When we bought our R-pod 180 in June this year our dealer gave us a one year membership in Thousand Trails campgrounds.  A couple weeks ago we finaly decided to try it out.

The Thousand Trails RV park in Seaview right next to Long Beach on the southwest Washington coast is the one we picked to try out the full hookup style of travel trailer camping.  It was nice to not worry about running out of water and be able to use the microwave oven.

Long Beach is on a long narrow peninsula just a couple miles north of the fishing town of Ilwaco and the mouth of the Columbia River. It is the only place in Washington where motor vehicles are allowed on the beach which is 28 miles long.  The Discovery Trail is a paved trail right along the beach a short walk from the campground.  It runs eight miles south to the lewis and clark interpretive center on the bluffs above the Columbia river bar.

It would have been a great place to have our bikes but we didn’t,  so drove a couple miles each day to our daily adventures.  Washington State parks Discovery pass is required for the state park campgrounds and day use sites close by.  There are quite a few sites related to the history of Lewis and Clark.

Our Camp

North Head Lighthouse in service 1898   Two miles north of Cape Disappointment Lighthouse in service 1856.  It was built to inhance navigation due to the many shipwrecks off the Columbia River Bar...The “Graveyard of the Pacific.

Gun turret and bunker used in WW One and WW two.  At Cape Disappointment Lewis and Clark interpretive center.

The Black band is to help differentiate from North head.

Bronze replica of Pine Tree on the Discovery trail.  Furthest extent of lewis and Clark’s travel.  “November 19, 1805.  Clark, York and 10 others proceeded north of the cape approximately four miles before returning to their Station Camp.  Clark wrote, I proceeded up the course and marked my name & the day of the month on a pine tree.”

Side walk at Station camp State park campground.  Each concrete plank is etched with information from one place to another.  Distance to the mouth of the Missourie, Latitude and remarks.  “Here the first recorded vote by a Woman and a Black man occured when Sacagawea and York had a voice in where the Corps would winter.” 

South Jetty on the Columbia River Bar

Breakers on the South jetty.

Cargo Ship just finished crossing the Columbia River bar.  The little white spec to the left off the ship’s bow is the River Pilots boat.  Ships crossing the bar are required to wait for a licensed Columbia River bar Pilot to board the ship and steer it across the bar.

Whale bones along the Discovery trail.

A kite festivel in Long Beach.