Between Bruceport and Bay Center the tour swings around the palisades of Willapa Harbor on a picturesque route. Flats alternate with winding inclines over timbered headlands, where the road runs through gaps of red earth lined with varicolored strata. On the flats between headlands are marshy meadows, some diked and converted into lush fields where cattle graze.

Near Bone River is the unmarked site of James G. Swan’s donation land claim. Swan, an early pioneer settler of Willapa Bay, wrote extensively about his time in “Shoalwater Bay,” chronicled in his book The Northwest Coast, Or, Three Years’ Residence in Washington Territory.