Welcome to the Jungle: Fort Stevens, OR

Lush Ferns, moss that hangs from mature, emerald pine trees like my boys unruly hair hangs in their eyes, every imaginable form of wildlife at every turn, a beach, a shipwreck, a historic army base complete with dark/ gutted barracks just perfect for hide and seek as well as climbing on/around/and through, a cannon, all perfectly topped off-- like a sundae with a cherry-- miles and miles of bike paths connecting it all--ah, lovely, Fort Stevens, where we are parking the RV tonight. (Notice I am still not calling what we are doing “camping”. Trust me, this is not camping, because I loathe camping and this RV thing I can do!)

We left Nehalem Bay and “headed north on the 101” (Wait, isn’t there a Tori Amos song with that line it?) Unlike the drive from Utah to Portland where every hour seems like 3 and there isn’t anything interesting to look at until the Columbia River Gorge, these coastal drives we have been making seem to take 30 minutes when they are more than twice as long. The scenery and beauty assist that old enemy time to fly. A quick supply stop in Astoria had our RV, and our stomachs completely full again--- ready to see what a new spot along the coast has to offer.


So just what does Fort Stevens have to offer? Jurassic Park like-lushness. Everything is green and cool and teeming with life. We parked our RV, quickly unloaded the bikes and took off in search of adventure.










All 4 of us were excited to see the Iredale shipwreck at the beach. We rode ride to it, parked the bikes and took it all in. Grey and cool, a mist floated up from the ground at the edge of the ocean and surrounded the carcass of the ship that did not make it to port. It was surreal and spooky, just as a ship wreck on the beach should be seen. The boys loved exploring the rusted out skeleton (Bill and I were nervous it was just a tetanus shot away from causing serious bodily harm).




The boys found a couple of muscles clinging to the metal and pulled them off. Sure they were oysters, both land-locked raised boys were already thinking of ways they could spend the fortune that surely would be theirs, as they were expecting to find a giant pearl in the one we cut open to show them the gooey insides. A bit disappointed that there would be no fortune in the slimy mess, but satisfied we had seen something adventure worthy, we climbed back onto our trusty steeds in search of even more.


The bike path was twisty and majestic with greenery acting as a canopy and wooden bridges adding charm and magic our entire route.












Our old Army barracks adventure started by exploring gutted concrete rooms complete with “windows” into other rooms.










The boys were sure that they were finding all kinds of secret passageways and let their imaginations go wild on why these crazy old buildings were built that way.








We climbed up, down, around, jumped into holes, climbed out of windows and played hide and go seek. It was the perfect place for two imaginative little boys to make up stories of battles and creatures and all kinds of mischief.

Last stop on this leg of the adventure was the Fort Stevens Museum with more barracks, more stories, more climbing, and this time an army jeep, an artillery gun and a gift shop. It was perfect. A few threatening rain drops prompted us to scoot off back to our “home base” a few moments quicker than we may have decided to do so ourselves, but they stopped and allowed Bill to take off to the end of yet another peninsula for a bit more adventure. Meanwhile, the boys watched a movie and had pizza for dinner (See! So, not camping!) Currently my three men are outside playing with fire getting ready for some s’mores action (Ok, I concede, maybe a little bit of camping!) Nothing like a little sugar rush to complete our action/adventure filled day on the coast.