Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center — Attraction in Washington

The Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center at Cape Disappointment is top notch! The volunteers and staff greeted us, collected the entry fee ($5 each for my husband and myself), provided us with an overview of the center, and gave us cards to use in the embossers found in three of the displays in the center. The walk through the center begins with a switchback-style ramp that is lined with panels on the wall with stories and graphics. Visitors are then naturally led through a series of rooms with wall displays, artifacts and activities. There was also a 16 minute movie available to watch that starts every 20 minutes (basically on the hour, 20 and 40 minute marks). We spent about an hour and a half in the center, reading most panels, watching the movie, lingering on a few activities and engaging in conversation with other visitors.

After visiting the center, we followed the hiking trail to the lighthouse. We picked up a brochure with trail map in the center. Aside from the option to take a labeled trail down to Deadman's Cove, there are no places that you could go astray on the trail, but if you want to use your phone, you may want to download the maps for offline use prior to arrival since we did not have an adequate signal to do so on the trail (we have Verizon). The path was dry (mid-June) and in good shape but the trail does lose and then gain elevation between the center and the lighthouse... nice going downhill, but much less fun going up hill for out-of-shape hikers (me)! There is a nice view from the ground surrounding the lighthouse, but if you are waffling on the hike, I don't think you will miss much if you skip hiking to the lighthouse, especially if it is cloudy with a marine layer as it was on our hike. If it were sunny and clear, I think I would have found the hike to the lighthouse more worthwhile.

I would highly recommend visiting the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center for families that homeschool or augment their children's education, or Scouts, especially in combination with a visit to Lewis and Clark National Historical Park at Fort Clatsop to the southwest of Astoria, Oregon. A few activities that could be fun to prepare for a visit to the Interpretive Center would be learning to identify animal tracks (think large mammals of the PNW), map reading/orientation, and seabird identification (we saw brown pelican, gulls, and surf scooters using the binoculars at the center in June, but other birds will likely be present in other months). Older youth may benefit from an overview of the Lewis and Clark journey so that their visit to the center provides...

I did read about this place before I went. I did not see mention of a $10 parking fee in addition to which there is a $5 per person admission fee if you want to see the Lewis and Clark exhibit. This is pretty steep in my opinion and is done in increments . You'll find out about the parking fee when you arrive and then you find out about the other fee if you stand and read the fine print on the bulletin board in the parking area or you get informed when you've hiked up to the interpretive Center if you overlook that like I did. Actually I just thought ten bucks was more than enough to do everything so I just didn't read the rest of it . The state of Washington seems to be in the money making business. If they had charged me $5 to park and go into the building and see the exhibit I would have shopped in their store and probably purchased 50 or $60 worth of books. So in the end what I did was pay $10 to hike a mile to see a lighthouse which was interesting and Hike another short distance to the interpretive Center and see a small nautical exhibit. I just drew the line at that point. I didn't carry my money up there because I knew I wasn't going to purchase any books because I already felt like the $10 parking fee was pretty absurd especially since the automatic machine didn't work and I had to drive down to the state park office to get that taken care of before I could do any of this. A lot of work and not much reward today.

And also don't believe that sign that says that if you didn't receive a parking pass from the machine your account was not charged. My account was charged which means I actually paid $20 to park to go see a lighthouse so now I have to follow up with my bank to get one of those charges canceled. For me at least Cape Disappointment was aptly named.

I am not one of those people who only writes bad reviews. Yesterday I also reviewed two businesses that are doing an...

A great place to step back in time and follow the Lewis & Clark expedition on their journey to the Pacific Ocean.

The journey starts with the preparation for the trip and uses story panels to document the milestones of the expedition.

A number of exhibits highlight the different Native American tribes that helped the expedition including the Chinook and the Nez Pierce.

The last exhibit hall has the Fresnel Lens from the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse and various pieces of shipwrecks from the local area.

A trail from the Center will take you the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse.

A fee for parking is charged and you can pay at entrance station or at a kiosk at the site.

A fee for the Interpretative Center is also charged.

A must-see gem to learn about the Lewis & Clark Expedition and with a number of attractions including Ft. Canby, the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse and...