Cape Disappointment State Park

Cape Disappointment State Park (formerly Fort Canby State Park) resides at the southernmost tip of the peninsula. It’s primarily a camping and picnicking spot, but Lewis and Clark historians will appreciate the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center there (open daily from 10 am to 5 pm; 360-642-3029). Perched high on a cliff overlooking Cape Disappointment, the center reminds us that it was here that the Corps of Discovery first reached the shores of the Pacific. Before jetties were constructed to control its sandbar, the mouth of the Columbia was known as the “Graveyard of the Pacific.” You’ll take a self-guided tour detailing the events of the momentous Lewis and Clark Expedition and follow a path to the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse, the oldest (1856) operating lighthouse on the West Coast. A tour of nearby North Head Lighthouse, perched atop layers of pillow basalt (formations that shape when lava hits the ocean) is available daily from 10 am to 6 pm between April and October (360-642-3078).