Coastal Meanderings

Leisurely, we wound our way along the Washington coast towards the Columbia River and Astoria, Oregon, following state routes #105 and #101. Vegetation changed from Douglas firs and aspen to scrub growth where the winds whipped the shoreline back to 100-foot blue spruce and 75-foot paper birch at Cape Disappointment. The shoreline changed as well, from huge expanses of sand beaches to steep jagged rock cliffs, punctuated by lighthouses.

At Bottle Beach, the asphalt walkway through marshland crawled with fuzzy striped caterpillars and banana slugs. Hundreds of birds migrated over the beach, but the shore itself was quiet in the early morning sun.

Short hikes to Lighthouse Point at West Haven State Park and to Grays Harbor Light Station provided panoramic views of the ocean. By 11:40 a.m., we walked in shirtsleeves in the bright October sunshine.

"We need to make the most of the sun today," said Andy, "since the rain is moving in Thursday for at least four days."

So all afternoon we explored the Cape Disappointment State Park, where Lewis and Clark camped before the winter of 1805. The area had been named in 1792 by Captain John Meares when he failed to find the source of the Columbia River. The 70-degree temperatures made being outside a pleasure. We walked the beaches and hiked the trails: North End Lighthouse, Beard's Hollow, Cape Disappointment Lighthouse, Waikiki Beach, North Jetty and McKenzie Head.

On November 18, 1805, William Clark climbed McKenzie Head with a small group of 11 men while the rest waited below. On top of the cliff he wrote, "The waves appear to break with tremendous force in every direction quite across." We too climbed a couple hundred feet up the steep trail to McKenzie Head late in the afternoon. Waves roared all around us. But history had left another label there. At the top were two gun turrets and the concrete ammunition storage bunker, remnants of World War II. History indelibly intertwined, and we were witnesses.