Panther Creek Falls

We took the long way home from the Lewis River.  We were going to go through Trout Lake and then back to the Gorge.  However, we ended up following a bit of a maze of logging roads to Panther Creek Road.  As long as we were driving by, we stopped at Panther Creek Falls.

I couldn't capture the whole falls at once.... here is the bottom portion.

Looking straight down from the viewing platform.

All that in one day...

Lewis River Middle Falls

Middle Falls is a really nice place to hang out, especially at this time of year when the water is low.

I was especially enchanted with this view across the river.  I took lots of photos here and had a hard time deciding which were my favorites.

Hiking the Lewis River trail

 After we hung out for a while at Lower Falls, we had lunch and then hiked up river.  These are pictures from our hike along the Lewis River trail.

             

New bridge

         

Lower Falls of the Lewis River

As I said in the previous post, we took a day trip to the Lewis River.  We spent some time hanging out at the top of Lower Falls.  When the water is low, you can walk out on the rocky shelves of the lava flow.

Rock cairns in shallow water

Deep swimming hole

 John hung out at the top of the falls and read.  I walked around on the lava flow to take the photos of him reading.

from behind

 Here you can see how much higher the water gets.  We've been there when the water was part way of the stone steps on the right.  And when it is that high, it is also moving really fast.

Water level can rise to the stone steps on right

Day Trip to the Lewis River

This week  we did a day trip to the Lewis River.  It was a perfect day for it.  The light was so beautiful.  The weather was great.

The water is low now, as it usually is at this time of year.  Makes hanging out at the falls even better since you can go out on a lot of rock shelves (lava flows) that are under water when the level is higher.  I'll post more photos this week and more details...

St Helens from McClellan Point

St Helens from the road

Trail down to the falls

Notice all the bare rocky areas at the top of the falls.  That is where we hung out.

Lower Falls

Hiking on the Siouxon Creek Trail

We went hiking at Siouxon Creek this week.  It's about an hour and a half from here... half an hour from our house in Portland till we get off the free way, half an hour going through Battleground (seems like ugly urban sprawl to me), and half an hour driving on US Forest Service Roads  (beautiful but not great roads).  The hike is lovely.  It follows the creek and what a creek!  The water is high because we had a lot of moisture this year.

If you want to see more of our hike, click on this link.

Siouxon Creek Hike