Here are some pictures and a couple of videos from my trip to Astoria. I stayed at Ft. Stevens State Park for a couple of nights. The weather was perfect (for early March), sunny with temps in the 50's and light wind.
The first pictures are on the Oregon side of the Columbia after crossing the Lewis and Clark bridge at Kelso/Longview. That is Mt. St. Hellens in the first one.
The rest are from the Jetty and at the museum and Gun Battery.
Instead of setting up my tent, I stayed in a Yurt. They are very comfortable, with a futon couch, a bunk bed that could sleep three adults and a little table and chairs. It has electricity and a heater as well. There is a video of it at the end of the photos. It was well worth the few extra bucks to not have to set up and tear down my tent.
There were active gun emplacements at the fort to protect access to the mouth of the Columbia from the Civil War all the way through WWII. There is a nice little museum detailing life on the fort as well as the surrounding area.
The park has several miles of paved bike/walking trails and easy access to both the Pacific Ocean beaches as well as the south jetty and the shoreline of the Columbia. On the river side there are views of the magnificent Hwy 101 bridge and downtown Astoria as well as lots of mountains and wildlife. There are almost 400 campsites in the campground, so I imagine it is quite a zoo in the summer. It was nice and quite this early in the season.
I am looking forward to some more spring camping as well as a summer full of Steelhead fishing on the Deschutes. I will try to keep up here with pictures and videos.
