Seaside Resort - Thousand Trails - Cloverdale, OR

Tuesday, June 26 - We packed up and drove Hwy. 101 to our new location at Seaside Resort, a Thousand Trails park in Cloverdale, OR. The park is set further inland, but it is just a short drive to the beach and town center. The park itself is laid out in two sections, with 50-amp service on the north side. Roads are gravel. Sites are adequate but we lucked out with a huge corner lot. Summer has come to this area, so there are a lot of younger families now in the parks. It is still a very quiet park and people adhere to the rules. The exterior roads were great as we passed through some very unique small towns. One was Garibaldi just north of Tillamook. They had beautiful homes up on the hillsides overlooking the Pacific. At least they don’t have to worry about the Tsunami warnings. We saw many logging trucks and signs on the hillsides of the sections where the trees have been removed. Garibaldi was originally a Tillamook Indian whaling village, then became a major lumber shipping port and is now a sporting hot spot.

Seaside was first visited by Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery in 1805, Seaside has been the northwest’s best place to play at the beach for more than 100 years. Less than two hundred years ago, Native Americans lived along the shores and grassland plains of Seaside, where they gathered native berries, fished for salmon and collected clams and mussels. Elk and venison from the forests provided meat, as did whales and sea lions.
The Seaside Natatorium, a public saltwater bath house, was a popular attraction among Seaside’s early visitors. The Natatorium building now houses the Seaside Aquarium, but we didn't have the time to visit.
Saturday, June 30 - The weather is fabulous – high 60s and sunny skies. We drove north to Astoria.

Astoria is a city of 10,000 people on the Columbia River, just a few miles from the Pacific Ocean. Astoria is the oldest American settlement west of the Rockies. The city lines the south banks of the Columbia River and the north banks of Young's bay. Surrounded by water and tall evergreen Douglas Fir, Hemlock and Spruce trees. Our first stop was to see Fort Clatsop National Memorial that commemorates the western end of the Lewis & Clark Trail. This site commemorates the 1805-06 winter encampment of the 33-member Lewis and Clark Expedition. A 1955 community-built replica of the explorers' 50'x50' Fort Clatsop is the focus of the park. The fort, historic canoe landing, and spring are nestled in the coastal forests and wetlands of the Coast Range as it merges with the Columbia River Estuary. The Salt Works unit commemorates the expedition's salt-making activities. Salt obtained from seawater was essential to the explorers' winter at Fort Clatsop and their journey back to the United States in 1806
It was on a wet Christmas Eve day in 1805 that Lewis & Clark and their Corps of Discovery moved into a stockade fort surrounded by lush old-growth forest, wetlands and wildlife and rested from their arduous 2,000-mile westward journey. Fort Clatsop, the winter encampment site of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, was named in honor of the local Clatsop Indians. Astoria boomed once the canning industry took off along the lower Columbia River. Finns, Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes flocked to the area to make a living in the flourishing fishing industry, in logging, and in farming. By 1890, Astoria was home to fourteen canneries, fifty-four saloons, and thirty-five brothels. In 1897, two hundred fishermen, most of them Finnish, purchased a cannery site and it became known at the Union Fishermen's Cooperative Packing Company (Union Fish, for short).
Astoria has many cafés and unique shops. We wanted to tour the nationally acclaimed Columbia River Maritime Museum located on the waterfront, but we didn’t have the time to stop and we had Mitzy with us. We drove to the waterfront, but since it was Saturday, the expectations of finding fishing boats unloading their daily catches, seals and sea lions poking their heads up with a watchful eye on the fishermen's catch, was not happening. We did see Coast Guard Cutter ships and huge barges being pulled along by the tugs.

We saw great views of Astoria's historic Victorian home architecture and maritime character that paints its silhouetted hillside. We also saw the newly restored Old 300 trolley moving along Astoria's waterfront. The Old 300 was originally built in 1913 and is a 20-ton, 40-passenger trolley. The trolley travels on Astoria's original train tracks between the East End Mooring Basin and West End Mooring Basin. You can step back in time with a visit to the elegant Astoria home built in 1885 by Captain George Flavel, Columbia River bar pilot and the area's first millionaire. A magnificent example of Queen Anne style architecture with period furnishings and artwork, the Flavel House rests on park-like grounds covering an entire city block. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places, the Flavel House has been operated as a museum by the Clatsop County Historical Society since 1950. During the Christmas season, a tea with traditional plum pudding is served in the dining room.

We took a drive up Coxcomb Hill about 500 feet above sea level to see the historic Astoria Column, (built in 1926, it is 125 feet high and has 164 steps winding to the top – which we did NOT climb). The art on the column is a summary of the triumphs, conflicts and turning points of the frontier. It is to properly salute Astoria’s explorers and early settlers for their critical role in the United States’ stretch to the Pacific Coast. The scenic beauty from this vista takes your breath away as you see the Pacific Ocean meeting the Columbia River and the dense, lush green forests and its endless miles of sandy beaches.
Sunday, July 01 - We took a drive south and then east on Hwy. 202 to see the free-roaming Roosevelt Elk at Jewell Meadows Wildlife Area. Before we stopped we stopped to take a brief walk around the famous Camp 18 (Milepost 18, Elsie, OR). A log cabin building the size of a train terminal, features a main room supported by the largest known ridge pole in the US; twenty-five tons. On the walls are massive lumbering saws and old photographs of lumberjacks at work. Wooden carved statues are everywhere of bears, lumberjacks, birds, etc. The place was terribly busy at 10:30 AM because their Lumberjack breakfasts are known far and wide. We didn’t wait to eat, but enjoyed the beautiful scenery outside. I would recommend this to be on your lists of stops in this area.
When we finally arrived at the Jewell Meadows Wildlife Area we were very disappointed – no elk were to be seen. We turned around and got back home by 1:30 pm.
Monday, July 2 - Finally got the time and weather cooperated so we could use our new bar-b-q grill from Camping World http://www.campingworld.com/ . The filet's were perfectly grilled and tasted great! Of course the cleanup is always a chore, but Ray does that job. We sat outside with our drinks and soaked up the beautiful weather along the Oregon coast.

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