Hi, I'm Eric.

I’m an avid world traveler, photographer, software developer, and digital storyteller.

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16
Flaming Geyser State Park
16

Flaming Geyser State Park

east of Auburn, Washington
visited 17 January 2021
Back to parks list

Alas, there are no flames. No geyser, either. I’m told that I arrived a bit late for that party. Like several decades too late. But the park did offer a nice hike along the Green River and some fun stories from days of yore.

A dry, rock-lined circular pit set in a gravel clearing, filled with smooth river stones and fallen leaves, at Flaming Geyser State Park. Behind it a fast-flowing creek rushes past a wooden rail fence, surrounded by lush green ferns and mossy Pacific Northwest forest.
For a time after the initial well was drilled in the 1910s, flames here would burn as much as 15 feet tall. But with the methane largely exhausted, the geyser is no more.

All is not lost, though. A short hike up Cristy Creek leads to another methane deposit that is still active.

Dubbed Bubbling Geyser, this one has an interesting appearance because the methane exits near the creek and interacts with minerals to create silver-colored stringy deposits that dissipate into the creek.

A small forest stream rushes over rocks and fallen branches, its surface streaked with white frothy currents, bordered by banks covered in wet brown autumn leaves, green moss, and twigs.
A fast-moving, swollen creek churns with whitewater and foam as it rushes over rocks through a forested ravine, flanked by banks of green ferns, moss-covered logs, and fallen brown autumn leaves.
Cristy Creek is swollen with winter rainfall.
A wet, moss-covered forest floor with runoff water streaming over gravel and fallen leaves, scattered with evergreen and mossy deciduous trees, ferns, and cedars under an overcast winter sky.
Cristy Creek, eager to merge with the Green River, spills through an area typically used for picnicking.
A dense web of exposed tree roots sprawling across a bare, eroded hillside in a misty forest, the moss-covered roots fanning out from the base of a large tree amid fallen leaves, ferns, and foggy trees in the background.
Putting down roots? Mission accomplished.
A dense evergreen and bare-branch forest climbing a hillside under a heavy, overcast sky, with low fog rolling through the treetops and softening the ridgeline in the distance.
The massive base of a tree with thick reddish-brown bark largely blanketed in vivid green moss, photographed up close in a damp forest. Blurred evergreen foliage and another tree trunk appear in the background to the right.
A misty forest hillside at Flaming Geyser State Park near Auburn, Washington, with bare moss-covered deciduous trees leaning over a dirt trail, surrounded by evergreen conifers and green sword ferns under a pale winter sky.

This park offers a couple miles of access to the Green River, which sometimes draws adventurous kayakers. With the river beyond its banks and rushing wildly, I thought it best to stay on land this time.

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