Pendleton to Astoria OR

one of high bridges that allow shipping traffic on Columbia.  Mt Rainier and St Helens in background.

Shipping on Columbia

 We drove westward along the Columbia River from Pendleton to Astoria, OR.  the Columbia is next largest River in North America after Mississippi. This river cuts through th Cascades, and it is navigatible into the Rockies.  The river is traversed with tall bridges to facilitate river traffic and about 20 dams to harness hydro power.


Astoria is the first continuous outpost in the west.  Lewis and Clark wintered nearby. Trading company ships had attempted to explore here earlier, but due to turbulence of the discharge concluded the area was inaccessible until about 1792.  In 1811, John Astor's trading company of Yew York established a trading post.Fort.  There is plenty to See around Astoria,  There's big log trucks carrying single trees form nearby rain forests.  We went to the maritime museum and learned a lot about boating on the river.  http://www.crmm.org/ the bar is serious here. International ships come in and are boarded by bar pilots.  From Baked Alaska restaurant, we saw this pilot boat that delivers the river remove the bar pilots.

Museum showed early trade: Glass trinkets and copper objects lower right for furs to China for chinaware on right for Europe.

At Museum, we toured this light boat used to mark channel to cross the bar

Partial display of Salmon can labels at museum

Climbed  Astoria column  and saw where we had been and morehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astoria_Column

Astoria from the column

returning to town from tower.  Steep

Visited Shallon Winery famous for chocolate orange wine.

  

On way to see jetty at Ft Stevens State park, we see Pacific

Plenty of driftwood.  Don't turn your back on the Pacific - thinking about how the wood got here