Fort Stevens - Oregon

Fort Stevens State Park - Oregon

One of the many tools we have utilized in planning and then replanning this journey has been the National Geographic Guide to State Parks of the United States. Cindy’s sister Colleen had loaned us her copy and we quickly realized we should have a copy for ourselves. This book calls out the top three or four State Parks in each of the 50 states (in their opinion). We will have visited 16 by the end of this trip. Currently we are enjoying our third recommended park in Oregon - Fort Stevens State Park.   Located on the tip of the state, where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean, FSSP was a US Army Coastal Artillery site from the Civil War until the end of WWII. It is most famous as having been shelled by a Japanese Submarine in mid 1942!!,

However, before getting to Fort Stevens, using one of the other planning tools Cindy monitors, one of the full time RV bloggers - LoveYour RV, reported that just last week they had stopped outside of Portland at Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum in McMinnville. For you aviation buffs, this is an excellent state of the art Air Museum on par with the one in Tucson or even the Smithsonian, if on a smaller scale. There are Military and Civilian Aircraft from the beginning , WWI, WWII Korean War and Viet Nam and.... it has The Spruce Goose!!

the one and only - Spruce Goose!!

interior of Spruce Goose - built to haul 750 troops!!

We continued on towards the tip of Oregon and a few hours later we arrived at Fort Stevens State Park. Immediately upon checking in, I spotted a newsletter about the local Crab and Wine Festival happening that weekend!! I love Crab! They even run a shuttle from the State Park over to the festival and back for $3 each. With that info, our Saturday morning was booked! However, there was more to see and do in the interim. We set up our site (the only one available when I had booked while at Silver Falls) grabbed Cooper and CJ and headed off to see the Park while it wasn't raining (the next few days were forecasted to be rainy).

Campground was booked full!! we were lucky to get in on Crab Feast Weekend!!

We went to the tip of the Park, where the  Columbia River meets the  Pacific Ocean. Here we climbed the wooden observation tower, checked out the jetty (built over 100 years ago by the Army Corps of Engineers to protect the mouth of the river) and looked at the most dangerous river entrance on the planet! Over 2000 ships of all sizes have been lost trying to navigate the mouth of the Columbia. Today, a commercial ship must wait for a certified Pilot to get them across the bar!! The US Coast Guard is there to assist at all times. Across the Columbia, we can easily see the Southern most tip of Washington - Cape Disappointment and its' lighthouse.

jetty reaches out for over 1/2 mile

!

Washington State in the background - mouth of the Columbia River

After this quick drive around FSSP, we returned to our RV and the now very full campground. Crab Fest was going into full swing and people were out socializing with their fellow campers. Apparently you must have to book this park 9 months or so in advance to get in on Crab Fest weekend! Cooper and CJ had lots of dogs to meet and greet.

large Owl in center of photo - kept flying down trail ahead of us -Great Horned??

Friday morning, no rain but overcast, we headed out. First we drove over near the tip and took Cooper and CJ on a hike through the woods. A large owl kept flying ahead of us for several minutes. Cindy was able to approach close enough ot get a decent picture or it before it flew into the woods and out of sight. Eventually the mosquitoes won and we retreated to the Jeep. (time to again carry the OFF)

Then we continued on to the actual Fort Stevens. Built during the Civil War and occupied until the end of WWII. many foundations and gun emplacements remain. There is also a small museum and tours are available.

concrete gun emplacements of "disappearing guns

Disappearing Gun replica- locally made!!

Battery 245  - US Navy type guns

After visiting the museum, we continued on to Astoria, about 10 miles away and checked out the town. Built on the hill overlooking the Columbia River, it is known for its fisheries. We had lunch on the docks and then spent a few hours touring the Columbia River Maritime Museum. Most Excellent!!

Astoria - built on the hill above the Columbia River

USCG Cutter, ships at anchor in background

USCG Rescue boat- designed to right itself!

