The Great Western Tour: Part 3

 The Pacific Coast from Washington to Northern California

      The coast is scenically impressive with mountains on one side of Rt. 101 and rocky beaches on the other. If you like lighthouses, there are so many your travel companions will get bored and insist on heading down the road. Tide pools hold sea urchins, star fish and anemones. Seals and sea lions squabble for the best places to sun on the rocks. An occasional whale spout may be spotted farther out to sea.

   We would have liked to have spent more time in the campgrounds right on the beach but the demand for sites far exceeds the surprisingly large number of state parks. On the 362-mile Oregon coast, for example, there are 18 state parks--one every 20 miles--so I anticipated no difficulty. I was wrong.  Fortunately, on the mountain side of the highway there options in Olympic National Park in Washington and in national forests all the way down to California.

Powerful Pacific storms cause washouts that carry huge trees to

the ocean where they washup as potential driftwood projects.

Some are large enough to supply every hobbyist in the world.

The Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery spent the winter of 1805-06

at the mouth of the Columbia River. Fort Clatsop was reconstructed

based on the highly detailed description and drawings in their journals,

Seaman Day is an annual event in honor of Lewis's Newfoundland dog that

completed the expedition with them. This was a big deal because dog was a

popular dinner among the Indians they met. "Doggie bag" was not just

an expression.

This fellow demonstrated how to load and fire a musket.

When we returned seven years later, he was still at it.

Other docents in costume described living conditions at the fort.

Numerous rocks and frequent fog call for lighthouses at just about every headland.

If the cliff is high enough, the light itself does not have to be tall.

The lens renders the view upside down,

When the tide is out, you can explore what is in the pools.

When the tide is out, you can walk to the lighthouse on the island.

Face Rock. Do you see the face of a girl looking upwards and to the right?

You can often leave the crowds far behind just by taking a short walk.

Coastal Redwoods, the tallest trees, grown in the northwestern corner of

California. The more massive Giant Sequoias grow inland. We'll visit them

 in the next installment.