Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center

The Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center has a spectacular setting with an amazing view out to sea. Inside the museum a group of whale watchers had staked out one of the windows. We couldn't see much but the vastness of the ocean and the turbulence of the bar where the waters of the Columbia River meet the Pacific, but the whale watchers, armed with binoculars, were watching the humpback whale migration.

The view from the center

The view south and the lighthouse
The exhibit follows the story of the Lewis and Clark expedition from St. Louis out west, passing the last remote fort and then heading onwards. On exhibit were the logs, the expedition library, samples and gear. The Rocky Mountains were just a bit more than rumor, and no one really had an idea of where which rivers went. The center is at the end of the Lewis and Clark trail, in Cape Disappointment State Park. They had hoped to find the Northwest Passage, a waterway across the continent. Reaching the Pacific, though a triumph, was not what they had hoped for when they set out. Perhaps this is reflected in some of the names they chose like Cape Disappointment and Dismal Niche.