Lightship Columbia - used to be stationed off mouth of the Columbia River

River Pilot Cindy

This concluded our day in Astoria and half an hour later we were all back at FSSP. Again, there were numerous gatherings and several campers returning from Crab Fest. Our turn was coming the following morning. The first shuttle was scheduled for 9:30, leaving from a station just 150 yds from our campsite. We got there by 9:15 and a dozen people were already there ahead of us! By the time the bus arrived, there were enough going (this being the 1st trip of many throughout the day) that is was standing room only. Since the bus was full, we passed by all the other stops and got to the  Fairgrounds in about 15 minutes. Previous years attendees wore crab hats and wine glass holder lanyards!

not an actual crab

half crab dinner from Astoria Rotary Club

wooden mallet and board provided to access dinner!

After paying our admission fee of $15 ea, we were in the exhibit halls and checking out the various vendors.  We made our first purchase, an appropriate choice, of Bloody Marys from a local distiller. Most tasty and quite spicy. We decided a 2nd would go nicely when we got to our Crab platter lunch. Cindy purchased a few small items, including a new wallet made from an old post card. We bought a small bag of dark chocolate toffee and headed to the bus stop to return to camp.

Cooper and CJ were glad to see us as usual, and after a walk, we were all loaded in the Jeep to go visit Fort Clatsop at Lewis and Clark National Historical Park located about 5 miles away.  This is the site where they spent the Winter of 1805 - 1806 in the small log fort they built and named Fort Clatsop. Again a very nice visitor center, small museum and a reconstruction of the fort from William Clark's drawing and description in his journal. Great to be at these locations with so much history!

Finally at the Pacific, Lewis and Clark spent the Winter here

Fort Clatsop replica  - built to William Clark's description

Trying to take in everything in the area, we wrapped up the day by going over to the beach and viewing the remains of the shipwrecked Peter Iredale. Enough left to be interesting  and amazing to see how the steel frame rusted away.

Peter Iredale wrecked in 1906

Cindy's friend Sandy was staying at nearby Manzanita and she came up for the afternoon on Sunday. We chatted a while, then drove around the Park, taking in the major sites, including a small herd of Elk,  before returning for some wine, cheese and crackers. The campground had really emptied out and we were down to about 25% of the sites occupied by this time. A quiet evening was on tap.

Roosevelt Elk near beach in FSSP

Our last full day in the area found us driving South along the coast on US101. First stop was at a café suggested by Sandy - Lazy Susan's , for breakfast in Cannon Beach. Breakfast was great and we highly advise a stop there if you are visiting the area. Cannon Beach is a well known tourist town, famous for the large rocks protruding from the  beach and the quaint shops.

Gingerbread Waffle at Lazy Susan's - yummy!

After breakfast, we parked across the street to grab some fast WiFi outside the town Library, then on down the coast a few more miles to Manzanita. Sandy had taken a room for a few days right on the beach and we met her and went on the beach with Cooper and CJ. Both dogs started out off leash, but CJ got over zealous and after a bit of a trial getting him to return, he was back on leash to avoid following his nose out of sight again! We grabbed a bite to eat at the Pub up the street and then said our goodbyes. 

beautiful coast at Manzanita

This area is worth visiting. You may want to consider one of the Oregon State Parks a bit South of Ft Stevens  or say at Fort Stevens SP. All in all, 4 nights in the area would probably be sufficient.

that wraps things up for now. We'll be in touch in a few days.

until then  take care!

