We looked for things to do on the drive from Aberdeen, WA, to Portland, OR. About an hour along the way wass the state of Washington's Dept. of Natural Resources' Mima Mounds Natural Area Preserve.
While the start and finish were in the woods, 90% of the trail were out in the nearly treeless mounds.
Before European settlers, the natives would regularly burn the prairies to prevent trees from coming in. Settlers did not. But here, the DNR has tried to return this area to what it was in past centuries.
There are many theories to how the mounds came to be. And that meant hiking over relatively boring areas without a lot of signage or information to help understand what we were seeing - except for one small pavilion where I took these photos.
We then continued on and came to the Rainbow Falls State Park. If possible, it was even more underwhelming than the Mima Mounds. There was a lazy river that was being used by many visitors and campers, but the falls were merely five or six feet of drop in a very narrow, slow flowing stream.
We continued on, stopping for lunch at a cafe in Chehalis, then on to Portland where we did laundry, repacked and got ready to fly to Edmonton, Alberta.
While the start and finish were in the woods, 90% of the trail were out in the nearly treeless mounds.
Before European settlers, the natives would regularly burn the prairies to prevent trees from coming in. Settlers did not. But here, the DNR has tried to return this area to what it was in past centuries.
There are many theories to how the mounds came to be. And that meant hiking over relatively boring areas without a lot of signage or information to help understand what we were seeing - except for one small pavilion where I took these photos.
We then continued on and came to the Rainbow Falls State Park. If possible, it was even more underwhelming than the Mima Mounds. There was a lazy river that was being used by many visitors and campers, but the falls were merely five or six feet of drop in a very narrow, slow flowing stream.
We continued on, stopping for lunch at a cafe in Chehalis, then on to Portland where we did laundry, repacked and got ready to fly to Edmonton, Alberta.
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