"Spending days exploring the wild reaches of the Green River Gorge is important to me. Its a way to clear the mind of all the day to day issues and it reminds me of why I continue to work on conservation. It is also an adventure of discovery as I become more familiar with the river that I call my second home".
In the summer of 2003 I decided to spend my summer vacation exploring the gorge and photo documenting this incredible landscape and river. The idea was to take a photography exhibit and slideshow to our decision makers and communitee members to show them why the Green River Gorge is worth preserving and why its at risk.
Exploration of Icy Creek
I'd spent time where this large underground spring (called Icy Creek) unceremoniously comes out of the ground. A cool oasis of water surrounded by deep forest as it crosses an open area before heading down to the river. I'd also spent many a day down below where its cold clear waters flow into a scenic bend in the river. What I wanted to know is "What lies in between?"
Icy creek plummets 300 ft from the rim of the gorge down to the Green River. Spilling between 40 -60 c.f.s. of icy cold water in to the Green river. Salmon spawn at the mouth of Icy creek before its rock filled course becomes too steep for even the most hardy salmon to navigate.
This day I decide is the day that I will explore the creek. I don an old pair of tennis shoes, fill my pack with water, a towel, and, of course, my camera. My expedition teammates for this adventure are my two dogs Ashe and Merlin.
Merlin is a consummate adventurer. He is an Alaskan Husky / Inuit dog mix. Both those breeds are used for dog sledding in the harsh climates of the snow covered north. From the time he was six month old this trail veteran has gone on many adventures with me. He is a sure footed athlete whose agility training has been in the field walking logs over creeks, scaling near vertical slopes, and swimming in rivers and lakes.
Ashley, on the other hand, is my reluctant adventurer. She is a Great Pyr mix. Large, stocky, and meant for guarding sheep not bushwhacking through the wilds and swimming in rivers. Even so when I get ready to head out for another adventure she is waiting at the door and doesn't like being left behind.
Its a perfect day for hiking in frigid cold waters. Its near 90 degrees and this hike will be a respite from the hot summer day. On days like this I'll take the dogs down to the headwaters of Icy creek and the temperature in its grotto will be 10 degrees cooler than up top. The heat meets the cold water and mists form along its surface as a testament to how important this spring is to the survival of salmon in the Green. It delivers that cold water into the Green and actually helps cool the river as it makes its way downstream beyond the reaches of the forest and into the urban channel where it is hemmed in on every-side by rampant development. A stark contrast to where I am now in a wilderness of undeveloped land along the gorge.
We hike down to the headwaters and stand on the old dam that used to help form Trout rearing ponds. Now it is just a great place to enjoy the creek. Ok, where to start? Just beyond an old dam is about an 8 foot waterfall. We head to the far side of the dam and squeeze through a tangle of salmon berry on to the slope heading towards the waterfall. Right below are two more springs that cascade out of the hillside just adjacent to the main spring. A hop over one brings us to a slightly flat area just above the falls. A log straddles the depression of rock and falling water. Licorice ferns hang along its side catching the spray from the waterfall. I look at the rocks adjacent to the falls and they look slick with moss. So I head through more salmon berry, Salal and ferns to just down below the falls. Its a snarl of brush and I can already tell this is going to be an adventure. The sun sneaks through the trees and the spray from the falls catches the sun and looks like a million diamonds falling down to the creek below.
Here we plunge in. The water is so cold that my feet immediately go numb inside my tennis shoes. its a good thing its so hot today. Merlin and Ashe weave their way back and forth across the creek sniffing out the smells along the bank and checking out any possible critter holes. I make my way sure-footedly down the water course. Each step is checked before taking the next one. I'd hate to break an ankle while out hiking alone in this wildness.
The creek follows another flat area and we head straight down its course to a bend of reddish colored rock and then a steep forested slope that leads to the Icy creek rim. A rim, that if ever developed, would have a McMansion at its top not the giant Cedars and Douglas Fir that line it now. The sunlight filters through the trees catching tips of ferns, Salal, and salmon berry. The course of the creek turns again and crosses through a thick grove of giant Cedars. I follow the creek. Ahead I can hear a louder roar of the creek. Is it another waterfall? I jump up onto the bank and weave my way along faint game trails. The dogs pick their own route. Usually by whatever smells capture their noses as they explore. Then I see the top of what appears to be a waterfall. The side slopes suddenly get narrower and steeper. We have to go up the left slope to find a way around the waterfall. The ground is loose and steep but there are lots of strong vegetation to grab on to as we cross the slope.