Cooper and CJ

Oregon - Silver Falls State Park

Silver Falls State Park 

It took us a half day (at our leisurely pace) to move on to our new stop - Silver Falls State Park. Located ENE of Salem, SFSP is featured in the National Geographic book on top state parks in each state. The reason will become obvious when you arrive- the place is beautiful, inspiring, well laid out and well maintained! Ten beautiful waterfalls are here for you to hike past. You can do the hike in one continuous loop taking about 8 miles (there are several that you walk behind!) or you can get to 4 or 5 of them with several hikes of less than a half mile or so. These falls are beautiful, varied and in a setting of Douglas Fir and Cedars that stretch up over 100 ft. SFSP has a nice campground for tents, RVs and also offers 1 and 2 room cabins to rent for those without such equipment. There is also a wonderful stone and log lodge built by those great guys - the CCC,  back in the 1930's. How great we are still able to benefit from their labors.

site 22 - even has a small stream beside it - very nice

Lodge at SFSP - built by the CCC and really neat

interior of SFSP Lodge. They have a fire going for us!

a bit about the park and the lodge

Our first afternoon, we came over from our campsite to check things out, grab a quick look at South Falls and the Lodge and make our plans for the next day. The weather had turned The weather remained great for the entire time we were there. We went over in the morning and found out the  lodge has a small café serving sandwiches, hot and cold beverages (including adult beverages), candy bars, muffins, etc . We planned our hike to be back by mid afternoon and hopefully grab a beer at the Lodge before the 4pm closing. Inspiration to keep hiking! I had my small Camelbak with sandwiches and water, we both had our hiking sticks and off we went for the 6 mile version of the Falls trail (Canyon Trail, Winter Trail and Rim Trail). We figured to hit the remaining two Falls with Cooper and CJ later on in our stay. Just a few hundred yards from the lodge you get to the first falls - South Falls at 177 ft and the trail goes behind the water!

South Falls - 177 ft , first one you see on your hike!

Cindy on trail behind South Falls

all the moisture creates lush vegetation 

most of the hiking is along level or slight elevation changes

behind Lower South Falls

Down the trail, along Silver Creek for another half mile or so and you get to Lower South Falls. Here you descend a serious amount of ramps and stairs to continue on , again behind the water as it drops 93 ft. On we hiked and the views are inspiring, the trails good and we met some nice people. One couple told us about a point of interest we'll get to later on in this posting.

nice women took our pic at Double Falls - 178 ft

we were told these at Fawn Lilies???

small,un-named falls

Silver Falls SP is located at about 1000', and this time of the year, the nighttime temps dropped enough to produce frost on the Jeep! But, by 8 am, things began warming up and by late morning we were in T shirts. some days even shorts.

towering firs and low humidity - pleasant hiking

Saturday, our second day at SFSP, was a much awaited day. Cindy was meeting up with her childhood best friend, Sandy, who she hadn't seen in 30 years! Sandy arrived around noon, we chatted, grabbed a lunch and hiked to South Falls and the top of Lower South Falls before returning to camp and throwing some burgers on the grill for dinner. A pleasant day was had by all. Great to see old friends reunite!

childhood friends meet after 30+ years

post hike chat will waiting on burgers

S&C with South Falls in the background

S&C hiking along Silver Creek

C&S below South Falls

Saturday ended with discussions about meeting again while we were in the area.

Sunday began with taking Cooper and CJ to the Off Leash area of the Park and time for CJ's obsession - playing Ball.

CJ loves playing ball!!

Then over to the Lodge to grab some free WiFi (quite speedy) a cup of coffee and a tasty Apple Cinnamon scone. We sat in the cushioned chairs next to the stone fireplace and wrapped up the previous weeks BLOG while enjoying a chat with some camp hosts. A great deal of info often gets exchanged during these chats and this one was no different - things to see later on in our trip. Then back to our campsite for a laid back day of reading, driving up to the top of the entrance hill to message the kids and resting.

Monday we met Sandy in Portland, about 1 and a half hours drive to the North of SFSP. We chose to take the back roads and passed nice Christmas tree farms and vinyards and also caught our first glimpse of Mt Hood.

workers planting seedlings for Christmas trees in 8-10 years

MT Hood - majestic!

