Ferries from Cathlamet, WA

This is the last ferry on the lower Columbia River. Wahkiakum County has run the crossing between Cathlamet, Washington and Westport, Oregon since 1962, it carries about a dozen cars, and it makes 18 crossings a timetable.

The crossing

Cathlamet to Westport takes about 15 minutes, with 18 sailings in our timetable and 36 across the landing in both directions. Operated by Wahkiakum Ferry.

It is the only regularly scheduled car ferry still crossing the Columbia between the two states.

⚠ Eighteen sailings, twelve cars, one boat

Multiply those out and the daily vehicle capacity is around two hundred in each direction. On a summer weekend that is not a lot, and there is no second vessel to absorb the overflow.

Arriving without checking the schedule is a genuine risk here rather than a minor inconvenience — the fallback is the bridge at Longview, roughly forty miles upstream.

What it replaced

The Columbia once had a string of ferries linking Washington and Oregon, and the bridges took them one by one. The Astoria–Megler crossing downstream ended when its bridge opened in 1966. This one survived because the nearest bridges are a long way in either direction.

It is not a heritage operation. It is a county road that happens to float.

Where it puts you

Cathlamet is a small town on the Washington bank with a historic main street and the Julia Butler Hansen refuge for the Columbian white-tailed deer nearby. Westport is on the Oregon side, on US 30 between Portland and Astoria.

Puget Island

The Washington approach runs across Puget Island, connected to Cathlamet by a bridge. The island is flat, diked farmland settled largely by Norwegians and Swiss, and it is popular with cyclists for exactly that reason.

Season

Year round. High water, fog and mechanical downtime on a single-vessel route all stop it, and there is no second boat.