It was a long travel day today that took us from Fort Stevens State Park to Ainsworth State Park. Well, 2 1/2 hours of driving in one day is long for us since we reached the west coast a few weeks ago. We took an alternate route east than what is shown in the Google suggested route above in order to avoid much of the Portland traffic. So, it wasn’t really a shortcut since it was a longer route, but hopefully it was a little less stressful.

Our route took us out of Oregon, into Washington, and back into Oregon allowing us to cross the amazing Columbia River twice. The only downside was that we missed out going through the Portland Vista Ridge Tunnel that goes under a neighborhood near downtown. It’s apparently famous(?) for people honking as they go through it; a tradition they’ve kept up since the days before there were 2 tunnels (one each way) and you were required to honk before entering it to let oncoming traffic know you were there.

Farewell to the Beach

The morning started with a run on the nicely paved bike paths of Fort Stevens for me and yoga on the beach for Lisa. Lisa also took one last opportunity for beach exploring and wading in the surf. I’ll let her explain what she discovered:

The tide was out this morning, and several people were harvesting something. I asked one nice gentleman about what he had in his net, and he let me take a picture of the razor clams. He said you had to have a license to dig for them, then he added, “These are not like the East Coast clams. You only have to cook them for a minute, and they are very delicious.” We have seen similar tools used in Texas, but those are just harvesting a beach shrimp to use for fishing bait. Today it was for people food.

Mouth of the Columbia River

We left the beach area and took a short drive to the south jetty of the Columbia River. The jetty is off limits to walk on, but there is an observation tower here that gave us a good view of the river leading into the Pacific.

Sights from the Windshield

There was lots to see without stopping during our drive from Astoria to Portland. Below are a few pictures we took from Usain’s windows.

Note: Regarding the picture of the Longview, Washington paper mill above, while writing this blog post I learned that this is where the disastrous implosion occurred this past May where 11 workers were killed and many more seriously burned.

Ainsworth State Park

We arrived at Ainsworth State Park, our campground for the night, in the late afternoon. No park gate here, no check in required. Fortunately, Lisa had noted our campsite number beforehand so we knew where to park. Later in the evening a park host came by and gave us our pass for the night. Quite a bit different than our 2 previous campgrounds. Nehalem Bay has 265 RV sites and Fort Stevens has 476 RV sites, while Ainsworth only has 40, and it seems much fewer than that. Fewer sites makes for a cleaner bathhouse. I would say quieter as well, but it’s situated very close to I-84 and very busy train tracks. Lisa chose the park due to the proximity of Multnomah Falls — a waterfall tour is on our agenda for tomorrow — so we can put up with the traffic and train noise for one night.

After arriving at the park and taking a rest, we set off on a short hike. Catnip demanded a walk after we arrived back to the van.

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