Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/112497
roadtrip A Beach to Long For Washington���s slender peninsula offers sand, surf and oysters story and photography by Liz Bryan PICTURESQUE OYSTERVILLE, a National Historic District, is home to the Driscoll family���s eclectic seafood business and oyster bar overlooking Willapa Bay. Clam chowder, oysters on the half-shell and a bottle of the Driscoll���s specially blended wine (Oyster Blanc) ��� who could wish for a better lunch? 360-665-6585; willabay.com 18 W E S T W O R L D p18-19_Roadtrip.indd 18 >> WHAT BETTER SPOT FOR a winter long weekend Vista Park provides tenting and RV sites and than Washington���s ���World���s Longest Beach���? great river views. Stretching more than 40 km along the edge of a Hwy. 4 west of Skamokawa climbs away skinny peninsula, the unbroken sands of Long from the Columbia to the village of Grays River; Beach face the Pacific just north of the Colum- just before the latter, watch left for Washingbia River mouth ��� where one can ride horseback ton���s only covered bridge still in use, built in in breaking waves, fly kites, go whale watching 1905. West of Grays River at the tiny town of and birdwatching or explore regional light- Rosburg, Hwy. 43 dips to Grays Bay, where canhouses and museums, all without nery towns also once flourished. At the crowds of summer. road���s end (unpaved and very narJAUNT Longview to Long The fastest route to Long Beach row), cannery buildings at Pillar Beach, Washington DURATION 2 to 3 days from B.C.���s Lower Mainland is Rock still stand, now on private PRIME TIME Winter Interstate 5 south almost to Portland. The Hudson���s Bay Company land, then west from the town of had a fish warehouse and saltery Longview via Hwy. 4, following the north bank here as early as 1830 that shipped barrels of of the Columbia to its mouth. This maritime salmon to Hawaii. approach (known locally as the Ocean Beach Beyond Rosburg, Hwy. 401 leads south to Highway) passes through several fishing and the old Finnish settlement of Naselle, then concannery villages: Stella, Cathlamet, Skamokawa, tinues down to the Columbia where rows of old all with pioneer buildings and a seafaring ambi- pilings mark the site of the 1870s sawmill town ance. Skamokawa, which means ���smoke on the of Knappton. The road hugs the shore of Hunwater,��� was once known as Little Venice, and its gry Harbor, passing a rest area and info centre creeks and sloughs are still lined with houses just east of the Astoria-Megler Bridge (the lonand boat sheds dating from the 1880s. Visit the gest continuous truss span in North America), 1894 schoolhouse above the road or rent a kayak which leaps across the wide river mouth into from Columbia River Kayaking. Skamokawa Oregon. Hwy. 101 then turns northwest at Baker WINTER 2012 12-10-26 7:19 AM