Fox Creek Trail

This post is based on a project I did for my middle school forestry class in the seventh grade in the spring of 1995. The Fox Creek Trail is located behind the former Rainier Elementary School (now the Riverside Community Church) in Rainier, Oregon, and is maintained by the Friends of Fox Creek. The numbered map on this page was drawn by Friends of Fox Creek founder (and my 4th grade teacher) Darrel K. Whipple. I drew the bird at the end, probably to fulfill a requirement of the assignment. My original text follows with the photographs, even though the information is not entirely correct any more.

A NATURE TRAIL

There is a nature trail located behind the downtown elementary school in Rainier, Oregon, on the corner of West C Street and West 3rd Street. There is direct car access to the trail as it is located near the school parking lot. The trail is used for educational purposes and the trail is numbered to show points of interest. There is a trail by the creek that could be used for a picnic area. There are birds and squirrels in the forest and salmon in the creek.

KEY POINTS

1. LOCATION
2. RECREATIONAL VALUE
3. HABITATS

MAP

Rainier Elementary School

Entrance gate

1. Gateway Alder

Photo Missing

View from #2

3. Crooked Douglas Fir

4. Wetland

5. Wetland

6. Beaver's cottonwood in wetland

7. Octopus tree

12. "J" tree

Woodpecker tree, just after #12

View from #15

A Blue Heron in Newport & a 7-Up Sign in Monmouth

Here are a couple of pictures I appear to have taken on a family trip to the Oregon coast in the summer of 1994. I don't remember this trip, so I'm not sure where we went, and these two pictures aren't very helpful, but I am presenting them anyway.

This first picture doesn't appear to be of anything. In fact, for a long time, I didn't even remember what it was supposed to be a picture of. Then I looked closely, and I realized there is a blue heron in the picture. It is standing on the rocks next to the water, blending in with the rotting pilings behind it. I have no idea where this was, but I assume it had to be somewhere on the Oregon coast.

I took this picture through the windshield of the car on the way home as we drove through Monmouth, Oregon, on Highway 99W because I thought that old 7-Up sign at the Pic-N-Save Market looked cool. I am not sure if I saw the sign on the way to the coast, or if traffic was just slow enough for me to notice the sign and get my camera ready. It's a good thing I did, because it's not there anymore. If we were traveling though Monmouth, that suggests that the blue heron might have been in Newport or further south. I'm just going to assume it was in Newport.

Ships on the Columbia River in 1994

These pictures were taken from Rainier, Oregon, in June of 1994. I don't have much to say about them as I can't positively identify most of the ships due to my cheap camera's inability to focus on them, but I am presenting them for completion.

The first ship is a United States Navy ship. It is hard to tell from the picture, but based on its size, I think it might be an Agile-class minesweeper. It was returning from a visit to Portland for the Rose Festival.

I can't identify this vessel, but I think it is part of the US Navy's Military Sealift Command fleet. Based on the cranes on the long, flat fantail, I think this might be a support vessel for submersibles. It was returning from a visit to Portland for the Rose Festival.

This vessel I am fairly confident is the United States Army Corps of Engineers dredge Yaquina. As a relatively common sight on the Columbia River, I am not sure if the Yaquina was visiting the Rose Festival, or just happened to be passing by.

In the foreground is a United States Coast Guard cutter that appears to be a 180-foot seagoing buoy tender, though I have no idea which one. In the background, being guided by a local tugboat, is a United States Navy ship that appears to be a Spruance-class guided missile cruiser. They were both returning from a visit to Portland for the Rose Festival.

There are no ships in this picture, just the Columbia River and the Longview Fibre paper mill in Longview, Washington, on the other side.

Here is a cargo ship that was more typical of the normal traffic on the Columbia River.

Kerry Park Viewpoint

These view of the Seattle skyline were taken from the Kerry Park Viewpoint in June 1994. Kerry Park sits on the south slope of Queen Anne Hill, and was given to the city of Seattle in 1927 by Mr. & Mrs. Albert Sperry Kerry, Sr.

Photo by Cliff West

The most prominent landmark seen from the Kerry Park Viewpoint is the 605-foot-tall Space Needle at Seattle Center, which was built for the 1962 World's Fair.

West Point Lighthouse

The West Point Lighthouse in Seattle, Washington, sits on West Point, the westernmost point in Seattle. West Point juts out into Puget Sound and marks the northern boundary of Elliott Bay.

The lighthouse is 23 feet high and opened on November 15, 1881. Built at a cost of $25,000, it was the first lighthouse on Puget Sound.

The lighthouse featured a fourth-order Fresnel lens that alternated flashes and white and red every five seconds.

The lens was originally lighted by a kerosene lamp. In 1926, the lighthouse was connected to Seattle's electrical grid.

Photo by Cliff West

The lighthouse originally featured a 1,600-pound fog bell that was originally used at Cape Disappointment. On February 7, 1887, the fog bell was replaced by a Daboll trumpet operated by a coal-fired caloric engine, and the bell was subsequently moved to Oregon's Warrior Rock lighthouse. The trumpet was replaced by an air horn in June 1944.

Photo by Cliff West

The West Point Lighthouse was automated in February 1985. It was the last lighthouse in Washington to be automated. The original Fresnel lens was lighted by a 1,000-watt quartz lamp that produced an 80,000 candlepower beam, with the alternating white and red flashes visible for 19 miles and 16 miles respectively.

