Natural History of the Lower Columbia River |
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The Lower Columbia offers a wide variety of habitats in a relatively small area - narrow sloughs winding through Sitka spruce swamp, grassy tidal marsh islands, dramatic basalt cliffs, and coastal rainforest. Skamokawa is set at the junction of two National Wildlife Refuges totaling more than 40,000 acres. Typical itineraries for Natural History explorations include: |
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We explore along the Columbia’s north shore downstream of Skamokawa. In the 1920’s, during the heyday of salmon fishing and logging, there were communities all along here. Over the last several decades the forest has reclaimed this now uninhabited area, where you are likely to see eagles and otters as you paddle through the pilings that once held up a cannery or wharf [photo below]. |
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We begin in Birnie Slough of Puget Island and return along the Lower Gorge, where flow upon flow of basalt has formed dramatic cliffs. Watch for peregrine falcons hunting down unwary birds. |
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We take a field trip to Cape Disappointment State Park, where the mighty Columbia meets the ocean, and hike through a remnant of ancient coastal forest bearing spruce up to nine feet in diameter, then take in the newly remodeled Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center atop the cape with panoramic views of the Pacific. Time afterwards can be spent on the beach or at the Ilwaco Heritage Museum. |
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We catch the outgoing tide into Grays Bay, where the Columbia expands to its widest point at eight miles across. Our route is along a wild shoreline protected from most winds. This is perhaps the best route on the lower Columbia for wildlife. Here Elderhostel groups have encountered blacktailed deer, river otters, bald eagles and entire herds of Roosevelt elk. Raccoons and many waterfowl forage in the wide tidal flats. We can stop to look for marine fossils where the 15 million year-old Astoria formation meets the shoreline. We will have lunch on a beautiful sand beach flanked by sandstone bluffs and share dramatic journal entries from Lewis and Clark’s storm-tossed days in Grays Bay, where the Corps of Discovery was forced to camp on giant logs that floated at every high tide. The Columbia River jetties now block the ocean swells that plagued the Expedition members. |
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