3 min
Overview
To get the full scope of this extensive and varied state park, which harbors Oregon State Parks' largest campground, you will need to hike both foot and bicycle trails. The latter are better walked during the cool months when the campground is at low occupancy. The walk begins at the Military Museum, which details the defenses at the mouth of the Columbia; then you can hike the low, vegetated dunes and marshes to the rusting remnants of a 1906 shipwreck, head inland to a pretty coastal lake, and explore some of the Civil War-era artillery ramparts. Interpretive signs enlighten at strategic locations. This hike can be combined with the Fort Stevens Military Loop Hike and the Clatsop Spit Loop Hike to round out your investigation of the state park. Pick up a brochure and trail map at the fee station. Walk a little south of the Military Museum and meet a paved bike path heading west. Pass the park host's dwelling and then go through a fence with a gate and into an alder/spruce/sedge swamp. Hike through thickets of alder and crabapple and then cross a wide, arched foot/bike bridge over the outlet creek from Swash lake. Battery 245, part of Fort Stevens' World War II fortifications, can be seen across this slough to the right. Swash Lake can be seen through the shore pines to the left. At a junction, go right for the South Jetty on the Trestle Bay Trail. This paved bike trail heads through shore pine, alder, spruce and willow on swampy land. The thickets also harbor wax-myrtle, sword fern, evergreen huckleberry, holly, and Scots broom. Cross the Clatsop Spit road and reach the junction with the Kestrel Dune Trail. Here, go left on a lumpy bike path. The dune crest is to the right, but the intervening land is a little swampy and dotted with shore pines, alders, spruce, Scots broom, and willow. At the junction with the Battery Russell Trail, keep straight for the beach and the Peter Iredale in a mossy, dark woodland composed of sedge, spruce and alder. Cross the beach access road to a junction with a bike path. Go
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