A short trail winds through the forest and down the hill from the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center.  It connects to the road ascending from the Cape Disappointment Coast Guard Station on the Baker Bay (east) side of the headland on which the lighthouse sits.

Earlier posts included information about the lighthouse, the old artillery fort – Fort Canby – on which the Coast Guard station sits today, and a little about the evolution of the Coast Guard mission at the mouth of the Columbia River.

BEGINNING GROUND

The short trail is part of a much longer system extending over North Head and up north to Long Beach.  Most websites have the trail – 1.9 miles one way – starting at Waikiki Beach just west of the main entrance to the Cape Disappointment State Park, a little short of the L&C Center.  Waikiki Beach sits on the north end of the headland making up Cape Disappointment. 

There is a relatively low section of ground between the Cape Disappointment headland and the next to the north – McKenzie Head – with a couple of shallow lakes between.  Across this ground in 1901, the lightship LV-50 – Columbia – was moved at great expense from the place where it was grounded beneath McKenzie Head to Baker Bay.  LV-50 came aground in a storm 9 November 1899.  The 700-yard journey ended up costing $17,500 – or $575,000 today.  The lightship ran aground again 6 October 1905 and in May 1907, the ship went adrift for five days until a sea-going tugboat rescued the crew and boat.

At the end of the trail is the oldest lighthouse in the Pacific Northwest dating to 1856.  Construction began in 1852, but the ship bringing in crew and construction materials wrecked on the cliffs below.  Two years later, with construction underway, the whole tower was dismantled and enlarged because the first-order four-ton Fresnel lens proved too large for the original construction.

TRAIL GATE

Near where you go through the gate onto the road leading up to the lighthouse, notice the flat areas above the Coast Guard station.  This is where the former lighthouse keepers’ homes were – Fort Canby occupied the area below where the station sits today.

About halfway up the road on the left, a very overgrown path takes off.  This appears to be a lane connecting the road and lighthouse area to Battery O’Flyng which sits in the notch of the headland directly above and to the south of the Coast Guard station.  The concrete dugouts of the former battery still exist though the whole structure is overgrown and off limits.

A concrete structure – vandalized with graffiti but scheduled for renewal – sits along the road just before a final push up to the lighthouse.  Not quite sure what the building’s function was though it could have served for many purposes out of the direct firing line of the ocean just over the crest of the hill.

DEAD MAN’S COVE

As you go up the hill to the lighthouse, you have nice views down to Dead Man’s Cove.  The name dates to the wreck of the Vandalia in 1853 off the Columbia bar.  All aboard drowned with some of the bodies washing ashore in the cove. 

The area is federal land – much of the Cape Disappointment headland is federal – administered by the Coast Guard. The Coasties tired of people making their way down to the little beach, becoming injured along the way.  Two main ways access the beach, one from the state park side is quite steep.  The other from the Coast Guard side still has a four-foot drop along the way down.  Several rescues needed here took the Coast Guard – there is only 48 people based at the station – away from their primary water jobs.  There has been some thought to transfer the area around the cove to the state park and make Washington responsible for people’s safety.

A lot of people also like to use the little beach to party and Coasties have had to clean up lots of drug needles.

In the past, it seemed like you could walk down to the beach – lots of people were doing so before the trail closure regardless of signs.  There is a tiny island in the middle of the cove.  The most magical moment for me here in the Cove was seeing a sea lion camped out on the island.

VIEWS OVER THE RIVER’S MOUTH

Just before reaching the lighthouse, the trail-road levels out.  To the left, a muddy path goes off to give the first views over the mouth of the Columbia mouth with Saddle Mountain, Onion Peak and Tillamook Head in the far distance.  Cliffs drop straight down off the headland.  Below, you might be able to catch some of the Coast Guard boats out playing in the waters below.  A navigation aid stands to your right.

Past the viewpoint, comes another tall navigation tower.  It sits on the eastern end of the flat area where the civil war cannons used to sit just below the lighthouse.  Cannon practice was always hard on the windows on the lighthouse.  With experience, the lighthouse keepers kept the windows opened on days when the artillerists were playing. 

THE OLD LIGHT KEEPS SHINING

The old lighthouse Fresnel lens has been downgraded to a fourth-order light today – the first-order lens moved to the nearby North Head Lighthouse. The light almost went out in the 1950’s but Columbia River bar pilots were able to keep it burning.

On the west side of the lighthouse is a monitoring station run by the Coast Guard from where they can keep a literal eye on ship traffic at the mouth of the river.  The binocular lenses are much bigger than the ones in your backpack.  The area used to be an emplacement for Big Betsy, a fifteen-inch Rodman cannon.

Again, the view from the old lighthouse out over the mouth of the Columbia is magical.  We should be thankful the Coast Guard is giving us a chance to experience it once again.