North West through Oregon 1-4 Oct

We have spent four days travelling through Oregon and are now in the far North West in a place called Cannon Beach (just South of Astoria; our most northerly point; on the Columbia River which forms the boundary between Oregon and Washington State). We travelled about 17miles on the North side of the river in Washington and were intending to do more but the road passed through tunnels that were just too small for our van at 12'9''. But it was another state to add to our tally.
We have spent quite a bit of time just driving and one day where we just sat in Farewell Bend State Park by the huge Snake River and tried to take in all that we have done so far. The river was down about 5m so it had huge muddy shores that made wonderful squelching noises as Tristan threw rocks into the mud, they were also perfect for footprints... deer, buffalo, loads of birds and raccoons had been visiting, and for Celso the low water mark meant that lots of trapped fishing line on once submerged obstacles was now obvious as you walked past and so he collected loads of new pieces and then spent about 2 hours cleaning it all up and putting it all together in new combinations. I don't know why we didn't take any pictures of the scene, it was amazing but we were all feeling a bit zombified I think! On Friday it was a grey sort of day with drizzly rain so we decided to stop off and see one of the Oregon Trail town museums and the spot that was chosen was Baker City... this was a tiny town that the pioneers passed through on their way further West and North, it wasn't really settled much until a gold rush in the 1830's and then it became quite large. The museum now houses donated items from families descended from original pioneers, such as bonnets, quilts, tea chests and cutlery from the journey, carts and tools and early imported items such as printing presses, beds and other furniture. There was also a fabulous collection of rocks from 2 sisters (now departed) who in their 90s in the 1990s had donated it to the museum. In the 1930s they had found a large fossil bed and they traded fossils with people from around the world in exchange for rocks! Enormous Gypsum crystals (pieces as large as a 2 seater sofa!), desert rose, fools gold, etc etc, and a large collection housed in a light tight room with UV lights that glowed in all the colours of the rainbow. There was also a fab little collection of clothes through the ages and several kitchens laid out with items from different eras. My favourite was the 1950/60's kitchen with all the gadgets and gizmos and rounded frumpy looking white goods. Another of my favourite exhibits was a stage coach that used to run between Baker City and Eugene (nearly on the West coast) in the 1890 to 1910 era, taking 3 days. It had some great notices inside that I took a photo of so you can see for yourself.
Saturday we woke to yet more drizzle that turned to snow as we drove up and over the Blue Mountains. The pine trees, with a fine powdering of snow, and mountains in the background were like some sort of winter wonderland, beautiful but cold! But eventually we came down the other side into warm sunshine and met the Columbia river. We drove for some of the way on the old road (from before the 2 lane highway) through autumn coloured oaks and chestnuts past amazing waterfalls; one, the Multnomah falls, cascades 620ft and is the 2nd highest year round falls in the states . The road was VERY narrow in places and we had to stop and pull in our mirrors in order to pass vehicles from the other direction, a bit hairy but worth it as you can see from the pictures.
The Columbia river used to be a narrow white water river that some pioneers used to build rafts and find a way down, but most avoided because it was so wild. But now the river has at least 3 dams (3 that we have passed anyway) and is probably over 100m across due to the backed up water. It makes an amazing sight but sadly many old features such as the salmon run cascades, where bears and Indians alike used to stock up for winter, have been lost to the waters. The River now transports almost 40% of all wheat produced in the US along to Portland in enormous barges so there are huge loading depots where road transport can transfer their cargoes to the barges.
Today, Sunday we followed the Columbia river North West to the sea at Astoria, there were some amazing views along the way, the river is so huge, the countryside so hilly, the trees so autumn orange, brown and yellow and the sky so blue - amazing. Along the river some of the houses had been built on stilts in the shallows, I don't know why, there is so much land to be had! Astoria also had lots of buildings on stilts all along the water front, and a small Sunday market with arts and crafts and fruit and veg through which we wandered spying on the locals! We stood and gazed the enormous ships passing on the river and watched a throng of cormorants diving down to catch fish, we thought we could hear a seal honking, but we couldn't see him.

Our first stop at the Pacific Ocean was in a tiny town called Seaside which had an enormous windswept beach and large rollers crashing in, Tris had his first dip (feet only) in the Pacific whilst Celso cringed at the wind!
Now we are happily camped in a little hollow outside of Cannon Beach, the sun is blasting down, rabbits are frolicking around the van and we are getting ready for a hike down to the beach and through the town to see what is there to be discovered!
What an amazing 3 1/2 hr walk, a river from the campsite leads about 200m down to the beach so we walked along its edge and were treated to the antics of a family of 5 otters that were fishing, frolicking and feeding in the river, squeeking, diving and splashing. Further towards the sea, a multitude of seagulls, pelicans and ravens (for some reason) were bathing in the fresh water. The beach was enormous and had some amazing rock formations at both ends; one set to the South called the Haystack and Needles, and the other set to the North called Bird Rocks. Low tide was at 8.30pm so we wandered into town and had a bite to eat and then returned to explore the low tide rocks. You can see that there were amazing anenomes, starfish by the dozen and hoards and hoards of mussels that seemed to be whispering to us. The sun went down as we neared Bird Rocks and we walked home with the amazingly orange sky over the sea.