking south past Crescent Beach and
Chapman Point, with its "small" seastacks, to the town
of Cannon Beach, with Haystack Rock and The Needles at the south
end (left); closer view of Haystack - a massive 235-ft high 'stack
and prime seabird breeding ground - and The Needles (right), with
Silver Point, Jockey Cap, another large seastack, and Arch Cape
beyond
The town of Cannon Beach (left) is an incredible
stretch of sand below dunes and low hills lined with elegant hotels
and private homes, with the 235-ft tall Haystack Rock (right)
as its centerpiece
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