Day 176 - Lewis and Clark Nat'l Historic Park

This morning, we headed north to Fort Clatsop located just south of Warrenton. I think that this is the first National Park that we've been to since Big Bend back in January. We've passed several National Monuments over the last few months but they were closed. The visitor's center was open so we were able to get a sticker for the National Park Passport but the stamps themselves were put away due to Covid-19.

We walked out to the fort which was basically a winter encampment with four bunkrooms plus a kitchen area and the commander's quarters. What is shown here is a reconstruction as none of the original structure survived. It is located about 5 miles (straight line distance) from the ocean and a few hundred yards from the Netul River.

We took the trail to the Netul River Landing which was about a mile upriver from the fort. All along the river were these pilings and I initially wondered why they needed so many docks. It turns out that they are there to temporarily contain logs when they were unloaded from trucks. The logs were sorted while floating in the river then bundled together into large rafts which were floated downriver to a lumber mill.

It was an interesting way to spend the day. To the right is a shot of the open visitor's center. It was only 72°F but the shaded trail was appreciated after just a short time of walking in the sun. I think we are getting spoiled by the coastal weather.

After returning to Seaside, we stopped at the outlet mall and I picked up Gore-Tex jacket at 50% off from the Eddie Bauer store. For the last year of traveling, the only rain jacket I had was my old First Gear motorcycle jacket. Completely functional and still waterproof but kind of overkill as a rain jacket. Plus, no hood. We will be at Seaside TT for another week before heading south to another TT near Newport.