Fort Stevens State Park Oregon

fort stevensFort Stevens State Park Oregon

Fort Stevens State Park is a very large park in northern Oregon covering a good portion of the peninsula near Warrenton Oregon.  This trip is the second time we have stayed here, and we love it!  The park is located at the mouth of the Columbia River.  We stayed in the N loop in the campground, which turned out to be a good choice as there was some sunshine in this section.  Some of the other loops had a lot of trees and little sunshine.

Our site backed up to a wild area, and there was plenty of space between the sites.  We were able to get a few channels on the King over the air antenna (which we are really liking!). The site we were in had electric and water, but no sewer.   This doesn’t bother us when we are only staying a couple of days.  They do have full hook up sites also, but there was none available for our size on the dates we were staying.

Fort Stevens State Park – things to do:

As I said, Fort Stevens State Park is huge (4300 acres)!  One of the areas in the park we drove to was the historic ship wreck.  And there were a lot of beaches to walk, which we love to do.  After that, we drove down to the jetty at the mouth of the Columbia River and the Pacific Ocean.  On our excursion down the road to the jetty, we saw this elk just at the side of the road – he didn’t care if we were there.  He was just hanging out eating.

There is also a military museum and the only Civil War-era earthen fort on the west coast in the park.  You can also explore the many turn-of-the-century, concrete artillery gun batteries.  We brought our bikes in the hopes of enjoying the many bike trails in the park, but it was sprinkling or raining during most of our stay.

We really enjoy staying in Oregon State Parks, and have visited many, including Bullards Beach State Park in Bandon.

Fort Stevens State Park Oregon
Ship Wreck
Fort Stevens State Park
Beach
Fort Stevens State Park
Elk

 

After our excursion in Fort Stevens State Park, we took a trip into Astoria.  One of the main touristy places to visit is the Astoria Column.  Our last visit a few years ago we climbed to the top, but this trip we did a “drive-by” and skipped the climbing.  The view from that point is amazing, especially if the weather is nice as you can see all around the area.  The Column is 125-feet high, with 164 steps to climb to the observation deck.  You can even fly a glider from the observation deck – they even sell gliders in the gift shop.

astoria
Astoria Column
The View from the hill by Astoria Column