CAPE DISCOVERY SP
Grocery shopping at 9am to beat the Thanksgiving rush, refilling LP tank, a little birthday shopping and book store browsing. Using the opportunity to use our phones to catch up on email, texts, and bills, we spent time in the truck typing on our phones. We have no signal at our campground.
After returning to lunch at the Ship and put away groceries, we went exploring the park. We went to the south end of the park to check out the north jetty of the mouth of the Columbia. It partners with the south jetty to increase the water speed of the river in order to move silt out to deeper water. In the past, many boats (three in one week) sunk on the sand bar created by the wide slow mouth.
The upper photo is looking east; the Columbia is on the right. The lower is looking west putting the Columbia to the left. The north jetty is 2.5 miles long; we walked out as far as a pile of boulders impeded our progress. It was from there these photos were taken.
Exiting the truck felt like we were stepping into a wind tunnel. As we walked across the beach towards the jetty the sand was blowing into ours faces carried by 30 MPH winds. But, we pressed on, climbing huge boulders to the top of the jetty where it was virtually flat. It might have been a half mile before we were stopped by four large rocks that we assumed were the end of the jetty, but, no. It went out another 1/2 mile! We did not.
The waves and water were distinctly different on each side of the jetty. The river had large rolling waves moving inland. It was a bit brown from the silt. The Pacific was foreboding white capped surf. Walking back to the truck was much more pleasant with the wind at our backs!
From there, we went to the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center high on a bluff overlooking the mouth of the Columbia; what a view! The wind was howling and rain pelted us as we reached the bluff and hurried indoors. We spend almost two hours examining the history of the Corps of Discovery; what an accomplishment! They only lost one man to a probable ruptured appendix.
The slave, York, and the woman, Sacquegwea, got to vote on winter quarters, but neither got paid for their efforts. We have come a long way, baby!
The interpretive center is in the middle background. The Cape Disappointment Lighthouse is to its right on the point.