Got a late start yesterday with my girls, headed to Portland. With all that blue sky and sunshine I had the great idea that we should take the 34 mile detour and catch sunset from the top of Beacon Rock. As we headed up river, we noticed the river full of whitecaps, the trees blowing wildly and the occasional gust of wind that felt like it was going to blow the car off the road. The road was clear of snow and easy to drive in any car. When we got to the state park the wind was insane. The howling was so loud we couldn't hear each other talk. There was snow and ice blowing everywhere. We decided we didn't want to risk our lives on a rock so we got back in the car and headed to town. My daughter was pleased to realize that I had to wait over 45 years to hear a wind like that and she got to experience it at 18. Kids... I'm determined to find more trails to break up the drive between Seattle and Portland. Today we stopped at the beautiful and snowy Ridgefield Nature Preserve. Just 3 miles off I-5 at exit 14. It was easy to get to and totally worth the stop. The trails are all packed snow, easy to walk without snowshoes or traction. The Oak trees were amazing. It was a little sad to see so many branches broken, probably from the snow and ice. Looks pretty popular with the local birdwatchers. I enjoyed the snowy walk but I'll definitely want to come back and see what it looks like in the spring.

Since we were camped in the area, we returned to do the auto tour route at the refuge. The Ridgefield NWR was established in 1965 to provide wintering habitat for the dusky subspecies of the Canada Goose. Today we saw many of these plus eagles, hawks, a variety of ducks, hawks, nutria , muskrat, hooded mergansers, and great egrets.

We met friends from Portland and drove the 4.2 mile Auto Tour Route. We saw red-tailed hawks, brown creepers, great egrets, a variety of ducks, nutria, muskrats, eagles , 3 sand hill cranes flying above, geese, hooded mergansers, swans, herons and coots. After driving the auto route, we drove to the Carty Unit and hiked the 2 mile Oaks to Wetlands Hiking Trail. Here we saw very few birds. There was not much water in the Wetlands. This is a very enjoyable wildlife refuge.

It can be so easy to overlook nearby options when deciding where to go hiking. This pleasant hike fell off my radar for a while, and now I am wondering why I think “going hiking” entails a long drive to a trailhead. When you go to the Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge, you can immerse yourself in nature in less than 30 minutes from downtown Vancouver. I was hoping for luscious fall colors in the preserve, but the million-dollar views were on the drive to get there. The oak trees inside the refuge had pretty-much dropped their leaves, so I traded looking at pretty leaves for the crunching sound of walking through dry leaves. I’ve always seen and heard large flocks of geese and ducks at the reserve, but this time I got to see a large flock of trumpeter swans and hear blue herons making a weird song-bird like sound. After hiking, I checked out Vinnie’s Pizza in Ridgefield. It’s traditional and not-so-traditional pizzas make it the perfect spot to end the Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge adventure.

The third hike that Kindra and I did on our southwest tour of hikes. Ridgefield is a lovely refuge, I'm sure, but we saw it primarily in rain. Despite said rain, it was a nice walk, and we got a good sense of what the trails included: informative plaques detailing which plants we were walking by. Only one of these led to confusion -- the piggy-back new-on-age plant. Possibly a confusing way of implying a nurse log situation? We ventured out to a viewpoint where we could just see the plankhouse a the beginning of the trail. No luck on getting into the house today -- they're renovating the roof and it was open, but not quite accessible. At this viewpoint, we were getting thoroughly soaked despite our waterproof layers, but as we returned, the sun came out (thanks SW Washington) The waters in the estuary sparkled, the grass glowed green, and I realized I had forgotten my sunglasses in Seattle. No matter, I got a photo of the sunshine (for evidence that it really happened) and we headed to our last stop on day one of our tour; Whipple Creek Park.