Tuna
Saturday 09 March 2024
A lazy lie in, again, this morning. Eventually the Albatross demanded that I get out of bed so we could have breakfast. Probably fair, as it was 8.30am.
We were doing a bit of west coast explorer history today with a visit to Lewis and Clark National Park. President Thomas Jefferson thought it would be a good idea to explore some rivers and to get to the west coast, particularly as he’d recently purchased from the French a big it of land (which is what is now all of the middle bit of the USA) and it needed some exploring. Lewis and Clark led an expedition of about 33 people which was to follow the Missouri River upstream (using man power in the form of paddling and rowing in boast) from St Louis, find a way across the really big mountains and then find a river that would take them down to the west coast and Pacific Ocean. They left in mid-May 1804 and made it to the Pacific Ocean in mid-November 1805. They build Fort Clatsop, here on the west coast, to spend the winter in and the headed back east getting there in late September 1806.
Our first stop today was Fort Clatsop. The original fort that was built is long gone, but the reconstruction is based on Lewis and Clark’s notes and is nearly on the exact same spot. It isn’t big at all, two building of about 3 rooms joined by a high fence.
We went for a short stroll along one of the trails and spent 10 mins watching squirrel having a snack.
Back inside the visitors centre we watched a couple of short films, one from the point of view of the Clatsop (local Indian) people and the other from Lewis and Clark’s. Both were really interesting and informative. Also it meant we were inside when the storm hit, we could hear the thunder and hail. Fortunately, it stopped by the time we were ready to leave.
Our next stop was Fort Stevens State Park, which is a former WWII military site. A quick stop at Battery Russell to see elk and a wander over and around the battery.
There was supposed to be an awesome look out to the Pacific Ocean, which would have been nice a nice spot to watch the stormy ocean. However, there was a lot of construction work happening and we couldn’t see anything except the ocean spray coming in sideways. We went in search of a spot overlooking the Columbia River to watch the storm roll through and found one. We could see a storm heading across the mountains we’d driven over yesterday and it seemed like it was heading in our direction as everything (mountains, towns and bridges) kept disappearing behind grey cloud. We didn’t actually get hit by the storm as it headed north of us.
We did get to see a beaver frolicking in the river and eating fish.
With the storm passing us by we got a sensational rainbow which framed the beaver, like a sparkly unicorn of the sea.
Sorry, not a beaver, but an otter. For some reason I kept calling it a beaver, which made the Albatross nearly refer to it as a dolphin at one stage.
Time to head home for second lunch and watch the rain, hail and wind from inside our nice warm apartment.