Lake Sacajawea Loop Hike
From Oregon Hikers Field Guide
- Start point: Nichols Boulevard Trailhead
- End point: Japanese Garden Island
- Hike Type: Loop
- Distance: 3.6 miles
- Elevation gain: 35 feet
- High point: 15 feet
- Difficulty: Easy
- Seasons: All year
- Family Friendly: Yes
- Backpackable: No
- Crowded: Yes
Contents |
Hike Description
The City of Longview, Washington, the brainchild of timber baron Robert A. Long of the Long-Bell Lumber Company, was conceived by him to accommodate and provide services to the large number of employees in his logging operations and mills. In fact, Longview, incorporated in 1921, was the U.S.’s only planned city of the 20th century, and the first planned city of its size in the world to be built entirely with private money. Central to the plan was the conversion of the Cowlitz Slough (a.k.a. Fowlers Slough) to a linear park bordered on each side by leafy boulevards named for George Kessler and Jesse Nichols, two of the project’s principal planners. The area was named Lake Sacajawea Park. In the 1950s, Frank Willis, the city’s Parks and Recreation director, began the process of adding trees to the verges of the lake and creating an arboretum. The arboretum is an especially colorful experience in the fall as many of the plantings are deciduous trees from eastern North America and east Asia. There is a regular summer concert schedule at Lake Sacajawea Park.
From the restrooms and covered picnic shelter on Nichols Boulevard, begin walking clockwise under spreading basswood trees. A circular trail, with a few short diversions, takes you around the lake. Note that the Solar System Walk, which has plaques for nine planets, runs along this side of the lake also. Head down to the right from a junction to pass under the 20th Avenue bridge, and then rejoin the main path. Near a Norway spruce, drop down again from the next junction to the lakeshore and pass a covered fishing dock near the water. Across the way, see a peninsula jutting into the lake. Reach the principal trail again and, a few yards later, descend to pass under the turquoise Washington Way bridge. Pass another fishing dock and get a view across to Lions Island and its totem pole. At another fishing platform, there’s a large sycamore. Then reach a junction, where you can go right to visit the Perennial Garden. Back on the main path, walk under a beautiful mossy-cup oak and, at a small plaza with a statue of Sacajawea and her son Pomp, pass by the only pedestrian bridge across the lake.
Continue under big-leaf maples, pass a bird identification sign, and admire the red maples, which blaze brilliantly in the fall. Reach a grove of London plane trees and then go right to drop below the Louisiana Street Bridge. See the two islands at the north end of the lake, one of them with a Japanese Garden. Reach Ocean Beach Highway (Highway 4) and take the railed path at the north shore, viewing a gushing fountain in the lake waters, before turning south to walk the east shore of the lake. Kessler Boulevard runs to your left. Reach the entrance path to the Japanese Garden, on an island that had reverted to blackberry thickets until the Weyerhaeuser Company donated the funds to make it a formal garden. If the torii gate is open, you can take a short tour around the island to visit its Japanese maples and sculpted pines.
Back on the loop path, pass under three redwood trees and then drop under the Louisiana Street Bridge. Look out for some tree topping poles, used in logging competitions, and then the Azalea and Rhododendron Gardens, to your left and right respectively. Go right towards the pedestrian bridge and then head along the shore past a fountain and a large fishing dock. There are restrooms and a playground up near Kessler Boulevard. Next, pass the gated path onto Lion’s Island (the gate may be locked) and then descend under the Washington Way bridge. You can visit a narrow peninsula planted with cherries and maples before reaching the Ellis War Memorial Building. The gate into the fenced yard is usually open as is one of the restrooms here. Drop again under the 20th Avenue bridge and then circle around the south end of the lake to get back your vehicle.
Maps
- Maps: Hike Finder
- Lake Sacajawea Mileage Map (City of Longview)
- Lake Sacajawea Frank Willis Arboretum (City of Longview)
Regulations or restrictions, etc
- Dogs on leash
Trip Reports
- Search Trip Reports for Lake Sacajawea Loop Hike
Related Discussions / Q&A
- Search Trail Q&A for Lake Sacajawea Loop Hike
Guidebooks that cover this hike
- Urban Trails: Vancouver by Craig Romano
- Day Hiking Mount St. Helens by Craig Romano & Aaron Theisen
More Links
- Lake Sacajawea (City of Longview)
- Lake Sacajawea Park Trail (All Trails)
- Solar System Walk (City of Longview)
- Lake Sacajawea (Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife)
- "Lake Sacajawea's past helping shape vision for its future" (Daily News)
- Longview – Thumbnail History (HistoryLink.org)
Contributors
- bobcat (creator)