Ft. Stevens State Park, near Astoria, OR:  Cloudy and cool all day today.  We went to the Maritime Museum in Astoria which is a fairly new museum in this small river town.  We could also tour a light ship, the Columbia.  There are some really large ships that ply the Columbia River.  Where the river meets the ocean is pretty dangerous, and waves of 40 feet are common.  Ships are required to stop 6 miles out and take on a “bar pilot” which takes them up the mouth of the Columbia River to the bridge in Astoria.  Then they need a river pilot to take them up to Portland, or wherever. No wonder Lewis and Clark couldn’t make it out to the Pacific from the Columbia River in their canoes.  The waves were so high they kept getting swamped.  We had lunch at a little diner in Astoria and then headed back to our park.  Took a drive down to the beach to view the wreck of the Peter Iredale, which ran aground in 1906 on Clatsop Spit which is now part of the park.  The wrecked hull of the ship sits on the beach, and has for ~70 years.  68 today.

This is a map of all the ship wrecks in and around the mouth of the Columbia River.

Large ships ply the Columbia.  This one is from Hong Kong.  They anchor in the Columbia and wait for word that they can continue on to Portland.  There's no charge to anchor here, whereas in Portland they could be charged up to $1000/day for dockage.

This Japanese boat washed up on Cape Disappointment on the Washington side of the Columbia--a result of the tsunami.

Coast Guard rescue boat on the crest of a huge wave.  This boat is auto bailing and would automatically right itself in the event it capsized.  

The wreck of the Peter Iredale on an Oregon beach.