Camping Trip: Iron Creek Campground and Lava Canyon, Washington

 

Cispus River near Iron Creek Campground

After our hike at Mount St. Helens, we were all ready to get to our next campsite and relax (and we were crossing our fingers for fewer mosquitoes, too!). When we pulled up into our campsite of the Iron Creek Campground, I let out a sigh of both relief and wonder. Massive Douglas firs towered over our campsite, moss draped over every visible surface, ferns rustled in a cool breeze, and the nearby Cispus River created a calming white noise. It was a slice of old-growth Northwestern forest, a place saved from the saws that devastated— and continue to devastate— the ecosystems all around it. 

We found the Iron Creek Trail running along the river, and we meandered along it, taking in the rainforest vibes: 

-Douglas firs ten feet in diameter

-devil's club, an eight-foot tall plant with spiky stems and maple-leaf-shaped leaves the size of hubcaps

-vine maples, a shrubby maple that grows in thick understory groves

-sorrel, a shamrock-looking plant that tastes like lemon

-nurse logs: fallen logs that provide a fertile birthing ground for firs, moss, ferns, and other plants

-huge stumps with little trees growing out of them

I felt awed and relaxed at the same time, enveloped by this ancient forest that has seen so many changes.

With few mosquitoes to contend with, we spent a lovely evening around the campfire.

The next day we packed up and headed to our final destination before home: Lava Canyon, a huge gulley scraped down to the igneous bedrock when a river of fire from the Mount St. Helens eruption blasted down it. A short paved trail switchbacked into the canyon, where huge, smooth lumps of volcanic rock spread out before us in a glade-like clearing. Through it, a torrential blue river thundered, looking like the deadliest waterslide you can imagine. 

We hiked on a rocky trail alongside the river, which fell off sharply to reveal 50-foot canyon walls: a top layer of crumbly-looking rock, called the "crust," which was the cooled lava that had sealed the magma underneath, providing a hot tunnel for the magma to continue pouring down. Beneath the crust was a smooth face of what had been the liquid lava, which had now splintered into distinct columns. The cross-section of geology was fascinating to look at, and decorated by ferns, moss, and alders clinging to the tiniest ridges in the cliff walls.

The Lava Canyon Trail ended up being too dodgy for our tastes (it was the kind of danger that we would suffer through on the Pacific Crest Trail, but given the choice, we avoid), but we still hiked far enough to see a second waterfall that dropped off into a massive canyon. We snacked on alpine strawberries and watched the roaring water for a while before turning around.

Within a few hours, we were back to Gary's house in Vancouver, exhausted by the trip but happy that we went. Now it was time to rest up, eat a bunch of cheesecake, catch up on my editing job, and decide what our next adventure would be!

~~~