Astoria sits at the very mouth of the Columbia River, the last town of Oregon before the water spreads out into the Pacific, and it has the weathered, salt-cured look of a place that has spent two centuries facing wind. About ten thousand people live here, on steep streets of Victorian houses that climb a hill above the docks. It is the oldest American settlement west of the Rockies, founded in 1811 as a fur-trading post by John Jacob Astor's company, and Lewis and Clark spent the winter of 1805 to 1806 camped nearby at Fort Clatsop, where a replica now stands.
The river and the bar are the stars. The Columbia meets the Pacific here in a stretch of shifting sandbars and violent weather that has wrecked hundreds of ships, earning the name Graveyard of the Pacific, and the Columbia River bar pilots still guide big freighters across it. The Astoria-Megler Bridge, a four-mile steel truss opened in 1966, carries Highway 101 across the river's mouth to Washington, and riding it, with the huge estuary below and the wind hammering, is a major event. The Astoria Column, a painted tower on a hilltop, offers a long view over the river, the bridge and the ocean when the clouds allow.
For the rider, Astoria is a lively place to rest. There is fuel, breakfast and plenty of seafood, and the waterfront has brewpubs, converted canneries and old piers where sea lions bark and bask. Fans of eighties film will recognise places from The Goonies, which was shot in the town. Weather is the major variable. Rain is frequent, fog rolls in, and the wind off the sea is cold even in summer, so proper rain gear is not optional.
Highway 101 runs south from here along the Oregon coast, with plenty of tight curves, sudden views and, in the wet, slick patches. The best time for the coast is late summer and early autumn, when skies clear and traffic thins. Winter storms bring spectacular waves but also fallen trees and slides. If you reach Astoria at the end of a day, find a table by the river and watch the light drain from the water.