You can crawl through WWII concrete at this enormous Oregon state park near the coast

It’s where the Columbia meets the Pacific

Fort Stevens State Park sits at the very tip of Oregon’s northwest coast, right where the Columbia River pours into the Pacific Ocean.

The park covers 4,300 acres of beaches, forests, dunes and old military fortifications.

You can walk up to a rusted shipwreck from 1906, crawl through concrete bunkers from World War II, fish a freshwater lake, and bike miles of paved trail through the trees. Most people come for one thing and end up staying for five.

The real surprise is how much history is buried in the sand.

Walk right up to a 285-foot steel shipwreck

On Oct. 25, 1906, the Peter Iredale ran aground on Clatsop Spit near the mouth of the Columbia River.

The four-masted steel sailing ship had left Salina Cruz, Mexico, headed for Portland, Oregon, carrying 1,000 tons of ballast and a crew of 27, including two stowaways.

Heavy fog and hard winds pushed her onto shore, but every person on board walked away without a scratch. Today, the rusted bow and several ribs still jut out of the sand.

You can walk right up and touch the iron. Low tide gives you the best look.

A Civil War fort that guarded the river for 84 years

The original earthen fort went up in 1865 to keep Confederate gunboats and the British Navy out of the Columbia River.

The Army named it after Union Major General Isaac I. Stevens, the first territorial governor of Washington, who died at the Battle of Chantilly in 1862.

For the next 84 years, Fort Stevens served as Oregon’s only coastal defense through the Spanish-American War, World War I and World War II.

It worked alongside Forts Canby and Columbia in Washington as a three-fort harbor defense system. After the war ended, the military left and the land became a state park.

The night a Japanese sub shelled a baseball field

On June 21, 1942, the Japanese submarine I-25 surfaced at the mouth of the Columbia River and lobbed 17 shells at Battery Russell.

It was the first time a foreign enemy had attacked a military installation on the U.S. mainland since the War of 1812. The attack lasted about 20 minutes.

Most of the shells landed in a nearby baseball field and a swamp. The only real damage hit several telephone cables near the battery.

Nobody got hurt.

American soldiers manned their guns but received orders not to fire back, and historians still debate the reason.

Explore the concrete halls of Battery Russell

Battery Russell is one of several concrete gun batteries in the park, and one of the few you can walk through completely on your own.

The battery ran from 1904 to 1944, and its big coastal defense guns once pointed out over the Columbia River. You can wander the rooms, hallways and open gun platforms of the whole concrete structure.

A peace memorial at the site honors both the American and Japanese people connected to the 1942 attack. All you need is a parking permit to explore it.

See a Civil War fort and ride a WWII truck

The park’s military museum and visitor center keep year-round displays covering everything from the Civil War through World War II.

Inside, you’ll find old photographs, weapons and a scale model of a Battery Russell 10-inch gun. Nearby sits the only Civil War-era earthen fort on the West Coast, rebuilt so you can walk through it.

During summer, guided underground tours take you into Battery Mishler, a gun battery that doubled as a WWII command center.

Summer visitors can also catch rides in a period military transport truck through the old fortifications.

Fish for trout in a lake tucked behind the dunes

Coffenbury Lake covers about 50 acres of calm freshwater surrounded by coastal dunes and forest inside the park. You’ll find two swimming areas, picnic spots, restrooms and a boat ramp.

The state stocks it with rainbow trout, and the lake also holds largemouth bass, bluegill, black crappie and yellow perch. In winter, surplus hatchery steelhead sometimes show up.

A two-mile loop trail circles the water through stands of Sitka spruce, red alder and shore pine, so you can fish in the morning and hike in the afternoon without leaving the lake.

Paddle flat water on a ranger-led kayak tour

Coffenbury Lake’s flat surface makes it one of the better spots in the area for kayaking and paddleboarding. During summer, park rangers lead guided kayak tours right on the lake.

If you want something different, Kayak Tillamook runs guided tours on Trestle Bay, a sheltered body of water inside the park.

Clatsop Spit blocks the big Pacific waves from reaching the bay, so the water stays calm and easy to paddle. You don’t need ocean experience to enjoy either spot.

Bike nine miles of paved trail through spruce forests

Fifteen miles of trail wind through the park, nine of them paved for bikes and six reserved for hiking. The paths cut through Sitka spruce and hemlock forests, wetlands, sand dunes and shore pine.

Families tend to stick with the easy two-mile Coffenbury Lake Loop. A longer five-mile loop connects Battery Russell to Coffenbury Lake through different terrain.

Fort Stevens also marks the northernmost trailhead for the Oregon Coast Trail.

If you didn’t bring your own wheels, you can rent bikes for adults and kids right inside the park during the season.

Spot pelicans from a concrete blind at Trestle Bay

Trestle Bay ranks as one of the best birdwatching spots on Oregon’s north coast.

A concrete wildlife viewing blind overlooks the water, where you can spot pelicans, sandpipers, herons, gulls and cormorants. Old wooden trestles from a historic railroad still stand in the bay.

That railroad once hauled supplies for building the South Jetty.

Oregon State Parks runs guided birdwatching walks with a ranger, so you don’t need to know your shorebirds from your waders to get something out of a visit.

Watch gray whales from a 20-foot tower at the tip of the spit

The South Jetty Observation Tower stands 20 feet above the ground near the end of Clatsop Spit. From the platform, you can look out over the Pacific, the mouth of the Columbia River and the South Jetty breakwater.

Seals and sea lions bob in the water below. Starting in mid-December, migrating gray whales pass close enough to spot from up top.

The jetty system itself went up between 1885 and 1939 to help ships pass more safely through the river mouth.

Play disc golf between old gun batteries

The Columbia Shore Disc Golf Course runs through the park’s historic area along the Columbia River.

You’ll throw past old gun batteries and military structures, and interpretive signs at each tee pad explain what you’re looking at.

Get there in the morning if you can, because coastal winds pick up in the afternoon and make every throw an adventure. You can buy discs at the park museum gift shop.

The course was built to draw people into the historic area in a way that gets them moving.

Forage for berries on five miles of wild beach

More than five miles of beach stretch along the park, open for walking and beachcombing. Some sections allow vehicles, but four-wheel drive is a good idea because the sand runs soft.

Along the shore, you can hunt for seashells, driftwood and agates. Elk and deer wander the park regularly, and coyotes and raccoons live here too.

If you time your visit right, you can forage for edible mushrooms and wild berries like salmonberries, blackberries and huckleberries along the trails in season.

Explore Fort Stevens State Park in Oregon

You’ll find Fort Stevens State Park at 100 Peter Iredale Road in Hammond, Oregon, about 10 miles west of Astoria and roughly two hours by car from Portland.

All day-use areas require a parking permit, which you can pick up at self-serve kiosks or the visitor center. Daily permits run $10 for Oregon residents and $12 for out-of-state visitors.

The park has more than 470 campsites, plus yurts and cabins, making it one of the largest public campgrounds in the country. Astoria, Oregon’s oldest city, sits about 20 minutes away.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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