Cape Disappointment State Park Washington

Cape Disappointment is a 2,023-acre camping park on the Long Beach Peninsula, fronted by the Pacific Ocean and looking into the mouth of the Columbia River.

 A notable landmark of the Pacific Northwest, Cape Disappointment was already named by the time Lewis and Clark reached the site in November 1805.  The first known documentation of the site was in 1775 by Spanish explorer Bruno Heceta, who named it “Bahia de La Asuncion,” or Bay of the Assumption.  Then in 1788, British trader John Meares named it “Cape Disappointment” when he mistakenly believed that the mouth of the Columbia River was only a bay.

Cape Disappointment Light House :  Lighthouses stand sentinel atop windswept cliffs, sea smells waft up through the air and waves collide with a crash where the Pacific Ocean meets the Columbia River below.

 When Cape Disappointment Lighthouse was first lit on October 15, 1856, it became the eighth active light on the West Coast.

The brick tower at Cape Disappointment stands fifty-three feet tall, has a focal plane of 220 feet above the sea, and tapers from a diameter of fourteen feet four inches at its base to ten feet six inches at the lantern room. The station was also supplied with a 1,600-pound fog bell, but it was found to have little value due to the roar of the surf and the distance at which mariners needed to hear it.

Columbia River :  Starting as a small stream at the base of the Canadian Rockies, the Columbia River travels more than 1,200 miles, merging with various rivers and streams, until it meets the Pacific Ocean. The force of the Columbia flowing into the sea creates one of the most treacherous bars in the world as evidenced by the 234 identified ships that stranded, sank, or burned near the mouth of the river between 1725 and 1961.

Location : Cape Disappointment is a headland of the Pacific Northwest, located at the extreme southwestern corner of Washington, United States, on the north side of the Columbia River bar and just west of Baker Bay. The point of the cape is located on the Pacific Ocean in Washington's Pacific County, approximately two miles southwest of the town of Ilwaco.

Fees : A Discover Pass is required for vehicle access to state parks for day use.