Photos from the trip
Columbia River bar
Cape Disappointment Light
Ilwaco, Washington
Its real signal — watch it blink
Fl WR 15s — alternating red and white flashes, 15 seconds apart
One full cycle: 30 seconds.
- Built
- 1856
- First lit
- 1856
- Height
- 53 ft
- Focal plane
- 220 ft above water
- Status
- Still burning
- Visited
- Add your year
The first lighthouse on the Pacific Northwest coast, standing 220 feet over the graveyard bar where the Columbia River meets the ocean. Captain John Meares named the headland in 1788 when bad weather kept him from finding the river's mouth. Its beam alternates — white flash, red flash, fifteen seconds between — warning the bar of the most dangerous river mouth on the west coast.