USA – Week 1 - Seattle to Newport

1st camp at Fort Steven and BIG crisps



Longest Bridge



Big Tree time

Cape Disappointment Lighthouse

Fort Steven Beach

Driftwood at Cape Disappointment





Fort Steven Seafront

Whale Watchers Camp



Local Brews



Another Campfire & More Crisps

MONDAY 21/5 - An early start out of Leeds Bradford got us into Amsterdam for 8.40am. The overweight baggage we were worried about got through OK with 3 kgs to spare, we did have almost 2 bags of camping gear tho’!! We had just over an hour in Schipol before we boarded for Seattle. A reasonable flight with plenty of aircraft type food and aircraft type movies on a screen you almost need binos to see! Got some great views of the icy wilderness of Greenland and Canada on the way over. All was going well until we came to land in Seattle. On approach and going into land when the engines roar and we are seriously going back up again. Problems with space between landing aircraft was reported, super just what you want to hear. In to land again, same thing happens but bad weather to blame this time an even better news. Third time lucky the captain quips, what a comedian when we are all worried to death. Thankfully he finally gets the plane on the ground in the pouring rain.

The US immigration nightmare was actually quite quick and painless after the fingerprinting and the face photo. With bags in hand we set off to find our motel. We found it OK but due to the famous Seattle rain we were wet through when we got there. A quick change and we headed down town to find some fuel for our camping stove. After a train ride into town and a five mile hike across town we got some and headed back to the digs to get some sleep. What you have to remember here is actually 3am in the UK and we are now 9hrs behind the UK and well knackered trying to get onto US time.

Tuesday 22/5 - Up and off after a great nights sleep to get our hire car. So it’s a haul ass back down the road to the airport (no rain this time) where we board a bus to the biggest car hire lot you’ve ever seen!! Then we get the most obnoxious person on the desk who pretty much forces us into a better bigger car because apparently the car we have hired is so small and unsuitable and we need to upgrade. After a while we go down to the garage to get our upgraded car where we see a lady driving out of the garage in it!! More discussion at desk and we finally get a car. (More on this later.) Off we go onto the US highway at max speed of 55mph. After a bit of a mess looking for a turn off and getting lostish in a town, we finally arrive at our first camp.

Fort Steven State Park is just over the border from Washington State in Oregon. It was a lovely setting in a forested area but the weather was cold, cloudy and damp. It was a massive campground with good facilities and wild deer wandering about all over the place. It was also pretty quiet but that was all set to change.

Wednesday 23/5 – We had heavy rain overnight so the tent passed the wet test as we were all dry!! Good start, we then went to the office to ask if we could stay another night as we liked the site and were hoping for better weather when the dreaded “Memorial Day Weekend” was brought to our attention. Apparently the whole of the USA would be out camping at the weekend and there wouldn’t be an empty space on a campsite anywhere. Well we rang here and there and ended up in a cute little library in a local village on the internet which was free (a camp park ranger put us on to it) trawling the net for a campsite. We did find one eventually down the coast, not where we wanted to be but it was OK apart from the rip off price. With the weekend sorted it was back to getting on with the day and our new surroundings. Again, we need more stove fuel and local friendly ranger has put us onto ‘Fred Meyers’ a mega supermarket that sells everything it was well fave with Mrs D. All stocked up we returned to site and had a walk before dinner by the lake, very nice just cold and damp.

Education time, pay attention please. Fort Steven is on the south shore of the mighty Columbia river, a natural boundary between Washington and Oregon states. Historically Fort Steven protected the south side of the river and Cape Disappointment the north. What you probably don’t know is that the Columbia river mouth is 5 miles wide, thus the need for the two defences. Both these areas are now state parks and are connected by the longest bridge in North America which is 4.2 miles long. Quite a sight to see, even more of a sight to drive across.

Thursday 24/5 – As our camp pitch was so cool and damp due to the millions of trees around us we had breakfast by the lake in a shelter as it was raining again. Then we drove across the afore mentioned long bridge to Cape Disappointment State park where we had a walk up to the lighthouse and back and around the park. It was actually not raining and there was a strange round yellow thing in the sky for a short while before the rains returned. A lovely area with loads of park information. We then headed back via the local town hoping for a dry night so we could get the tent away dry. We have managed to get in the spirit of the American campfire. Oh yesss, every camp pitch has a fire ring so we are now adept foragers of wood and kindling. There was an incident one evening whereby we had lit our campfire and were letting it get going when a blue coloured bird flew down and flew of with a box of swan matches!! There's gotta be a joke there somewhere……..

Back to the car…..by now we have had chance to see a few cars and we are convinced we are in the car we originally booked. Remember, the one “which was so small and unsuitable and we need to upgrade.” It was actually quite a nice car apart from the awful fuel consumption (it does half what our splendid diesel does to the gallon.) That aside we have paid for an upgrade and we believe we are in the wrong car. The problem is we need a Budget office to go to sort it out and we don’t think there is one until San Francisco so it will have to wait.

Friday 25/5 – Moving on day today, so up and pack up after breakfast. No rain overnight either so tent goes away dry, yippee!

We had 162 mile drive to the next camp which will get us through the memorial day weekend. It was a lovely drive down the coast and we also took a ‘scenic drive’ alternate and had free coffee in a village store. “just put a donation in the box” the lady said. We then sat and watched them all digging for clams with a butty & our free coffee. Arrived at ‘Whale watchers resort’ late afternoon and it was as we expected a hideous massive campground with more rules than the constitution but our pitch was OK but sadly more damn trees. We cooked dinner, had another campfire and got a reasonable nights sleep.

Saturday 26/5 - A cool cloudy day was started with a walk down to the site office area to hear a short memorial day speech by a uniformed war veteran. Very short but very to the point. I suppose a little akin to our remembrance Sunday stuff. Afterwards we headed to the local town of Newport. A bit of shopping, sightseeing and walking around Yaquina Head Coastal Park and viewing of a lighthouse, seals and seabirds. Late afternoon we headed to ‘downtown’ (central to you and me) Newport. We found the old town on the river, a splendid brewery pub with lots of beers and good food. Well we would wouldn’t we! Full of food and drink we headed back to mega site for bed, no fire tonight.

Sunday 27/5 – Breakfast down the road en route for a change and we were heading for Yachats & Perpetua Point. A good bit of walking down by a blow hole and something called ‘the devils churn’. A deep narrow rocky inlet with lots of noise, bit weird. Drove back to mega site late afternoon for grub and fire.