In May and early June, I spent time at Cape Disappointment State Park as an artist-in-residence in the Sou’wester Artist Residency Program. I spent a week hiking through coastal rainforests, headlands, beaches, and coves on Cape Disappointment and the Long Beach Peninsula.

Cape Disappointment State Park features 2,023 acres of coastal old-growth forest, rugged sea cliffs, and spectacular views of the Colombia River and Pacific Ocean. The area is the westernmost spot Lewis & Clark visited before overwintering at Fort Clatsop and heading back inland. A photo gallery is below.

Cape Disappointment State Park features impressive stands of Douglas fir and Sitka spruce, many types of ferns (like sword & bracken), and giant horsetail, a prehistoric plant that reproduces using spores.

The area boasts a rich diversity of animals due to the nexus between the Colombia River and Pacific Ocean. I was lucky enough to observe Pacific razor clam, Dungeness crab, Pacific sea nettle, harbor seal, least weasel, and Colombian black-tailed deer.

I also observed brown pelican, bald eagle, pigeon guillemot, Swainson’s thrush, Nuttall’s white-crowned sparrow (coastal subspecies), Pacific wren, Wilson’s warbler, whimbrel, and Brandt’s cormorant, which uses its distinctive sky blue throat during courtship.

I recorded snapshots of wild sounds found at different locations in the park, including McKenzie Head, North Head Trail, Deadman’s Cove, and Bell’s View Trail (North Head Lighthouse). You can listen to a few recordings of coastal forest soundscapes that I made during the residency below.

To learn more about the history of Cape Disappointment, visit the Washington State Park or Lewis & Clark National Historical Park websites.

Coastal Wildflowers of Cape Disappointment

One of my favorite features of Cape Disappointment State Park were the wildflowers. As a coastal rainforest that boasts 165 foggy days a year, Cape Disappointment hosts a unique diversity of plants, including spectacular wildflower displays, often found on the edges of rugged and steep sea cliffs.

Below are a handful of wildflowers I saw blooming in May and June in Cape Disappointment State Park.

In addition to the flowers above, I saw Common Yarrow, Beach Strawberry, Western Lily of the Valley, Blue-Eyed Grass, Trailing Blackberry, and American Brooklime in the park or the surrounding areas in Long Beach.

Some of the wildflowers (like salal and salmonberry) were collected by Lewis & Clark during the expedition. For more information on Pacific Northwest plants collected by the Lewis & Clark, check out this article on the expedition’s wildflower collections.