One of my favorite places to visit is Astoria, Oregon. The Astoria Column, the historic downtown district, Custard King and the Goonies House are all wonderful places to visit.
But the best part of Astoria to me is the waterfront. I can’t get enough of it. Astoria is known as the place where the Columbia River ends and meets Youngs Bay on its way to the Pacific Ocean. Right where river and bay meet, the Astoria-Megler Bridge serves as the westernmost span linking Oregon and Washington.
There is a walking path that has been kept up very nicely for the past few years along the waterfront in Astoria, and it mainly follows along the path of the Astoria Riverfront Trolley. The path provides gorgeous views of the river and the old warehouses and canneries that once served as the lifeblood of the Lower Columbia region.
But if you ask any tourist what the dominating feature of Astoria is, they’ll answer one of two things: the Column or the bridge. I think you’d be split right down the middle as to what people would say…it’d easily be 50/50.
For me, it’s the bridge, and for the first time I was able to catch a different glimpse of it as my trip to the Oregon Coast had taken longer than I had planned (which was perfectly okay by me) on July 4. I had never seen the sun set behind the bridge before, but it was worth staying to see.
A small crowd gathered on the dock around me and noticeably more people began to stop along the path and take in the sight. The sun was very soft, using the clouds in a way to diffuse it as it set between two piers of the bridge. Just the sight of it made me sit down for about 20 minutes and just watch the phenomenon occur.
After sitting there watching the sun go down behind the clouds — and after about 150 photos of just this single event alone — I came across a friendly gentleman who told me that he comes down to the waterfront to see the sunset every night, and that he wouldn’t trade living in Astoria for the world. I could easily see why.
I put a few of those 150 photos to good use in a panorama, and I’ll link to the full version of it with the thumbnail below. Hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed taking this all in.
In fact, I still enjoy looking at this every single time I come across it. Click on the picture below for the full version.
It’s simple events like watching the sun setting under the Astoria-Megler Bridge that make me so very proud to be from the Northwest, and so very blessed to be able to go back and enjoy scenes like this frequently.
God bless you all today!
I think Dad and I deserve some credit for your love of the coast so much, since we went there several times a year. If I recall correctly you weren’t that interested in the place that much as a kid, except for Ecola State Park, and the arcades in Seaside. Good times, real good times!
Donald Malarky, a member from the 101st Airborne that served in WWII was born in Astoria. He wrote a lot about growing up there and enjoying the landscape in his book, Easy Company Soldier. It makes me want to visit to see what he wrote about. He was a main character in the HBO Band of Brothers mini series.