It was a long day of driving. We left the beachside campsite early and drove the 45 minutes to the Quinault Ranger Station to check in and get our NPS passport stamps. We hiked the trail to the Kestner Homestead and saw the orchard that was planted 120 years ago. There were no apples on the ground but we found a HUGE pile of bear scat in the grass that was not steaming but rather fresh. The rainforest is such an interesting place, probably because we are used to the desert flora and fauna. We didn’t see a bear but asked the ranger and he said they have several black bears in the area that eat the fruit off the ground. They will also climb into the trees and shake the fruit free. Kathy found some evergreen huckleberry bushes I the parking lot and picked two quarts of them.
We had several more hours of driving to do to get to our next stop. We were headed to the Lewis and Clark NHS in Oregon and wanted to get there before they closed. Furthermore, we were needing a shower and looked at campgrounds in the area and the KOA was $100+ for the night and the state park reservation showed it was full. I figured we need to get there early to see if we could find a place, as there were places for stealth camping, but we wanted to place with a shower.
We arrived about two in the afternoon and decided to start at the campsite of the state park to see if we can get a spot. Fortunately, they had some cancellations and we were able to grab a spot there. We checked out the spot, and then headed over to the Lewis and Clark national historic site because they closed at four, and we wanted to be able to tour the visitors center. Some of the great things in American history that really impressed me are the pioneers, and more in particular Folks like Lewis and Clark in his party of discovery. We’ve been traveling over 15,000 miles in a very posh truck on roads and into established campsites. These incredibly hearty men and woman had boats, canoes, or walked the entire length from Camp Dubois on the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean. They not only traveled, but explored, collected samples, and mapped the upper west that was to become the USA. It’s really an incredible thing. Here’s a link to some quick history. https://www.history.com/articles/lewis-clark-timeline-expedition
We were able to tour the museum and displays at Fort Clatsop and even learned about the unique American flag with 15 stars and 15 stripes during the flag retirement ceremony at the end of the day. It’s a pretty incredible historic site.
We headed back to the Campground at Ft Stevens State park. The site was $50 for the night but it included free, hot showers and an electrical hook up. We haven’t been driving the 4 to 6 hours a day and I haven’t been able to get the batteries up to 100% for about a week. It got as low as 25% when we left the campground at the beach. After driving all day today, it still was only at 80%, so this allowed a trickle charge overnight. It’s funny because I put enough solar on the roof to be able to charge it up during the day from 50%, but that requires Arizona style sun. We have not had straight sunlight for any single day for the last two months so we are reliant on the alternator to charge the batteries.
The Fort Stevens campsite is really nice, and really big. There are over 250 sites there they were actually open. And there was some sort of a recumbent bike festival going on, so after dark it was like the Disney electric light parade with these guys driving around with their Christmas lights all over the bikes. Kind of cool. We got a good night sleep, took a hot shower in the morning since the one at night was just lukewarm, and the batteries were all charged up and we are ready to go. We stopped by the beach to see an old shipwreck. Apparently there have been over 2000 wrecks at the mouth of the Columbia river due to all the sandbars. This wreck happened around 1917, and a similar one happened three weeks later almost in the same spot.
We have been running into some scheduling issues with these national parks and historic sites being closed on certain days. Unfortunately, with the route that we’re choosing, we were gonna go see the Fort Vancouver down in Portland, but it’s closed on Sunday and Monday. The next site we’re planning on seeing is the John fossil beds in Central Oregon, and they’re closed on Tuesday and Wednesday. So it’s important that we get down on Monday to be able to see the fossil beds. There’s no chance on seeing the Fort Vancouver visitor center, but we’re gonna stop by the site anyway and see if we might be able to get a stamp.
Here are some additional photos for the day.
https://www.overlandadventureexcursions.com/photos-albums/nggallery/album/20250913-olympic-np-lewis-and-clark