{"id":4097,"date":"2018-07-08T10:00:18","date_gmt":"2018-07-08T17:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cowlesmountain.com\/Travels\/?p=4097"},"modified":"2018-07-08T07:18:27","modified_gmt":"2018-07-08T14:18:27","slug":"heading-over-the-huge-bridge-to-long-beach-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cowlesmountain.com\/Travels\/2018\/07\/08\/heading-over-the-huge-bridge-to-long-beach-island\/","title":{"rendered":"Heading over the huge bridge to Long Beach “Island”"},"content":{"rendered":"

We set out on Thursday morning for points north of Astoria, basically on the other side of the Columbia via that huge bridge on the edge of town.\u00a0\u00a0 It’s an odd setup, the bottom of the bridge is probably 300′ above the roadway below it.\u00a0 The approach to the bridge is this big steep circular loop, like nothing I have experienced before.\u00a0 The funny part, as we were climbing this circular roadway that reminds me of the mousetrap game when I was a kid, there was a 55 MPH sign.\u00a0\u00a0 It was so steep and curved, 55 seemed ludicrous!\u00a0 \u00a0We finally made it to the entrance of the bridge and went up and over this mighty structure, then steeply down the other side to a 4-mile-long causeway maybe 10′ above the water the rest of the way till you got near the other shore where there was another 3-truss bridge section, but that one was only 50′ or so above the water line.<\/p>\n

We then headed up the 101 toward Long Beach and parts north.\u00a0\u00a0 I had expected lots of views along the way, but that proved to be incorrect as it was like driving thru a heavily wooded forest all the way to the northern tip.\u00a0\u00a0 Once there we realized we needed a Washington State Discover Pass and we didn’t own one nor did we know how to obtain one.\u00a0\u00a0 So instead of finding a place to eat a picnic lunch, we turned \"\"<\/a>around and headed for the ocean hoping to find a spot.\u00a0 We did find an ornate gate in a very secluded area on the way into the park and \"\"<\/a>took a picture on the way out.\u00a0\u00a0 We also found another gate later, and I assume it may be the other side, based on where we were.<\/p>\n

What we found was the oddest area I had ever seen near Oysterville.\u00a0\u00a0 Miles and miles of small bungalows with many undeveloped lots in between them housing trailers and motor homes on them with folks camping on them.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It’s like you buy property there to summer vacation in your RV; and then when you save enough money, you build a home on that same property.<\/p>\n

We never found a place to pull over for a picnic and ended up in a small town named Ocean Park (sans any park)\u00a0 and pulled into a parking lot to eat a late lunch.\u00a0 Afterward we headed south to Long Beach.\u00a0 All along the way we saw more of the bungalows and small lots with RV’s on them.\u00a0 There is always something odd on our adventures.\u00a0 We looked over and a guy was riding a bike and had his golf clubs on a hand cart hooked to the back of his bike.\u00a0 Ingenuity at its best!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>We arrived in Long Beach and found an ice cream shop, parked, went inside and found \"\"<\/a>approximately 50 people in line for a cone.\u00a0\u00a0 We walked out and down a long road out toward the beach with the sign about the longest beach in the world.\u00a0\u00a0 It was a really long walk out to the end and a bit cool heading out there.\u00a0 There were also a lot of port-a-cans lined up out there, probably still there from the 4th of July.\u00a0 The sand goes way out and people drive their cars out there and park!<\/p>\n

We \"\"<\/a>found a sign listing all the shipwrecks off the beach and there were lots of them, about 200!!\u00a0 \u00a0 We walked back toward \"\"<\/a>the town thinking about that ice cream again; but when we got back, I decided to walk along the main tourist street.\u00a0 Zillions of little shops, Fun Land, and restaurants on both sides of the street.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We did the whole stretch and back and hoped when we got back to the ice cream shop, the line would be shorter.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We got there, and the line was longer.\u00a0\u00a0 No ice cream for us today!<\/p>\n

We proceeded to head further south to find the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse.\u00a0\u00a0 We found the parking area, and again there were all the signs about not parking there without your pass displayed; so we headed out to find the other lighthouse that’s not far from it.\u00a0\u00a0 We found that one and there was a kiosk to buy the pass there.\u00a0\u00a0 But of course the kiosk was broken.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We decided to park there anyway, and a bunch of the other folks there said they didn’t have a pass either, so we winged it and walked out the trail to find the North Head Lighthouse.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>It wasn’t very far, with a gorgeous view along the way there.\u00a0\u00a0 We took a few pics and headed back to the car as it was getting late in the day.\u00a0\u00a0 We drove \"\"<\/a>out of the park and found the 101 to head back over the huge bridge and to the RV park.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Along the way I noticed a Mexican restaurant very close to the campground.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 When we got back, I suggested Mexican for dinner.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That was a hit and I drove back for take-out.<\/p>\n

A long day that ended with a pretty decent Mexican dinner!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We set out on Thursday morning for points north of Astoria, basically on the other side of the Columbia via that huge bridge on the edge of town.\u00a0\u00a0 It’s an odd setup, the bottom of the bridge is probably 300′ above the roadway below it.\u00a0 The approach to the bridge is this big steep circular … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Heading over the huge bridge to Long Beach “Island””<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-traveling-the-hiways-and-byways","category-venturing-out-and-about"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cowlesmountain.com\/Travels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cowlesmountain.com\/Travels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cowlesmountain.com\/Travels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cowlesmountain.com\/Travels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cowlesmountain.com\/Travels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cowlesmountain.com\/Travels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4097\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cowlesmountain.com\/Travels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cowlesmountain.com\/Travels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cowlesmountain.com\/Travels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}