Fort Stevens – Part Two

If you read Carol’s blog, she and Dave just spent the day in the Fort Stevens area today and visited many of the same places that we did. Carol got a real nice photo of the jetty.

Tuesday, August 23

After our lunch and nap, we hit the road again to see what else we could find in the Fort Stevens area.  There are miles of trails and roadways and little stops here and there, trails to the beach, historical places, and small parks.

Russ wondered what this was all about.


And he finally saw a hanging basket he liked.  Said I could have all I wanted of this kind :((



Our first stop was Coffenbury Lake.  We stopped at the North shore park first.  This is a well maintained area with boat docks, nice rest rooms, picnic shelters, lawns, designated swimming area, just everything you could want in a lakeside park.  There were kayaks in the water and the lake was just as smooth as a baby’s backside.



Rusty wanted to get wet, while Donna wanted to stay dry!  Thankfully, they both got what they wanted.


There is also a South Shore park but it was not nearly as nice, although it did have a trail to our loop of the campground.

We drove down to the museum but were too late – it was already closed.  Had to take a picture of this sign…just for Russ.


So, it closed the year Russ was born!!  Hmmmm!

Off to see the cemetery.  Couldn't pass up this sign in front of the guard house.  Russ felt right at home.  There was another sign just down the road as you approached the cemetery.  That one said “Dead End.”  Well, DUH!



Deer were along the roadway almost everywhere we went.


Then we headed out towards the mouth of the Columbia.  There’s a reason this area is known as the graveyard of the Pacific.  The waves coming onshore from the river were like ones you would expect to see on the ocean side.  Add to that the river current, the tidal waters and the ocean current, and you just might have a problem crossing the bar.  We only saw one pilot boat and no big ships.



There is a huge parking lot  here (one other car) and access to both the Columbia River …



…and a wildlife viewing bunker.


I guess the idea is to hide in the bunker and wait for the wildlife to walk by.  The only wildlife I saw here was a nest of starlings (I think) who flew out of the corner of the bunker and scared me half to death.  I think they didn’t want to share their bunker.

We also drove to the beach where the wreck of the Peter Iredale is located but did not make the hike down to see it.  Carol has a nice photo on her blog.

It was getting late but we still wanted to see the South Jetty so off we went.  On the road, Russ hollered at me to pull over – there is NO place to pull over, but he had seen another deer and he wanted a photo.
So I made an illegal U-turn and found a place where I could get off the road enough for him to get his shot.

This guy was a little more shy than the does had been.  I guess he knows as a four point buck he needs to stay hidden!!

The South Jetty had a viewing tower which Russ climbed while I stayed in the car with the dogs.  I watched as the breakers sent spray WAY up over the jetty.  It was getting late but still just a bit too early for a colorful sunset.


If you look closely, you can see two small boys playing on the jetty.  Their mom was taking pictures quite a ways away from them and not paying any attention.  Russ watched them clambering on the rip rap and getting sprayed by the breakers.  Dangerous game!

Back at the campground, Russ had to snap a photo of the Camp Host and his wood wagon, something we had never seen before.  Each night the wagon would make the rounds to sell wood to the campers.  So much easier than lugging it back to camp from the host’s site.  Great idea there!



We had tried to get our site for another two nights but it was reserved.  Turned out to be for the best as Rusty started getting sick and we had to come home on Wednesday anyway.  This is an area we definitely want to return to and spend a week or more.  There is much to see and we rushed through so much of it and other things we didn’t see at all.  Can hardly wait to return.