Hi, I'm Eric.

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

I help implement the Content Authenticity Initiative at Adobe.

ericscouten.com

Subscribe / Follow · Now

ericscouten.com

Subscribe / Follow · Now

Search Results

84
Paradise Point State Park
84

Paradise Point State Park

north of Ridgefield, Washington
visited 22 January 2022
Back to parks list

At first glance, this park doesn’t quite seem like “paradise.” If you don’t get out of your car, all you’ll see is a disc golf course with a six-lane freeway running above it. It’s pretty noisy, as you might imagine.

But don’t stop there. That would miss the back-story of this park. You can hike back along the east fork of the Lewis River and quickly lose the commotion of the freeway. In less than a mile, you’re in a completely different and very quiet world.

It’s worth doing.

A metal disc golf basket stands on a bright green grassy field, with a tall concrete highway overpass carrying an RV crossing at left and a stand of evergreen and bare deciduous trees under a blue sky with scattered clouds.
A cluster of bright green licorice ferns growing from a thick, moss-covered tree trunk in a forest, their fronds cascading down over the mossy bark. Bare branches and greenery fill the shaded background.
A bare-branched tree silhouetted along the edge of a calm river at Paradise Point State Park, its arching branches reflecting in the still water, with sunlit leafless trees, evergreens, and a golden reedy bank across the water under a deep blue sky.
A narrow dirt hiking trail winding through a forest of tall evergreen conifers, flanked by dense green sword ferns and a ground carpeted with fallen brown leaves. A hillside meadow with dry golden grass is visible in the background through the trees under a bright sky.
A close-up of a tree trunk with rough gray-brown furrowed bark on the left, partially draped with strands of green moss and hanging fibrous lichen that grow more densely toward the right side.
An upward view into a forest canopy, with tall, moss-draped tree trunks and bare, tangled branches converging against a pale blue winter sky.
A close-up of a tree trunk with lush bright green feathery moss growing thickly on the left half, while the right half shows textured, cracked grayish-brown bark dotted with wispy dried lichen and small moss patches.
A close-up of the forest floor densely carpeted with small round-lobed green plants, some tinged pink and reddish, growing amid moss, twigs, and dark soil, with a moss-covered fallen green glass bottle partly visible at upper left.
A narrow dirt footpath winds through tall golden and green grasses toward a river, with evergreen and bare deciduous trees lining the far bank under a clear violet-blue sky.
A dirt hiking trail edged with a low line of moss-covered stones winds along a moss-and-fern-covered rocky bank on the right, with bare and evergreen tree branches overhanging from the left under an overcast winter sky.
A dense evergreen forest hillside where a large cedar tree grows from a mossy rock outcrop, its exposed roots sprawling across bare eroded soil, with ferns and moss scattered over the rocks.
A narrow dirt footpath winds between moss-covered, bare-branched trees and dry winter grasses along the bank of a river at Paradise Point State Park, with evergreens and pale afternoon light in the distance.
A weathered concrete bridge pier in the foreground bears a faded stenciled red warning reading “Unguarded Beach, No Lifeguard” along with white spray-painted graffiti, while a steel girder highway bridge crosses a calm greenish river beside a sandy beach under a clear blue sky.

For more information:

If you’ve enjoyed this …

Subscribe to my free and occasional (never more than weekly) e-mail newsletter with my latest travel and other stories:

Or follow me on one or more of the socials: