On Sunday Barclay and I took a drive out to Sunset Falls. Sunset Falls is the closest NFS campground, and I was wondering if it would be a nice place to take the trailer to for a weekend, since it’s only about 20 miles away. Because of the economy we haven’t had the trailer out all year! Barclay enjoyed wading in the cool water, and even stepped into an unexpectedly deep pool and had to paddle a bit. Unfortunately we didn’t have the place to ourselves.

I shouldn’t have been surprised to find tons of people, car alarms going off, radios blaring, basically all the things you head to the forest to get away from! Still, people can be interesting sometimes…

In the fall we have been here and watched salmon jumping up this waterfall. Now in the heat of summer the waterfall was much smaller, and people were wading around and jumping into the pool below.

Wheeeeee! File this under ‘things I will NEVER do’!
(though there’s a part of me that wishes otherwise)

Straight across the pool was a steep dirt path people were also using to run down and jump into the pool. This guy got a pretty impressive canonball going.

The rocks were very pretty with the water rushing by.

I liked this leaf and it’s shadow in a still pool.

For our Wednesday hike we headed out this morning to the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, a huge sanctuary that runs along the Washington bank of the Columbia River. The refuge is a great place to hike, there are only a few trails, as most of the property is off limits to prevent disturbing the wildlife, but the views from the trails are excellent and there are lots of interesting things to see.

We started up on the Carty Unit at the Oaks to Wetlands trail. It begins with an impressive arched footbridge taking you over the busy amtrak rail line.

And after a couple hundred yards you get your first view of the refuge over Duck Lake – beautiful!

Along the way you pass the Cathlapotle cedar plank house. This recreation was built in 2005 as part of the celebration of Lewis & Clark’s 1805 expedition when they met locals living in these kinds of houses.

The Oaks to Wetlands trail is a two mile loop which reached Boot Lake at it’s far end. This ‘green field’ is Boot Lake. That’s aquatic plants all the way to the far tree line.

Unfortunately our plan to hike a wetlands trail in the middle of summer was not well thought out. We were immediately beset by a cloud of hungry Boot Lake mosquitos who persued us all the way back to the car!

Along the way we stopped at a neat rocky overlook and saw this beautiful bird, I think it’s a Great Egret, perched high up in a tree.

After we double-timed it back to the car, we headed down to the River S Unit of the refuge to do the four mile driving loop. You can also walk this loop in the summer, but after our little escape from the mosquitos neither of us felt like taking the chance. So we drove.

River Otter, Muskrat, Nutria? I can’t tell…

An osprey!

Along the way you can park and go to a blind that looks out over Rest Lake. There were a lot of herons out there, some of them fighting and gliding around. Lots of smaller birds as well. It would be a great place to have a spotting scope.

Dave at the blind

This was a really neat trip, and we’ll go again, but maybe after mosquito season is over!

Not a great picture of me and Barclay (guess I should have taken off the hat) 🙂 Today Dave and D and I hiked to the top of Green Mountain in Amboy. It’s just an easy walk up a logging road, but it’s pretty steep. We saw tons of butterflies, a skink (which I almost stepped on, sunning in the middle of the trail), snails, and even a snake. Along the way you can look back across the valley and see all the way back to the hills around Battle Ground. There’s great views at the top.

Dave and D with Lake Merwin and Mt St Helens in the background.

Mt St Helens. It’s a pretty spectacular view. I never get tired of looking at Mt St Helens. We’re on the South side so you can’t see the crater. Everyone made it just fine, and Barclay did a great job on his first big hike. We even stopped in Amboy for ice cream on the way back into town. Fun day!

If D posts her pictures of the butterflies (she took a bunch of them), I’ll link to her blog 🙂