Oregon Part 7: Shipwreaked
One of the fun things you can do on several Oregon beaches is drive the sand. Not only is it compact and cohesive enough to be driven on, but it’s open to anyone. We just couldn’t let this opportunity pass without taking the new CRV for a spin on the sand, especially since it had all wheel drive… not that it’s really needed, the sand is quite firm.
I think this is a pretty cool thing to be able to do in Oregon because you can drive your truck down to the beach for a good tailgate picnic. Last year, I saw a few surfers with their trucks down on the beach. As well, for reasons unknown, the beach is pretty clean too. Now we can say we’ve all driven on the beach. Dad says that Kevin asked when he was going to take them down the Oregon Coast after hearing about this 😔
Our last major stop was Fort Stevens State Park right before Astoria at the North West tip of Oregon. The park is pretty big and use to be a military outpost. Of note, it has the wreak of the Peter Iredale, a sailing ship that ran ashore in 1906. Part of the hull is still buried in the sand and makes for a popular photo opportunity.
The park seems to have a lot of beaches and a decently larger RV park but not too much parking for day trippers. We also took a quick look at an old WW2 bunker and the breakwater along the Columbia River. The bunker was okay but there weren’t any posters explaining the history so it was difficult to imagine how it functioned. The breakwater was quite windy so we saw some big waves crashing against the wall but it was too cold to spend any more time out there and we were hungry.
We had a pretty good sushi lunch in Astonia before crossing the Columbia river into Washington. While the others napped, I was quite disappointed that as soon as we crossed into Washington the scenic highway ended and we were driving inland through marshlands. There were turn offs to go to beaches and some state parks but in stark contrast to the highway in Oregon right along the coast, this part of the road was inland and utterly disappointing. I drove 4 hours straight up to Olympia, through Seattle, and to the Tulalip outlet for some shopping before we exited the states. I haven’t been all that impressed with outlets but it worked out well for Yuki who got a nice North Face fleece. After that we had dinner at Olive Garden.
Our original plan gave us a flex day at the end of the trip to stay in Portland or Seattle. We decided in Astoria to head home and have Sunday to recuperate. This was the right call to make because we’d already finished the Oregon coast and there wasn’t anything in Washington we wanted to see. Anyways, we didn’t get home too late as it is and we were able to unpack before going to bed. The next morning, we had a big breakfast at Ihop and then went out for shopping shenanigans with Dad before he took the ferry home and our adventure concluded.