Then we hike downward again through a small spring between an entrance of rock and then under a log. Then we are at the base of a fourteen foot waterfall cascading down two narrow chutes of black and reddish colored rock. The years of water have formed a crescent shaped pool as the water spreads out below the falls. Its unreal and I feel like I've found an undiscovered treasure in some remote reach of the world. The falls hidden by steep slopes and dense forest is an oasis of coolness. Light reflects off droplets of spray and the pool below it creats dancing sunlit patterns on the rock around its edge. Licorice ferns hang tentatively on a rock that divides the chutes. The moss covering the rock is bright green. I sit and take photos capturing this gem of the expedition.
The dogs grow restless, ready to move on so its time to continue. We hike on the side slope again and then drop back down to the creek. Now the spring cascades in a series of drop pools lined with ferns. Just below a log that stretches across the creek is the most amazing rock bowl. It looks like a brown donut with a water reflection in the middle. The spring flows to one side of it and moss and slippery brown rock form a frame around a reflection of sky in the circular pool of water. Right next to it is a perfectly round rock perched between it and another stone, the donut hole. One thing that never ceases to amaze me is the sheer variation of rock formations and stones along the 12 mile long gorge. This is just one more example of it's uniqueness.
Further down, the forest opens up and sun reaches the open slide area which is full of thick salmon berry and Devil's Club. Beyond the creek is a shelf of open area lined with a near vertical slope of loose rock and past slides eroding away the rim. Its like a secret Shangri-La for deer, elk, and other critters. A hideout habitat. Back in the spring I walk forward and find the route is choked with stream-side growth. No amount of weaving in and around branches is going to get me through this thicket. So I cross to the right side of the creek and scale a short slope up to a game trail below a large cedar. Its precariously set above a short steep drop above the creek. One wrong step...Merlin, impatiently pushes by me on the inside of the trail and momentarily I think I'm going to get pitched off the slope into the stream below. A wavering moment, then recovery, and the rush of adrenaline and of my heart pounding. I realize I have just lucked out and with that I give Merlin a verbal lashing.
We follow the game trail for a short time and then drop back down to the creek and follow it for a length before it starts to tumble into a narrow ravine for the last series of falls before it arrives down near the river. At one point we are carefully navigating around a rock filled bottom that is difficult for the dogs to maneuver through. Merlin trades off between the shoreline and the creek finding his route. Ashe is in the stream. She reaches for purchase on a foot wide rock. She gets her front legs on and then looks around for purchase for her next move but there isn't any. So she gingerly plants her front paws and her rear paws on this one rock and looks up at me with that all too familiar look of "What have you gotten the dog in to now?". Her large frame is draped over this rock with her paws perched precariously underneath her. So I look for a route for her and then direct her where to plant a paw and then another one. I've done this before and eventually she extricates herself from the rock and continues on.
As we continue, I realize that it is too steep to follow any further so we follow the left side of the spring and bushwhack along the lip of the ravine. Here we wind past giant Maples, Cedars, Douglas Fir, and giant ferns. We cross over a shallow gully and then up the other side, weaving through large branches, and fallen trees. At a large Cedar at a corner point above the steep descent of the spring I can see the base of Spring below. Almost there.
A little searching reveals a high water fishermen's trail that runs behind the Cedar in a series of root and dirt steps. We carefully pick our way down 25 feet of slope to the shore of the Green River just downstream of where Icy creek flows in to the river. Then we follow the fisherman's trail to a wide log that spans the Creek's channel. The dogs have no problem navigating the log since they are outdoor agility masters.
Once there we walk back up to where the steep flow of the spring tumbles down to the last section that flows gently to the river. Where the spring comes down it is a wild boulder filled channel that drops down to a sheer wall to the right and sweeps by it. The wall is black in color. Maidenhair ferns cling to the rock and undulate in the wind created by the water flow. Multi-colored stones lie at the base below the moving surface of the water. More springs cascade off the slope above. In fact the cliff continues 500 feet to the base of the road that comes down to the hatchery. Many springs besides Icy Creek flow into the Green River along this section. They flow year round. Sometimes large torrents with spring run off, sometimes smaller springlets at the end of summer. But they always flow bringing cold clear water to a river that's been diked, dammed, urbanized, and channeled. Salmon who survive the journey through the industrialized, urban lower reaches come to spawn at the mouth of Icy creek because of its cold water and gravel beds. In the fall you can find them in the creek and in the back eddie in the river as it flows by the creek.
My dogs and I head down to a small beach on the river and rest in the sun. I pick the leaves and branches from my hair and take stock of the scratches on my legs from our trek. It feels good to get out into the woods and discover new places. I look down the gorge that feels like a wild untamed section of river. This is a 12 mile picture of the Green River's former self when the water ran free from the Cascade Foothills to the Green / Duwamish river Delta near Seattle. Its the last stronghold of a river that has been tamed. I think about what will happen if the springs dry up and houses line the gorge edge like they do in the Green River Valley. I feel compelled to be a voice for the gorge, to photograph and to write about this place that is my second home.