Another recommendation from The Oregonian recommending Autumn Hikes, which I’m choosing to do in Winter. Fort Stevens is a Naval Base located on the Northeastern most tip of Oregon. Very close to one of my favorite small towns in the world, Astoria. Today, it’s less of a base and more of a Coast Guard Station.
The area itself is a coastal forest on a peninsula. There’s all sorts of terrain to explore. It took me a while to drive up there but I actually like long drives where I can just listen to a fun podcast on the way.
Once I got there is was noon. So I didn’t want to embark on a longer hike, since it gets dark early. Instead I opted to just take a long walk on the beach. This turned out to be less of a quiet choice than the woods. The reason why was the Coast Guards were conducting search and rescue practice operations right off the beach. Actually, a kick and really fun to watch.
Also along the beach are the remains of an old shipwrecks. That and the Coast Guard practice caused me to look up a the history of the area and I found out something interesting. That entire area of the coast is known as “The Graveyard of the Pacific” because of the danger it poses to ships. Between erratic weather, sandbars, a rocky coast, and a few other factors. Let’s just say it’s very dangerous for ships and there’s been a whole lot of shipwrecks right around that area.
It was a chilly, windy day but I was prepared with the right clothes. So I took a four mile walk up the beach and back.
Afterwards I decided to drive around the park a bit to explore. That was when I spotted a huge Elk right in front of my car. This was crazy because it was the first time I’d ever seen an elk in the wild. I ended up throwing my phone out of the window of my moving car in an effort to get a picture of it. But I did get it.