Photo by Cliff West

The West Point Lighthouse sits adjacent to Seattle's Discovery Park, and is accessible by trail from the park.

The beaches that surround the lighthouse offer views of Puget Sound.

Discovery Park is the largest park in Seattle. It was created in the 1970s on surplus land from the United States Army's Fort Lawton.

In 1898, the city of Seattle gave the U.S. Army 703 acres of land for use as a fort. The 1,100-acre Fort Lawton opened on February 9, 1900.

Fort Lawton was named for Major General Henry Ware Lawton, who served in the Civil War, the Indian Wars, and the Spanish-American War before being killed in action during the Philippine-American War on December 19, 1899.

534 acres of land for Discovery Park was transferred back to the city of Seattle in 1972, and was dedicated as Discovery Park in 1973. Fort Lawton remained a Army Reserve base until it finally closed on February 25, 2012.

Photo by Cliff West

The West Point Lighthouse is now part of Discovery Park, having been transferred to the city of Seattle in 2004. The United States Coast Guard has replaced the original Fresnel lens with a VRB-25 Vega Rotating Beacon that replicates the original lighting pattern.

Eastern Oregon & Mountains in 1994

For my Sixth Grade Spring Break in 1994, my grandmother took my to visit my aunt in Sisters, Oregon, for a week. This was my first plane trip, from Portland to Redmond and back.

These llamas were on a ranch in Sisters, Oregon.

Here is a view of eastern Oregon from the plane on the flight back to Portland on March 27, 1994.

Here is another view of eastern Oregon from the plane.

The town of Sisters, Oregon, is named for the Three Sisters, a group of three mountains about 10 miles from the town. The South Sister has a height of 10,363 feet, the Middle Sister has a height of 10,052 feet, and the North Sister has a height of 10,090 feet.

This is Mount Jefferson. It is named after Thomas Jefferson, and it has a height of 10,497 feet.

I think this is a picture of Lake Harriet, a 22-acre reservoir on the Oak Grove Fork of the Clackamas River. 

This picture shows Mount Hood, with Mount Adams in the background. Mount Hood, with a height of 11,235 feet, is the highest point in Oregon and the fourth highest peak in the Cascade Range. Mount Adams is in the state of Washington and has a height of 12,275 feet.

This picture shows Mount Saint Helens in the distance. Mount Saint Helens is in the state of Washington and has a height of 8,364 feet.

1992 California Trip: Trees of Mystery

Our family's last stop on our 1992 California trip was Trees of Mystery in Klamath, California, on March 19, 1992. Trees of Mystery features a trail among a number of unusual trees. It also features chainsaw carvings and a museum of Native American artifacts.

One of the most impressive displays at Trees of Mystery is located at the parking lot. Massive statues of Paul Bunyan and Babe, his blue ox, greet visitors as they arrive.

The statue of Paul Bunyan weighs 30,000 pounds, and its concrete base weighs 800,000 pounds. It is 49 feet 2 inches tall, with a waist 52 feet around and a chest 66 feet around. The axe is 27 feet long and the boots are 10 feet high. It was designed by Ann Cooper and built by Ward Berg.

The statue of Babe is 35 feet high from the ground to the tips of the horns, and weighs 30,000 pounds.

Photo by Cliff West

Trees of Mystery first opened in 1946, and the first statue of Paul Bunyan was erected there that year, but it was promptly destroyed by the rain that winter. The current Paul Bunyan statue was built in 1961 and Babe was built in 1952.

Photo by Cliff West

The statues are constructed primarily of wood, chicken wire, and stucco. Paul Bunyan can wave his hand, turn his head, and wink. Before the statues were relocated to their current position in 1983, Babe could nod and blow smoke out of his nostrils.

Photo by Cliff West

One of the first trees encountered at Trees of Mystery is the Family Tree. Twelve Sitka spruce trees grow from one trunk 32 feet around. The additional trees grow out of the branches of the main tree.

Photo by Cliff West

Here are a group of trilliums that were growing along the trail.

Photo by Cliff West

This is the "Upside Down" Tree, though it is not really upside-down. It is really more sideways, with a horizontal trunk growing out of a vertical trunk. The horizontal trunk curves wildly and even crosses over the trail.

Photo by Cliff West

The "Upside Down" Tree has two trunks and two root structures. One tree grows horizontally and the other growing vertically through the horizontal trunk. The horizontal tree is always seeking sunlight.

Photo by Cliff West

This is the Octopus Tree. It gets its name from it's tangled web of exposed roots that look like tentacles. These roots also create an open space under the Octopus Tree called Nature's Underpass that children can crawl through.

Photo by Cliff West

The Octopus Tree also features a sign that reads "These are the trees you have seen in Ripley's Believe It or Not."

Photo by Cliff West

I don't know the name of this tree formation. There is a sign on it but it is not readable in the photograph; I think it says "SUN _". These trees are twisted around one another, as they each try to get as much sun as possible.

Photo by Cliff West

In this picture is the Lightning Tree, named for the jagged shape of its trunk which makes it look like a bolt of lightning.

Photo by Cliff West

I think this is the Cathedral Tree, a group of nine trees growing together in a semicircle around the root structure of a dead tree that has since rotted away. Weddings and Easter services have been conducted here.

This was the last stop on our family's 1992 California trip. After leaving Trees of Mystery we headed north towards home.