Field Notes From the Green River Gorge Mountains to Valley Greenway
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green-duwamish
The Grand Canyon National Park is an example of a conservation success that most people will be familiar with.
Closer to home, in our own backyard, is the Green River Gorge. While the Gorge isn’t on the scale of the Grand Canyon, it is, in its own right, a unique river-cut gorge.
The rain is coming down in the Pacific Northwest in sheets, for days, and is unrelenting. The grey skies threaten to send us into hibernation. We sit inside, in our warm houses, threatening to sit on the couch until spring. It’s winter here and, well, it’s depressing at times.
If you are willing to brave the weather, grab your umbrella and raincoat, then venture out the Green River Gorge or the lower Green-Duwamish River and step into an otherworldly riverscape.
What does the Green River Gorge look like from above? That is the question I asked myself when I enlisted my friend, a pilot, to fly me over the Gorge in April of 2017…
My time in the river helped me learn more about the rhythm of the river. The Green river isn’t just a river. It is a multi-layered story of currents, water, seasons, shorelines, habitat, stone, fish, wildlife, forests, and humans. All the elements that make up the watershed create the river. The story unfolds in the myriad of springs and streams that flow from drops of water that begin as snow or rain. The springs and streams flow into the river giving it shape and form. The water forms the carved sandstone edges, the forest around the river, and the currents that follow the channels downstream.
Through my passion to promote conservation of the Green River Gorge Greenway I developed a love of conservation photography. I bought my first digital camera in 2001 and began documenting the unique beauty and wildness of the Green River Gorge. It has been 18 years and I'm still surprised by something new or something that has changed along the river corridor. I've changed cameras over the years but not my mission to document and preserve the Gorge.
Hungry beaver along the Green River…
What does the Green River Gorge look like from above? That is the question I asked myself when I enlisted my friend, a pilot, to fly me over the Gorge in April of 2017…
Where the trail meets the river a giant rock spirals out of the deep green water like a whale. White foam speckles the surface of the deep green color of the water. At low water in July and August a rocky beach frames a deep green pool beneath the Whale rock. A large flat rock sits in the middle of the pool. Great for soaking up the sun on a hot day.
The road winds down a long hill. As it turns it passes a couple of houses, a spring spilling out of the hillside and what looks like an overgrown R.V. park. The blinking light is a stop sign to either stop or go for cars on either side of a one lane bridge. Only one car from either direction can cross the bridge at a time. The Green River Gorge Road (or Lawson Road as it is known in Black Diamond) crosses over one of the most beautiful sections of the Green River Gorge…and one of the more accessible areas outside of Washington State Parks.
Flaming Geyser is a 503 acre day use park that is the downstream book end to the Green River Gorge. Flaming Geyser is where the Green River Gorge ends and the Green River Valley begins. The steep cliff walls of the gorge give way to open fields and farm land.
Across the river from the main part of Flaming Geyser State Park is an undeveloped section of the park that is at least as large as the main park...
Why is it called Hanging Gardens?
"Hanging Gardens is was so aptly named by Wolf Bauer because of the native vegetation perched along the edges of eroding sandstone. Small Cedars along with other smaller native plants cling to their narrow purchase".— Lisa Parsons, local river conservationist
Outdoor Project adds Icy Creek Spring in the Green River Gorge hike to their website
