jbagley
Well Known Member
With any luck, i'll write up several flight's to hiking destinations as we discover and visit them. We have several planned...
This hike of Fort Vancouver National Historic site is one that some local people know about, but i'm sure visitor's to Oregon probably don't... Moderators help me out here; should I post a link to this thread in the "Places to fly..." forum with a more brief description?
My wife and I decided to go for a hike after work yesterday kindof last minute. Weather was good and we thought that Fort Vancouver and the columbia river front area would be pretty accessible from the airport.
Fort Vancouver Historic Site Homepage.
Parked on the ramp in the transient area pretty much in the middle of the airport:
We walked west and north towards the air museum and found a trail to the Fort near the parking for the air museum. Which, you could taxi right up to the museum and start there, but we wanted to do the whole loop around the airport and along the waterfront area which takes us back to west side of the field through a small side-gate.
Walking passed the Fort on the north side:
There's a garden with some interesting plants (artichoke and tobacco?) and an orchard that we walked through. The trail then heads south around the runway and up a foot bridge that goes over the highway.
Nice view of the airport and Fort Vancouver from the foot bridge:
Once over the bridge we were treated with a nice view of the Columbia River and the I5 bridge:
From there we headed east up the waterfront, enjoyed a short visit to a beach, and got dinner at Beaches Restaurant. Also, there's a McMennamins and a cafe that looked nice.
From the water front restaurants, it's a short walk to a side-gate access to the airport:
google maps walking directions
The gate is located on the east side of the field between hangar rows C and D. Check with the Pearson FBO for the gate code.
We really had a fantastic time checking out the historic site and walking along the waterfront. To top it off we had a brilliant sunset on the flight home:
Very highly recommended destination.
This hike of Fort Vancouver National Historic site is one that some local people know about, but i'm sure visitor's to Oregon probably don't... Moderators help me out here; should I post a link to this thread in the "Places to fly..." forum with a more brief description?
My wife and I decided to go for a hike after work yesterday kindof last minute. Weather was good and we thought that Fort Vancouver and the columbia river front area would be pretty accessible from the airport.
Fort Vancouver Historic Site Homepage.
Parked on the ramp in the transient area pretty much in the middle of the airport:
We walked west and north towards the air museum and found a trail to the Fort near the parking for the air museum. Which, you could taxi right up to the museum and start there, but we wanted to do the whole loop around the airport and along the waterfront area which takes us back to west side of the field through a small side-gate.
Walking passed the Fort on the north side:
There's a garden with some interesting plants (artichoke and tobacco?) and an orchard that we walked through. The trail then heads south around the runway and up a foot bridge that goes over the highway.
Nice view of the airport and Fort Vancouver from the foot bridge:
Once over the bridge we were treated with a nice view of the Columbia River and the I5 bridge:
From there we headed east up the waterfront, enjoyed a short visit to a beach, and got dinner at Beaches Restaurant. Also, there's a McMennamins and a cafe that looked nice.
From the water front restaurants, it's a short walk to a side-gate access to the airport:
google maps walking directions
The gate is located on the east side of the field between hangar rows C and D. Check with the Pearson FBO for the gate code.
We really had a fantastic time checking out the historic site and walking along the waterfront. To top it off we had a brilliant sunset on the flight home:
Very highly recommended destination.
