Lower Falls

So after going to Victoria the week before, we had yet another family adventure this past weekend. We spent two nights at Lower Falls on the Lewis River. We went there a couple years ago (as this blog post documents). If anything, I love that area now even more than I did then. It's just beautiful and a great place to camp and hike. The campground is just a short walk away from the viewpoint for Lower Falls. It's also right next to the trail that takes you to Middle and Upper Falls. All three falls are really impressive and the trail itself is very pretty and not terribly challenging (there are few narrow places where you may not want to look down if you don't like heights).

Lower Falls

One of several creeks that passes under the trail and joins the Lewis River

Middle Falls

The woods are so beautiful!

There's one tree in particular off the trail that's just enormous. As you can see, it makes Christina (standing at the bottom) look tiny, and yet you still can't see the whole thing.

A mini forest growing on top of a log, complete with trees and "ferns"

For a while, the trail is overhung by massive cliffs that echo the sound of the river below.

Another tributary creek.

Majestic Upper Falls

It's kind of become a tradition of mine to take fire pictures on camping trips. 

Hiking on the Lewis River

We spent Thursday and Friday nights camping out at Lower Falls Rec. Area, which is roughly 2 hours away from us, up in the forest between Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Adams. It's gorgeous up there, and the weather was wonderful, so we had a great time exploring the area.

Lower Falls Rec Area is named after--what else?--Lower Falls, the third of three big waterfalls on the Lewis River. They're all fairly close together, so it's easy to hike past all three in a few hours. The campground by Lower Falls isn't amazing, but nice enough, and with the falls so close, it's hard to complain. They've done a nice job of making the river and the falls really accessible; there's multiple viewpoints and stairs down to the river.

Looking down the river to the edge where the falls begin. The water is really smooth in places, but the current is quite strong.

A rainbow created by mists from the falls.

Lower Falls

Middle Falls

At places, the trail was overhung by cliffs. It was weird to look up and see all that rock and vegetation hanging over our heads.

A huge, really tall tree. Maybe it was a survivor from an older forest.

Upper Falls

There was a viewpoint at the top where you could get really close to the falls. This is zoomed in on that. It's amazing to see how powerful these waterfalls are!

One of the bridges over a creek was broken, so there were signs posted on the trail in either direction to let people know that it was "closed."

Still passable.

Experimenting with campfire pictures. I set my camera up on my tripod, and did a really wide aperture and slow shutter speed.

Mt. St. Helens on the way home.