fort clatsop – RVing With a Purpose

June 2, 2025

On Saturday, May 24 we woke up to another beautiful day. We had stayed overnight at the Lewis and Clark rest area located on the banks of the Columbia River. It was such a nice way to start our day. There was a trail for us to walk and a geocache to locate. This was our last Washington find in nice peaceful setting.

Immediately after leaving the rest area it was time to cross the Columbia river and enter Oregon. First stop was the Lewis and Clark National Historic Park in Astoria. We arrived before the park opened so it was a great time to get our steps in another beautiful, wooded forest. The park includes sites along the Columbia River and the Pacific Coast in Washington and Oregon but we were visiting the headquarters in Oregon. The park includes a replica of Fort Clatsop, which gives you a real sense of what the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery experienced more than 200 years ago. There is also a nice museum to visit and of course some movies. Since we are more outdoors people, we spent most of our time in the Fort and then some of the hiking trails. We are so blessed in this country to have our educational national parks across the land.

Hiking at Fort Clatsop. The trail led through the woods and along the Lewis and Clark River.

We thought these poles in the water were for mooring boats, but they were actually put there years ago to assist on sorting and rafting logs.

From the park, we resumed our drive down Highway 101 arriving in Tillamook, Oregon early afternoon. The drive was beautiful and included numerous stops to enjoy the Pacific shoreline. The spring flowers were in full bloom, along with all the pollen. So pretty. It’s fun as we travel to sometimes experience multiple springs. We stopped to view the various sea stacks and seaside communities. The 363 mile Oregon coastline is not to be missed. It’s nothing like our beloved Alabama/Florida Gulf coast with its beautiful sugar sand beaches but still not to be missed. In Tillamook we stayed at the Blue Heron French Cheese Company. It is a Harvest Host location whose RV parking lot can handle over 40 RVs. The restaurant is very good, serving breakfast and lunch and some oh so good Tillamook ice cream.

Some of the old farm equipment at the Blue Heron

And another state added to our RVing map

We also visited the Tillamook Creamery which was horribly busy on Memorial Day weekend. However, we did find our first geocache in our 50^th state there. It seems fitting that it was at an ice cream place since so many of our geocaching adventures across the country ended with ice cream.