A Day Park To Die For-Lee Wooden/Fishhawk Falls Park!
A number of months ago, while driving back from Astoria, Oregon after seeing our veterinarian, Dr. Larry Goza, (an amazing vet) I needed to find a place to let my dogs out. Little did I know that when I turned off Hwy 202 (at milepost 25) into the Lee Wooden County Park that I would find this hidden gem that I’m not sure I want anyone to know about.
Clatsop County acquired it back in ’62 as a result of a
property tax foreclosure and Lee Wooden was a homesteader in Jewell, Oregon, the “city” it’s located in.
Not two miles past the Jewell Elk Reserve (going towards the coast), a popular stop for many to view the elk in winter, is this easily accessible 47+AC day park!
Plenty of parking, a graveled trail with a lovely little bridge heading into the woods and not a mile in, VOILA! a huge waterfall!
The next time that I went was a particularly hot day and would have been a perfect time to take a dip in Fishhawk Lake, but the management was busy spraying the weeds that we get underwater every year. It’s only a half hour’s trip on a large highway, and it was a gorgeous day, so three of us headed out to Lee Wooden Park.
I was beside myself with excitement. Thankfully, I had my camera gear in tow, along with Takoda, our grown-up Golden, and Kasa our Golden Retriever pup who was about 12 weeks at the time I think.
Lee Wooden Park has a perfectly flat area for picnicking right beside the shallow creek, but since it was late in the afternoon, all I wanted to do was get the dogs cooled off as it was pretty dang hot that day. This was the first time that Kasa had actually been IN water (and yes, we live ON A LAKE…I know). She followed Takoda’s lead and they had a blast while I took lots and lots of pictures. At one point, I too went into the creek, but the rocks are quite slippery and since it’s not a waterproof camera, I erred on the side of good judgement and stayed on the shoreline for the most part.
We stayed for a couple of hours. I took gobs of pictures—it was such a spectacular opportunity and we were able to have it all to ourselves! The falls are stunning. If it were easier to climb through the fallen logs and underbrush, it would have been fun to get closer.
The dogs had a blast, running and chasing each other around a tree and climbing everywhere and going in and out of the water. Since it was mostly shady, they were happy and stayed cool.
This is a free park, not used for camping, but weddings have been known to happen there. According to the Clatsop County site I went on, here is some geological significance:
Geological Significance:
The stacked basalt columns of a dike
exposed at Fishhawk Falls is identical
to Columbia River basalt further east.
This basalt flow, like those at Otter
Rock and Hug Point, [along the Oregon coastline] ranks among the
longest on earth, i.e., 300 miles from eastern Oregon and Washington.
I got a chance to take photos of the flora and fauna as well.
All in all it was a great time and we'll be going back often. 
Comments(19)