Astoria, Oregon

“Ocean in view! O! the joy. We are in view of the ocean, this great Pacific Ocean which we have been so long anxious to see.” William Clark, Nov. 7, 1805, near Pillar Rock, Wahkiakum County, WA.

This morning we awoke in Astoria, Oregon, only 15 miles from the mouth of the Columbia, to the sounds of sea lions barking in the water nearby. Astoria is the oldest US city west of the Rockies and has yet to recover from the precipitous decline in the whaling, salmon canning, and lumber industries. Our first exploration of the day took place in the Columbia River Maritime Museum where we learned about the hazards of travel across the Columbia River Bar; about the lives of the Bar Pilots who guide ships safely through these treacherous waters; and of the Coast Guard teams who rescue ships and crews in trouble.

Our second stop was the reconstructed Fort Clatsop where Lewis and Clark spent 107 days in December 1805-March 1806 among the giant Sitka spruce, Douglas fir, and western hemlock in the coastal rain forest. The members of the Corps of Discovery were soaked by the persistent rain; they experienced only 12 days without rain and only 6 days with bright sunshine. We had a mixture of sun and rain during our visit. Fort Clatsop is one of the most important locations on the Lewis and Clark Trail, and a fitting site for us to explore on the last full day of our journey in their wake. We returned to the National Geographic Sea Lion for a barbecue lunch (with optional seating on deck), much better fare than the elk that Lewis and Clark consumed three times a day at Fort Clatsop.

In the afternoon we followed Lewis and Clark to the Pacific by traveling across the 4.1-mile Astoria-Megler Bridge into Washington, passing Clark’s “Dismal Nitch” (where the Expedition was trapped for 5 days by gale-force winds, huge waves, and incessant rain) and Station Camp (where they were based while exploring the North shore and where they decided to spend the winter on the Oregon side). Some of us visited the Cape Disappointment Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center with its outstanding depiction of the Expedition from beginning to end and a commanding view of the Pacific coast. Others traveled to Beard’s Hollow, a beach near the point where the Expedition first stepped from the shore into the Pacific waves, and where we experienced up-close the surf pounding on the headlands; a final stop was the North Head Lighthouse, with a view of the Cape, the mouth of the Columbia, and the Oregon shore. All of us felt an echo of the joy expressed by Lewis and Clark in reaching the Pacific and fulfilling one of Thomas Jefferson’s objectives for the Expedition. A final recap and dinner helped bring to a close a fine exploration of the path forged by Lewis and Clark 203 years ago.