Cape Disappointment State Park and North Head Lighthouse, winter trip east to North Dakota, Minnesota.

 

July 2012

Dick and I spent the month of July at Cape Disappointment State Park volunteering at North Head Lighthouse.  We loved working at the lighthouse, meeting people from all over the world and spending a month at the ocean.  We worked 16 days during the month and a 4 hour shift.  We worked together with Dick up in the light room and I was at the cash register.  Shauna and family came and spent a few days over the 4th of July and Shauna and girls came back later in the month.  North Head Lighthouse was built in 1898 and sits on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean.  We could see the mouth of the Columbia River and watch the ships go in and out between the jettys.

North Head Lighthouse from the keepers trail.

Eric, Abbi, Shauna and Hannah in the light room at the top.

Barb, Hannah, Dick and Abbi at the base of lighthouse.

View from the top towards Long Beach.

Abbi and Hannah at the Kite Museum

Sand Castle building in the town of Long Beach

Sand Castle building on Long Beach

When we left Cape Disappointment we went to Port Townsend for a few days and visited Dick's cousins.  We spent a week at Lake Sawyer near Shauna's house and enjoyed spending time visiting family this past summer.  We liked the lighthouse so we plan on volunteering again next summer for the month of July at North Head Lighthouse.

Sept. 10th we left Colfax for our winter trip.  We head east on I-90 through Idaho, Montana and I-94 through North Dakota.

Sept. 12

Pompeys Piller National Monument on the Yellowstone River.  This large stone was visited by Captain William Clark on his return trip east.  He carved his name and the date he was there in the rock.  His signature is the only remaining visible physical evidence on the Lewis and Clark Trail.

Pompeys Pillar National Monument in North Dakota

William Clark's signature in 1806

Sept. 14, 15, 16

Bemidji Minnesota

We are staying on one of the many lakes in Minnesota.  Our campsite is facing the lake. It is so pretty here, nature is already using its paint brush to change the green trees to spectacular, almost neon, colors.  This campground is closing tomorrow for the winter.  Bemidji is the first city on the Mississippi River.  We visited the headwaters of the Mississippi where it comes out of Lake Itasca.  It is a shallow creek and hard to believe this is where the Mississippi starts.

At headwaters of the Mississippi River
2552 mile journey to the Gulf of Mexico

River only 12 feet wide at the start and shallow enough to wade in it.

 

 

Motor home at Fox Lake near Bemidji MN.



Paul Bunyan country in Bemidji


 

Sept. 17th
We leave Monday morning for International Falls Minnesota and going to spend 3 or 4 nights there.  Will spend a day in the Jeep across the border in Canada and going to visit Voyageurs National Park.
Happy Travels, Barb