We arrived in Portland and made our way to Sandy's House. We chatted a bit, I walked Cooper and CJ and we opted to drive a mile or so to a nice dog friendly Dots Café to get lunch and take in the sunshine.(I had a delicious chicken sandwich, C&S opted for burgers).

enjoying our lunch at Dots

 We wrapped up our lunch with Sandy and she steered us to the quick way to reach the famous Columbia River Gorge. Only a half hour away, it offers spectacular views and numerous waterfalls, plus some Lewis and Clark sites. In preparation for our visit to the Pacific Northwest, I re-read Stephen Ambrose - Undaunted Courage - the story of Lewis and Clark. We quickly got out of Portland to get I 84 East. On the way we spotted Mount St Helens.

Mount St Helens in the background, notice the top

Twenty odd miles later, we took the exit to Historic Rt 30 and Vista House at Crown Point. Built in the early 1900's, I offers a spectacular view of the Columbia River Gorge and offers a small museum and gift shop. (Note, it can get quite windy there as you are in a gorge - it was blowing at 40 mph while we were on site) Off in the distance, the docents pointed out the rock where Lewis and Clark saw seals, indicating they were nearing the Pacific after many, many months!

Vista House is on bluff on right

Rt 30 was built to make use of scenery

Seal Island just above orange bouys

We continued on Rt 30 and observed several waterfalls, made the now necessary detour to get to 611 ft Multnomah Falls (named on of the top 10 in the US)  the detour is necessary due to a carelessly caused fire in the Fall of 2017 which burned thousands of acres in this area. Most sad. Many Oregonians have quickly related their sadness at the fire in the Gorge. The Falls are beautiful and approachable to within 100 yds off I 84. The Restaurant a the site is open and functioning. Farther up the Gorge is Bonneville Dam. We were told is is a neat place to tour, but we were too late in the day to include it in our sites.

We made our way back to SFSP and after dinner took Cooper and CJ over to the Lodge for an outing and some WiFi time for us! While there, a Steller's Jay kept landing on the empty chairs in our area, probably looking for a handout. Quite striking, they are closely related to our Blue Jays.

Steller's Jay - black head, blue body!

Our next day included a scheduled tour off a local house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright - The Gordon House. The house now sits outside Silverton, Or, but originally sat on a farm with a direct view of Mt Hood and the Willamette River. A very interesting place to tour. We had toured another Wright home  - Falling Water in Western Pa a few years ago and this house was just as fascinating. It is a shame it no longer occupies the  site which inspired its' design.

Gordon House, built 1963

these windows were designed to look upon Mt Hood!!!!

guest bedroom and balcony

great room and music room

Our final day at SFSP found us taking Cooper and CJ to the North Falls parking lot and walking to Upper North Falls with them. This is a nice, flat, 300 yd trail to a 65 ft falls.

nice walking out to Upper North Falls

Upper North Falls - 65 ft

Then we dropped the dogs off at the Jeep and headed to North Falls. No dogs allowed on this portion of the trail. This is a more of a hike in that the are about 80 steps to descend before you go back to and behind North Falls. This is a narrow, cutting through the rock , 136 ft falls with a deep cavern behind it. Very impressive and worth the walk.

North Falls - notice the large trees growing above

behind North Falls - one big cavern, probably 150 ft across

This wrapped up our stay in the area and SFSP specifically. We cleaned that night, put most things away and in the morning, disconnected, pulled the slides in and headed to the RV dump station. then on to Silverton to fuel up the rig, fill the propane, grab groceries and be on our way!

notice the diameter of the trunk!

As we were departing SFSP, we grabbed a few pics of a local industry - growing Christmas Trees. The weather with abundant rain, sunshine and moderate temps affords a nice environment for such pursuits!

seedlings going in the soil!

We would highly recommend a stay at Silver Falls State Park. I would think a minimum of 4 nights. More if you want to use it as a base to explore Portland and the Columbia River Gorge.

that's all for now folks!

Take care

Cooper and CJ