Birds, Bikes, Boats & (more) Bridges!
Beverly Beach State Park is getting the highway bridge replaced right in front of the campground, and they have made a lot of progress from when I headed south in February. It looks like they are almost ready to start putting some road deck in place.
They have a temporary bridge built in the background to keep traffic flowing during the two year project.
This small slope overlooking Cape Lookout (how appropriate) State Park appears to be a hang gliding and/or paragliding launch spot as there are bits of flagging on convenient sticks and branches all around.
These photos from Cape Lookout State Park, near Tillamook, Or.
This homeowner on the coast near Cape Lookout State Park apparently does not want visitors. Not satisfied with a normal chain-link fence topped with barbed wire, this place has rolls of razor wire on top of the fence. And the little booth by the gate has a security camera in it. Perhaps this is the Conrad Black prison?
There are other nice houses here who did not feel the need for razor wire - or even a fence.
One last bridge. This is the one over the Columbia River at Astoria Oregon. The far end of the bridge is in Washington state.
Last night I crossed the Columbia River at Astoria, Oregon, and came across this rest area on the Washington side. See what it is named, and see if you have any idea what it means. I know I didn't. 
Answer at the bottom!The birds were hard to get photos of. They were either too small, or too far away for any decent pics! I was camped on a dike along the Palix river in NW Washington state, and the tide comes up the river right to where I was camped.
In the morning, large flocks of little shorebirds were flitting about in fine formation, feeding in the very shallow water as the tide receded. And high up above were long V's of Canada geese headed north to you-know-where. Close by, there were chickadees, hummingbirds and blackbirds.
You will be glad to know that at least 10 Harley Davidson's were NOT on the roads of western Washington today. I know that because I counted at least 999,990 that were. Maybe this is the first nice weekend they have had here, but it was sunny and nice and the roads were packed with bikes. No space for bike pics.
The Coast Guard seems to have everything in hand on the Pacific coast. I was watching this CG cutter headed north up the coast - where it eventually stopped to check or service a navigational buoy. Almost at the same time, the CG helicopter headed south on it's regular patrol of the coast. See video below.
And finally, more boats!
This time we took the ferry from Port Townsend over to Whidby Island
You might recognize the truck.
We played chicken with this large container (?) ship named Grand Venus. I guess our ferry knew it was being intimidated and we let it go by in front of us.
I did Google the name of the ship but did not come up with much other than the fact that it is registered in Panama - which is common. I did find some 'pilot' records of it in the Vancouver area, as well as some in the Arab emirates, but nothing recent or interesting.
The Answer:
The Megler Rest Area is located at Columbia River Mile (RM) 15, downstream of Megler Point. This area once use to be the terminus of the Ilwaco Railroad and a ferry landing, complete with a waterfront restaurant (see more below). All that remains today are wood pilings in the Columbia, best seen in Megler Cove (on the downstream end of the Rest Area). Megler Cove was the location of Lewis and Clark's campsite of November 12-14, 1805, refered to by the men as "Dismal Nitch". In 2004 this area became part of the Lewis and Clark National and State Historical Parks, a grouping of sites important in the Lewis and Clark story.
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