This is Bigfoot (or Sasquatch) territory. I think the whole state of Washington, or maybe the Pacific Northwest, has had more Bigfoot sightings than all the other states. Statues and signs can be found in many places throughout the state. We saw this 28′ one yesterday.

Bigfoot

Today we went to Longview, rated one of America’s ten prettiest towns by Forbes Magazine in 2012. It is also the birthplace of Washington State.

Lake Sacagawea is the town’s centerpiece. The lake was named for the Shoshone Indian woman who accompanied the Lewis and Clark Expedition in this area over 200 years ago. There is a statue of her in the park.

Beautiful Lake Sacagawea

The lake is 1.5 miles long and there are about 3.5 miles of walking trail with many park benches, fishing docks, and gardens.  There are lots of unique trees here with signs identifying them. It’s a very clean, well-groomed, park and we enjoyed it very much.

Monkey’s Puzzle

The town has three squirrel bridges, long narrow bridges crossing the street for the squirrels to get across safely. We found two of them. These were the brainstorm of Amos J Peters in the 1960’s.

Nutty Narrows Bridge

A squirrel statue in a downtown park commemorates Mr. Peters for the squirrel bridges and for his service to the community.

Longview, WA

And, Longview has a Squirrel Festival every year in August. Too bad we missed it, I’m thinking that would have been interesting. Then we walked around downtown for a bit and spotted this big moose carving, had a late lunch, and went home.

Moose Carving

• Gasoline:  none
• Lodging:   $34