The little fort in the big woods: Fort Clatsop. Here members of the Lewis and Clark expedition spent the exceedingly damp winter of 1805-06. The modern fort, a National Park Service restoration, is located near the present city of Astoria, Oregon. From Ft. Clatsop the members of the expedition headed east in the spring of 1806 and returned to St. Louis in late September that same year. The westbound journey from St. Louis to Fort Clatsop, by contrast, took eighteen long months. Guests from the Sea Bird , which was moored in Astoria, visited Fort Clatsop, its museum, and canoe landing, which featured replicas of the dugout canoes the explorers crafted on the Clearwater River near what is now the community of Orofino, Idaho.