Fort Stevens State Park

I could start this blog with another rant about the fog, but I won’t make you suffer through that … but we did wake up to fog once again and this time it stayed all day … such is life on the Oregon coast … okay I did rant!
We have really enjoyed our time at Fort Stevens State Park in Astoria, Oregon. Fort Stevens was an American military facility that guarded the mouth of the Columbia River from the Civil War through World War II. It was named after Issac Stevens, a slain Civil War general and former Washington Territory governor and was an active fort from 1863 to 1947.

Coffenbury Lake a picnic and swim area within the park … just in case you don’t want to swim in the ocean ☺

Sunday night we took a walk along the ocean during low tide. And yesterday morning we took a walk during high tide, the weather was not nearly as nice but still reasonably warm. In 1906 the sailing ship Peter Iredale ran aground on Clatsop Spit and the crew took refuge at Fort Stevens. Part of the wreck still lies on the beach today.

Low tide

High tide

On June 21, 1942 a Japanese submarine surfaced off Fort Stevens and fired seventeen shells, making Fort Stevens the only military installation in the continental United States to come under enemy fire during World War II.

Since there were no submarines to take pictures of, you will have to make do with a picture of a very big freighter near the mouth of the Columbia River. I’m sure you can use your imagination to pretend this ship is a sub 🙂

Between 1885 and 1895 long, rocky jetties were built to protect the mouth of the Columbia River. The jetties narrowed the current to help flush out sediment and keep beach sand from clogging the river mouth.

Today it makes a great place to fish during high tide but this fisherman was getting wet from the waves!

Apparently it is also a great place to surf!

Off the south jetty is a walkway to Trestle Bay where there is a wildlife bunker set up.We didn’t see any wildlife at the bunker but there was a lot to see through out the park!

We saw lots of Elk but usually I didn’t have the camera handy, but this guy was very cooperative. He had a friend with him but his friend was being rude and wouldn’t look up so I’m not going to share his picture ☺

Until next time …