The full Pacific Northwest experience at Lacamas Regional Park can best be achieved by throwing on full rain gear and water-proof shoes or hiking boots for the park’s 9.5 miles of trails, three waterfalls and a dense forest floor full of native plants and wildlife.
Located 19 miles south of Battle Ground and between the cities of Camas and Washougal, Lacamas Regional Park is a way to visit nature right in southern Clark County’s urban sprawl.
With two waterfalls on Lacamas Creek and one on Woodburn Creek, the waterfall viewing is no slouch as the rainy season begins. These three waterfalls are not small, especially as the water flow begins to pick up in the fall.
Pothole Falls on Lacamas Creek has tough viewing but provides natural white noise while on the trail. An open patch of rocky cliff top provides a distant view of Pothole Falls as the cascade plunges 20 feet with an average width of 50 feet, the Northwest Waterfall Survey states.
Further downstream on Lacamas Creek is a gradual sliding waterfall known as Lower Falls. Lower Falls is special as the creek traverses a gradually dropping rock face just beyond a picturesque foot-bridge. The waterfall has a horizontal run of an estimated 180 feet with a total vertical plunge of 30 feet, according to the Northwest Waterfall Survey.
The smallest of the three waterfalls is Woodburn Falls along the small tributary Woodburn Creek. The creek is seasonal and tends to run dry by June, the waterfall survey states. The trail to the falls can be extremely muddy and slippery, so proper attire is recommended. With muddy trail conditions and unimpressive view, Woodburn Falls can be skipped as the cascade is only 10 feet wide and plunges 20 feet with a volume of 3 cubic feet per second, compared with Lower Falls’ 250 cubic feet per second, according to the Northwest Waterfall Survey.
As well as the waterfalls, the picturesque Lacamas Creek and the two lakes, possibly the best Pacific Northwest addition to the urban-setted park comes with the dense forest feel.
Large Western sword ferns and many other native plants line the trails, including the short-blooming Camas lilies. With the Camas lilies blooming around mid-April, in the rainy fall season, the promise of fall colors may interest visitors. Bigleaf maples, vine maples, Pacific poison oak and others dot the park with yellow, orange and red leaves.
Other Pacific Northwest native plants found and ID’d on Tuesday, Oct. 10 included the piggyback plant, thimbleberry, variety of Oregon grape, licorice fern and many others.
For more park information, visit clark.wa.gov/public-works/lacamas-regional-park. To view the Northwest Waterfall Survey for more information on the park’s waterfalls, or to find other cascades in the Pacific Northwest, visit waterfallsnorthwest.com.
Lacamas Regional Park is located at 3344 NE Everett St. in Camas. Additional parking is located off of Northeast 35th Avenue and at Camas’ Heritage Park at Lacamas Lake.
