Lacamas Park - February 2003

Who would have guessed that Camas, the Washington mill town on the Columbia River, is hiding a miniature wilderness with a scenic lake, waterfalls, and a forest canyon? This is a beautiful quiet, woodsy place close enough for Rocke and I to take an easy hike. The park contains a 6-mile network of scenic hiking trails.

Our hike started at the inlet of Round Lake in a picnic area with barbecues, restrooms, and a playground. As we left the picnic area we were walking through a Douglas fir forest, and then across a 50-foot-tall concrete dam built early in the 20th century to provide power and water for the Camas papermill.

Past the dam there are several trails you can take for a leisurely walk through the woodsy forest, taking side trails to a couple of water falls. The trail will also take you through the lily fields that are full of blue camas lilies, and I have read that during the time when these are in bloom, it is beautiful (blooming season is about mid-April). Rocke and I missed out on seeing the lilies . . . I would like to go back for another hike when the lilies are in bloom.

After we finished our hike around the lake, we arrived back at the van. We missed the Lower Falls on our hike, so we drove to the quieter 3rd Avenue trailhead. We hiked up the trail head to Lower Falls. You can see Lower Falls from a 150-foot metal footbridge above Lower Falls. You can also see The Potholes opposite the footbridge and smaller waterfalls at Lower Falls. The creek bank here, polished into chutes and pools, make a nice lunch stop. By The Potholes you'll find a pair of circular green pools separated by a 20-foot waterfall and weirdly pockmarked bedrock. The pockmarks were created when floodwaters swirled small rocks in depressions in the soft rock.