#47 Cape disappointment State Park

Our first stop that evening was Cape disappointment. I am so glad we landed there because it was where Lewis and Clark saw the west coast for the first time.

Towards the early evening we found ourselves at Cape Disappointment State Park and settled in for the night. We were arriving near dusk and got situated kind of just in time. We were told by the host where to go and she mentioned it might be a little soggy, so I had to pick the sight with the knowledge of not getting stuck in the mud. The next morning, we strolled around and try to figure out what was relevant about this place and come to find out this is the exact spot where Lewis and Clark found the Pacific Ocean. You must admit that's pretty exciting stuff they had traveled for a year or more and the sense of relief when they finally arrived.

The visitors center described their trip across the country, and it was really a long brutal story of how they got here. When they got here, they were happy but as I understand it the weather was just miserable when they arrived so they pretty much sat around in a very cold rain for a week or so before they can really do much of anything. The name itself has nothing to do with Lewis and Clark as they were not disappointed by arriving here. Some Explorer in Prior years was looking for the mouth of the Columbia River at the Pacific Ocean and when he found this point, he saw a lot of sand bars and got kind of tricked and was of course disappointed that it was not the Columbia River but it was so that's why it was named Cape disappointment.

We went to the interpretive Center and we spent several hours there learning more about Lewis and Clark. Honestly it was a typical Cape Disappointment day because although it wasn't cold weather, it was maybe 60 degrees and raining sideways. It was really blustery and just grey and I kind of imagined how Lewis and Clark felt.

For a moment I thought weather was pretty rough that day. We had a warm dry RV with a microwave, so I think they had it a little worse than us.