After leaving Mount Rainier, our next stop on this Pacific Northwest road trip took us towards Astoria, OR. Prior to the trip, I had looked over the area to see what interesting stops might await us. The first one we hit was still in Washington, but just across the Columbia River from Astoria. Cape Disappointment received it's unfortunate name from a late eighteenth century fur trader who initially thought mouth of the river was a bay, but discovering the shallow shoal that prevented his ship's entry and realized his mistake.
The cape is now a state park and includes two areas of interest. The first is Deadman's Cove, which requires us to make a short hike. When I had examined the topography of this cove, I thought it might be where they had filmed some parts of the movie "The Goonies", which I knew had been filmed in and around Astoria. The cove lies beneath high rises on three sides, with the ocean entering from the narrow slit on the fourth. Wooden steps lead down to the white sand area at the head of the cove. It's actually a beautiful little area, but I don't think it was the location of the scenes I was thinking of from the movie.
From the cove, we next walked up a paved path to the top of one of the rises surrounding the cove. Here, a tall, white lighthouse guards the coast. IT was constructed and put into service in 1856, as the first lighthouse in the Pacific Northwest. It's 53 tall and includes a small attached room that likely functioned as living quarters. The structure is currently maintained by the US Coast Guard. We spend a little time walking around the top of the hill and examining the lighthouse before heading back the way we came and continuing on our journey.
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