Adler's Fall 2013 Northwest: Oct. 23, 2013 Cape Disappointment SP

Oct. 23, 2013 Cape Disappointment State Park

We were fogged in this morning, so we went to the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center to see what it had to offer. It was quite extensive and informative, and we did watch the video they had, also. I was still wondering why this is called “Cape Disappointment” because I thought it reflected how Lewis and Clark felt when they found the ocean, and I couldn’t understand how they could be unhappy with this area, and they accomplished what they set out to do! I saw a banner in the center, with the picture of English fur trader, and explorer, Captain John Meares, who had sailed in 1788 to this area looking for the passage into the country. He thought it was a bay, so he turned back disappointed, for not finding the river, and therefore, named it Cape Disappointment.. It was President Thomas Jefferson who instructed Lewis and Clark, in 1803 after the Louisiana Purchase, to explore a way, by land to reach the ocean. They came down the Columbia River and ended at Cape Disappointment in 1805. We hiked up to the Cape Disappointment lighthouse and it was an exhilarating jaunt! One can only imagine the hardships they endured on their more than two year trek across the country, not to mention their return trip. Even though we were fogged in today, we were enlightened! The lighthouse at Cape Disappointment, being built in 1856, is the oldest functioning lighthouse on the west coast.