# Cape Disappointment State Park



## jnk36jnk (Mar 9, 2004)

We spent Veteran's Day week end at Cape Disappointment State park, it's on the Washington side of the mouth of the Columbia river and is pretty much exposed to winter storms coming off the Pacific Ocean from the Southwest. It got it's name from early explorers looking for the Columbia River, they could find the Cape , but couldn't get into the river because of strong tides, storms, sandbars and the like. It's not called the Grave Yard of the Pacific for nothing. 
Anyhow we had two good days there and then the storm blew in on Sunday night, steady winds of 35 mph and gusts to 65 mph, with one recorded gust early Monday morning of 85. The 5'ver was bouncing around quite a bit all night long. We have slide top awnings, and they were making a lot of racket, so I got up about 3:00 am and retracted the slides. That made it a lot quieter, but didn't do any thing for the constant rock and roll. The park lost power sometime around 5:00 am and it didn't come back on until around 10:00 am or so. Lots of trees down in the park and the road out was blocked by down trees, and power lines for a while. We tried to wait out the storm but finally hooked up to leave about 11:30 or so, in a wind driven horizontal rain. We made it home without major problems.

I felt sorry for the tent campers, (and there were a few in the park) with their tents blown flat. One family, of 5, in a pop up, spent most of the night in sitting in their van.

Dean


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## Sluggo54 (Jun 15, 2005)

Glad you came out undamaged. Now, there's one more reason for the name of "Cape Disappointment".

Sluggo


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## Lady Di (Oct 28, 2005)

Wow!

Camping in high winds just isn't amont the things I would call fun, or relaxing.

Have been in similar winds in the popup, however we rode them out in the p'up. It actually shuddered once. Was praying nhard that it would stay upright.


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## jasonrebecca (Oct 30, 2007)

That is a nice campground just as long as the racoons leave you alone and the wind is blowing away from your campsite. The two ponds just past the lake towards the beach used to be sewage ponds (still stinks).

Winter storms on the coast are the best. I think our first trip in our OB will be to Ocean Shores.


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## WACOUGAR (Dec 20, 2006)

Glad you came out of it okay. We have been in a couple nasty windstorms when we had our tent trailer--NOT fun!! Cape Disappointment is a place we want to go next year. In fact my husband was looking into making reservations last night either there or Grayland for next August. Not sure what he came up with yet. One thing is for sure over there, you never quite know what the weather will bring you, even in the summer.

Kelly


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## Y-Guy (Jan 30, 2004)

Dean - glad you are are ok. It was a very nasty wind storm. We got caught in it too coming back from Eastern OR. Drove over Hardman Ridge and nearly thought I was going to get flipped over on my side. Then past Lexington had a wall of dust hit it, again thought I might flip but even worse it was a total brown out. Couldn't see 2' in front of the motorhome. Had the hazards and high beams, drove about 3mph and finally got out of the brown out in a couple of minutes. Scared the (&@! out of me though. Looking back should have just stuck it out at the campground longer.


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## ALASKA PFLOCK (Jun 24, 2007)

jnk36jnk said:


> We spent Veteran's Day week end at Cape Disappointment State park, it's on the Washington side of the mouth of the Columbia river and is pretty much exposed to winter storms coming off the Pacific Ocean from the Southwest. It got it's name from early explorers looking for the Columbia River, they could find the Cape , but couldn't get into the river because of strong tides, storms, sandbars and the like. It's not called the Grave Yard of the Pacific for nothing.
> Anyhow we had two good days there and then the storm blew in on Sunday night, steady winds of 35 mph and gusts to 65 mph, with one recorded gust early Monday morning of 85. The 5'ver was bouncing around quite a bit all night long. We have slide top awnings, and they were making a lot of racket, so I got up about 3:00 am and retracted the slides. That made it a lot quieter, but didn't do any thing for the constant rock and roll. The park lost power sometime around 5:00 am and it didn't come back on until around 10:00 am or so. Lots of trees down in the park and the road out was blocked by down trees, and power lines for a while. We tried to wait out the storm but finally hooked up to leave about 11:30 or so, in a wind driven horizontal rain. We made it home without major problems.
> 
> I felt sorry for the tent campers, (and there were a few in the park) with their tents blown flat. One family, of 5, in a pop up, spent most of the night in sitting in their van.
> ...


jnk36jnk- Well they say it's all in the name (Cape Disappointment). Good to hear that you got out alright.


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## Crismon4 (Jan 25, 2005)

WOW!!!!! And to think I was bummed we didn't go camping that weekend







Glad you all are O.K!


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