We spent several days in and about Astoria, Oregon. We saw this tower atop a nearby hill so we drove up to investigate. This is the 125 foot tall Astoria Column, built by the Great Northern Railway in 1926. Artist Attilio Pusterla designed the artwork that wraps around the column. Each scene depicts a part of western U.S. history, including the Lewis & Clark expedition, the discovery of the Columbia River, and the arrival of the Tonquin, the ship that left New York City in 1810 and reached the Columbia River in the spring of 1811. The spiral staircase inside the column contains 164 steps (yes, we counted the stairs on the way up AND on the way down) They lead you to great views of the Columbia River, Young’s Bay, the Coast Range, and the Pacific Ocean.
We enjoyed the views from the top. You can see our truck parked to the left in the view down to the parking lot and almost see our motorhome in one of the views across the waterway.
Driving north from Astoria, we crossed the Gray’s River in Washington. It is a good visual of the energy produced by the tidal changes. Here you can see the power produced by the inflow of water, under the roadway caused by the incoming tide.
This is looking out towards the sea. You can see the water rushing into the concrete “spillway” under the roadway. This reverses itself twice daily.
Cape Disappointment Lighthouse has had a long history since it was built in 1856. Its fog horn has been difficult to hear over loud ocean waves, and there have been problems with its light not being visible from the north (which is why the North Head lighthouse was built). It still remains active though, and can be seen at the end of an easy forest hike, by way of the Cape Disappointment Trail. Along the trail, we came across this deer feeding on the grass. She did not appear to be too afraid of humans as she allowed us to approach fairly close for photos.
We passed several abandoned structures along the path to this lighthouse. The beach through the woods was closed off due to landslides.
This lighthouse is actually still in use and was manned by several Coast Guard personnel.
Our next stop was the abandoned lookout/weather station/lighthouse at Cape Disappointment State Park. This was a fairly easy walk on a mostly paved walkway but alas, the weather moved in and it was very windy and raining. Cathy waited in the car while I double-timed it down to take some pictures of the North Head Lighthouse, getting soaking wet but I managed to keep my camera pretty dry.
We spent several days in the Astoria area, visiting the Lewis & Clark National Historic Parks, seeking out seafood restaurants (1/2 gallon of fresh clams), finding a wonderful breakfast house and walking the waterfront area. We managed to befriend an old dog named Joey that we fed through the mail slot in a business downtown. We went back and met the owner and got to spend a few minutes with the dog the next day. This motel was next to the breakfast restaurant so we took this shot for Michelle.
We took a leisurely stroll along the waterfront area. There were a mass of sea lions barking under the docks and we managed to get very close to them, but it was too dark down there to get a good photo.
A pilot boat was returning from guiding a freighter through the sandbars and up the river (as seen from the dock).
Continuing on, down the coast, we stopped to admire this view.
While parked in Rockaway Beach, this steam train pulled up and parked for an hour or so. Passengers were getting off to enjoy the beach and have lunch at nearby restaurants.
We stopped in a wide spot in the road to visit some of the quaint shops in the small town of Cloverdale, in the Nestucca Valley along the Oregon coast.
We made another stop alongside the Pacific Coast Highway. It was sometimes difficult to find enough room to park our motorhome.
We had an immediate visitor to our doorstep at this stop. This guy was rather persistent and managed to swallow (many) Ritz crackers whole.
We overnighted in a state park, halfway between Tillamook and Coos Bay. It was a short walk under the highway to access the beach.
Arriving in Coos Bay, we set up camp in the Sunset Bay State Park. A short walk down to the nearby beach yielded this scene.
We spent the next day in town and joined the 50th reunion of the Marshfield High School Class of 1969 for a free screening of the documentary “Fire on the Track – The Steve Prefontaine Story” at the Egyptian Theater in downtown Coos Bay. The screening was sponsored by Farr’s Hardware and included an organ performance by Lee Littlefield on the “Mighty Wurlitzer”. Jay Farr was a classmate of Steve and former student body president and actually ran with Steve on the track. We participated in the 40th running of the Prefontaine Memorial run on Saturday.
Lee Littlefield is in the front center playing the Wurlitzer. Virtually the entire audience are alumni of Marshfield High, class of 1969.
Of course, the Egyptian must have the appropriate guards!
Cathy found this character in a local glass shop downtown. This dog lays on its back for long periods of time to gain attention. She was in this position for the entire time we were in the store.
This is me in red, dead center coming up the last climb in the the very undulating course of the six mile run. This course follows one of Steve’s original training courses. We turned left at the top of the hill to run the final quarter mile on the Prefontaine track.
These are some miscellaneous photos of the finish area at Marshfield High.
We met Robin (my niece) and Dan Marsh in Cool Bay. They were attending a car Show ‘N’ Shine with Robins gold Nova. This is Robin, Cathy and Barbara in front of the Nova.
I joined Cathy and Dan joined Robin for this photo. Cathy is displaying her Prefontaine shirt.
In the morning we headed out for Michigan. About 200 miles into the trip, our warning lights illuminated indicating an engine related issue. Our turbo brake did not function and we were losing power so we decided to stop at a Freightliner shop for service. After camping there to get slotted in, they finally, after two days of waiting and three hours of diagnostics, found no issue. They reset the indicators and gave me the error codes so I could get them addressed at Freightliner once we got home and we were off again. We drove until dark and spent the evening alongside the road “dry camping” along Highway 12, the scenic route. This is the scenery we woke up to, somewhere in Washington.
We stopped in Garfield County to take a closer look at their government buildings and the neat downtown area. It was amazing, the number of Garfields that we have passed through on this trip, I think this makes four so far!
We made it into Idaho in the morning and spent the next evening at a campground on the Nez Perce reservation, near Lewiston, Idaho. After visiting a Nez Perce National Historic Park museum near Spalding, we pulled over alongside the Lochsa River, between Lowell and Lolo and had lunch at this spot. The scenery was incredible and there was very little traffic on this, the Northwest Passage Scenic Byway – All America Road.
After lunch, exiting the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest, we made a stop at the Lolo Pass Ranger Station to get some fishing information for a possible return to the area, then we continued over the pass, into the Lolo National Forest and descended into the Bitterroot Valley of Montana.
Travelling with the Schinglers 