Winding North Clark County Scenic Tour offers spectacular views, history lessons

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If you haven’t yet explored the 70-mile North Clark County Scenic Tour, autumn, with its crisp, cool, usually sunny days, is the perfect time to take a weekend drive.

Created by the Board of Clark County Commissioners, the Scenic Tour winds its way through Battle Ground, Yacolt, Amboy, La Center and Ridgefield, taking drivers past some of the area’s most picturesque places.

Area residents or visitors can pick a portion of the tour, or try to visit the entire 70-mile stretch in one day or one weekend. Following is our recommendation for getting the most out of the Scenic Tour:

 

A Wild(life) Beginning

Since the tour actually includes an auto-tour-within-the-tour, we think starting your day at the Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge and completing that site’s one-way, 4.2-mile auto tour might be a good plan. Known as the River ‘S’ Auto Tour, the drive winds through the fields, wetlands, sloughs and forests that make up this bird-viewer’s paradise. Expect to see raptors and waterfowl during this time of year.

The Refuge is open each day during daylight hours and the River ‘S’ Auto Tour route is open to drivers from 6:30 a.m. to dusk (usually until 5 p.m.) daily. To access the auto tour portion of the refuge, enter on Hillhurst Road. The entrance fee is $3 per non-commercial vehicle.

To make your tour even more enjoyable, pick up a free Audio Tour CD at the refuge visitor’s center before starting your auto tour. The CDs are free, but the Refuge asks that you return them to the visitor’s center at the end of your tour. The Friends of the Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge have also put free audio podcasts – a Spring/Summer podcast and a Fall/Winter podcast – on iTunes to help guide visitors through the River ‘S’ Auto Tour. Find links to those podcasts at http://ridgefieldfriends.org/visit-the-refuge/river-s-unit-audio-tour/.

 

Bottoms Up!

After visiting the Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge, continue the Scenic Tour toward La Center, where you may be in the mood to stretch your legs. The La Center Bottoms Trail offers the perfect spot to get a little walk in, see more waterfowl, and take in some of Clark County’s natural beauty. Located on the East Fork Lewis River, the Bottoms Trail winds its way around wetlands and offers interpretive signs, bird-viewing blinds and benches.

 

Good Grains

After leaving La Center, the Scenic Tour takes drivers north, toward Cedar Creek. If you’re doing this drive on a weekend, make sure you stop at the historic Cedar Creek Grist Mill at 43907 NE Grist Mill Road, about eight miles east of Woodland.

The only water-powered, grain-grinding mill in Washington, the 140-year-old mill draws visitors from around the country and offers tours to the public from 1 to 4 p.m. on Saturdays and from 2 to 4 p.m. on Sundays.

If you can, visit the Grist Mill on Sat., Oct. 31, for the annual apple pressing. The mill opens at 9 a.m. that day and will have a bluegrass band playing on the back deck, and a crew of volunteers pressing about 10,000 pounds of apples into some of the best apple cider you’ve ever tasted. For more information about the mill and its roster of monthly special events, visit http://cedarcreekgristmill.org/.

 



History Repeats Itself

After you’ve sampled some of the delicacies at the Cedar Creek Grist Mill – and maybe bought yourself a small bag of freshly ground grains – drive across the historic covered bridge next to the grist mill and continue your Scenic Tour to the North Clark Historical Museum, at 21416 N.E. 399th St., in Amboy. Open from noon to 4 p.m. each Saturday, this little museum takes visitors through time, to the beginning days of Amboy and Yacolt, when folks churned their own butter and sewed their own quilts.

 

All Aboard!

Continue toward Yacolt after visiting the North Clark Historical Museum and check out this town’s own piece of history at the Chelatchie Prairie Railroad. This volunteer-run, nonprofit railroad gives excursion train rides in Yacolt and hosts a full range of special events throughout the year. In October, visitors can ride the rails and view the excellent foliage in the Yacolt area on the railroad’s Steam Fall Leaves Special tour, at noon and 2:30 p.m. on Sat. and Sun., Oct. 17 and 18.

The next weekend, on Oct. 24 and 25, take the train at noon or 2:30 p.m. for the Headless Horseman Halloween Train ride. In November, the railroad offers a Patriot’s Weekend Run on Nov. 7 and 8 as well as a Patriot’s Weekend Wine Run, which stops at the nearby Moulton Falls Winery, on Sat., Nov. 7. For more information about the historic railroad or to see special events coming up in October, November and December, visit http://www.bycx.com/.

 

Living History

You may want to drive a couple miles per hour under the speed limit after leaving Yacolt and heading toward Battle Ground. This drive is truly scenic, with an abundance of waterfalls sprinkled here and there.

After passing Moulton Falls Park and Lucia Falls Park, keep your eyes open for the Pomeroy Farm, at 20902 N.E. Lucia Falls Road. An interactive, educational museum depicting domestic and farm life from a historical and modern-day perspective, the Pomeroy Living History Farm offers a wide range of events.

Visit the farm in October for “Pumpkin Lane” and take a mile-long hayride to see the farm’s “pumpkin people,” explore the hay bale maze, tour the log house, stop at the pumpkin patch to get your own pumpkins, visit the farm animals and stop by the Farm Cafe for some pumpkin pie.

The farm’s Pumpkin Lane is open every full weekend in October (closed on Oct. 31) from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday. The cost is $4 for children ages 3 to 11 and $6 for ages 12 and older. Children younger than 3 are free. For more information, visit www.pomeroyfarm.org/.

 

Parks and Rec

After your stop at Pomeroy Farm, the rest of the Scenic Tour winds its way through Battle Ground and back to Ridgefield, to complete the 70-mile loop. Along this last portion of the tour, there are a wealth of excellent parks to visit, including: Battle Ground State Park at 18002 NE 249th St.; Lewisville Park at 26411 NE Lewisville Hwy.; Daybreak Park at 26401 NE Daybreak Road; and Whipple Creek Park, off NW 179th Street, south on NW 21st Ave.

To see a map of the entire North Clark County Scenic Tour, visit the county’s website at www.clark.wa.gov/scenicdrive.html.