Cape Disappointment State Park

Campsite information

Cape Disappointment has 137 standard campsites, 50 full-hookup sites, 18 partial-hookup sites with water and electricity, five primitive hiker/biker campsites first come first served,  one dump station, eight restrooms (two ADA) and 14 showers (four ADA). Maximum site length is 45 feet (limited availability). Camping is available year round.

Camping reservations

Reservations can be made online or by calling (888) CAMPOUT or (888) 226-7688. For fee information, check out our camping rates page.

• Campsite check-in time is 2:30 p.m.
• Campsite check-out time is 1 p.m.

Roofed accomodations

Cape Disappointment has 3 cabins, 14 yurts and 2 vacation houses available for rent. For more information or to reserve your stay, visit the links below.

• Cape Disappointment Cabins
• Cape Disappointment Yurts
• Cape Disappointment Vacation Houses

Services & supplies

The park store offers gifts, ice, wood, fishing gear and other camping essentials. Within the park store you will find a café offering summer foods, including artisan pizza, salads, sandwiches and local seafood. Delivery to your campsite is available.

In park

• Firewood
• Park store
• Courtesy phone

Historical information
Cape Disappointment sits within the traditional territory of the Chinook tribe, known to be sophisticated traders and highly engaged in the maritime fur trade.

Though the cape was first mapped by Spanish explorer Bruno de Hezeta in 1775, its naming is credited to English Captain John Meares, who approached the cape in 1788, but could not locate the river's entrance. Meares, therefore, named the headland Cape Disappointment. In 1792, American Captain Robert Gray successfully crossed the river's bar and named the river "Columbia" after his ship, the Columbia Rediviva. In 1805, the Lewis and Clark Expedition arrived at Cape Disappointment after their 18-month, 3,700- mile journey from St. Louis, Missouri.

The Cape Disappointment Lighthouse was constructed in 1856 to warn mariners of the treacherous river bar where the Columbia meets the Pacific, known for its many shipwrecks as "the graveyard of the Pacific." This is the oldest operating lighthouse in the Pacific Northwest. Plans for a second lighthouse, North Head Lighthouse, were drafted in 1889 because of poor visibility of the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse to southbound ships. In 1898, the North Head Lighthouse was completed. In 1862, Cape Disappointment was armed with smoothbore cannons to protect the mouth of the Columbia River from Civil War threats. The installation was expanded to become Fort Canby in 1875, named for Army General Edward Canby. The fort continued to be improved until the end of World War II. Gun batteries and other structures still sit on the cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

In 1912, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers arrived at Cape Disappointment for construction of the North Jetty at the entrance to the Columbia River. With the South Jetty in Oregon, the jetties provided for safer navigation of the Columbia River bar. The 2.5-mile long, three million ton, stone structure was completed in 1917.

Cape Disappointment also housed a Civilian Conservation Corps camp from 1935 to 1938. The men enrolled in the program restored the fort and improved roads and trails. In 1938, the first parcel of land, known locally as "Bell's View," was purchased for $1 by Washington State Parks for what would become Cape Disappointment State Park.