For our second day at Fort Stevens State Park we took a morning trip to nearby Astoria and then returned back to the park to observe some military history.

Astoria Riverwalk

The Astoria Riverwalk is a work in progress. This is a working port area, so it will have an industrial look to it that makes it different. We parked at the maritime museum and walked west toward the Astoria-Megler Bridge that carries the 101 to Washington over a 4+mile span. It’s very tall to allow ships through. Can’t miss it! We turned back toward the museum when we felt a little unsafe. We noticed on the way into town that there were a few sidewalks full of tent encampments in this area.

The river walk currently ends at the museum, but when construction is finished on a second museum building, then it will continue on. I shared an awesomely fresh cheese bagel with veggie cream cheese from the Bluebell Bakeshop with Tony on our walk back. Second breakfast!

The area around the museum is very busy, and a cruise ship from the American Cruise Line was docked there and had tour buses for excursions pull up. There are several other museums to visit and lots of shops and restaurants along the Marine Drive corridor.

Columbia River Maritime Museum

Around the outside of the Columbia River Maritime Museum are navel artifacts. They currently have a light boat (floating lighthouse), The Lightship Columbia (1951-79), docked on the water for touring with admission, and a tugboat parked in the construction zone, perhaps future tours there. The new building looks like a multistory display of different vessels; will have to come back to see it.

The current museum houses several display areas that paint stories (or literally tell stories) about shipping and storms and rescues here at the mouth of the Columbia River, considered one of the most dangerous bars to cross in the world. Many displays have personal narrations or even videos to accompany the artifacts. Mariners call it “the graveyard of the Pacific” because of the thousands of ships and hundreds of people who have met their demise here. Winter storms are said to be very ferocious.

The US Coast Guard Station at Cape Disappointment, across the bay in Washington, has an elite training center with a world renowned reputation for training the best rescuers due to the extreme conditions recruits get to practice in here.

The lightship Columbia was an interesting tour. She and her crew spent their time anchored six miles offshore to mark the entrance to the Columbia River Bar. During winter, getting supplies was difficult, so they stored 12 tons of food and tens of thousands of gallons of water and fuel. Their schedule was two weeks on and one off, weather permitting. Boredom (between storms) was a tough part of this job for the 18-member crew on this small ship. They delighted in the addition of television to help fill the hours when weather was calm and nothing needed to be done. The crew experienced seasickness riding the 30-foot waves during storms because the ship bobbed like a cork. This was all new to me as I didn’t know these kinds of ships existed.

Fort Stevens History

Late this afternoon we decided to take advantage of the sunshine and ride our scooters on the paved bike paths this park provides to get to the various historical sites here. We had already visited the shipwreck of the Peter Iredale on the beach. We rode on to the Batteries that are open for exploration in three different spots. Ft. Stevens was completed in 1865 to protect the Columbia River Bar, then added eight concrete batteries between 1897 and 1904. Battery Pratt was added during WWII, and a Japanese submarine did fire harmlessly upon this area on June 21, 1942. Return fire was not authorized as it would have helped the enemy locate the batteries. The troops were not happy with that decision, but understood it. There is a museum at the location of Battery Pratt and several others.

Scooters are a fun way to zip around from place to place in a campground. Paved paths are ideal. It saved us from driving several miles to see all of the battery sites and would have been a very long hike all combined.