Followin Lewis and Clark from Oregon to Washington

  Fort Clatsop, Washington
Wednesday, July 4, 2007

I woke up at 8AM as the sun made my tent feel like a dutch oven.  I dropped camp and drove to Fort Clatsop in the Lewis and Clark National Historic Park.  I enjoyed the artifacts in the visitor center's museum and then watched a thirty minute film on the Lewis and Clark expedition.  After that I took a short walk out to the reconstructed Fort Clatsop.  This fort was the winter encampment for the Corps of Discovery from December 1805 to March 1806.















Next I began my drive north by crossing the Astoria Bridge into Washington.  I drove to the coast to visit Cape Disappointment.  This is where Lewsi and Clark achieved their goal of reaching the Pacific.  I had great views of the coast and the Pacific and I visited two lighthouses, North Head Lighhouse and Cape Disappointment Lighthouse.  North Head was built in 1898.  Their appearances were so different with Cape Disappointment with black and white stripes and North Head solid white.
 
 














I then continued the long drive north on Highway 101 to reach the Olympic Peninsula in Washington and I am now in the complete opposite corner of Florida.  I can't get any further from home at this point.


I set up camp about ten miles from the official entrance of the Hoh Rainforest, but my camp is still in the rainforest.  Around 7PM I drove into the town of Forks and sat out in their city park in anticipation of their July 4th fireworks.  Unfortunately I arrived way too early!  It was shivering cold and it didn't begin to get dark until almost 10PM and the firewroks started some time after that.