I’ve always been a sun worshipper. There are summertime photos of me as an energetic, outdoorsy child covered in thick layers of dirt and skin that’s tanned to glowing perfection.
Decades later, it feels like either the sun has grown stronger or my skin has grown crispier. I used to yearn to run in the sun. Nowadays I’m more apt to seek shelter from its rays.
If you’re eager to exercise and explore outdoors — but not to fry under the surprisingly intense Northwest summertime sky — you’re in luck. Here’s a list of nearby paths and trails where a late-summer ramble won’t melt your face off. Try these to feel made in the shade.
Burnt Bridge Creek Trail
If you’ve never sampled Vancouver’s most diverse, most accessible and longest pedestrian trail — which meanders from woodsy wetland to streetscape to city park and back again — now’s the ideal time. Most of Burnt Bridge Creek’s paved westernmost segment passes through a sweet, shady tunnel of maples, firs and oaks.
Park on Bernie Drive, just off Fruit Valley Road, and you can walk east on that paved pathway for about 2½ miles before emerging onto Hazel Dell Avenue, where you can turn around or keep going for more miles. (The whole trail length is just over 8 miles.)
Along the way, don’t miss the Gnome Trail, a gathering of miniature, magical beings in the forest.
(Similar magic to the north: The Salmon Creek Greenway Trail is another paved, accessible, east-west walkway. While it’s significantly shorter — and sunnier— than Burnt Bridge Creek Trail, Salmon Creek also offers designated, unpaved side trails that hug the shady woods. Restful shade can also be found at Klineline Pond, on Salmon Creek’s east end, but to avoid the $3 parking fee, try the softball field complex at 800 N.E. 117th St.)
“A deep forest experience without the drive” is how the grassroots Washington Trails Association describes the 300-acre Whipple Creek Regional Park. Go past the Clark County Fairgrounds on 179th Street and turn left on dead-end Northwest 21st Avenue to park. Don’t be surprised to see riders on horseback and on bicycles, because Whipple Creek is shared by equestrians, cyclists and pedestrians.
Plunge into the forest on trails that are unpaved but improved with packed gravel and lovingly cared for by groups of volunteers like the local Whipple Creek Park Restoration Committee and Washington Trails Association. In addition to 4.3 miles of sloping gravel trails, there are many more miles of unimproved loops, crisscrosses and shortcuts here. They do get complicated, so it’s a good thing detailed maps are posted at the trailhead and at many trail intersections.
Admire huge cedars, firs and ferns as you explore. Bragging rights if you make it all the way to the old (and sadly graffitied) stone mill that still stands like a sentinel near the south edge of the park.
(Similar magic to the east: The trail network at Lacamas Regional Park and Round Lake is deep, cool and complicated. The half-mile trail between Lower Falls and Pothole Falls has been closed for the next couple of years as a damaged foot bridge is replaced, but there’s still lots to enjoy here. Parking is at Round Lake or off Northeast Third Avenue.)
Bending around and through the forested edges of the Washington State University Vancouver campus are six surprisingly engaging — even challenging — miles of hidden hiking trails and historical interpretive signs. There’s even more if you follow the trail across Salmon Creek Avenue and the pedestrian bridge into Pleasant Valley Community Park.
What once was a storied private resort — crowded with cabins, kids, boats, wooden swim tanks and a legendary slippery boardwalk — has long since settled back as a tranquil state park. It’s still a popular getaway where people rent boats, fish and camp, but there are 10 miles of moderately challenging, deeply shaded hiking trails here too. The closest-in lakeshore loop is good for a 1-mile workout, but larger concentric rings and connecting trails can make your hike longer. Woods all the way.
Because Battle Ground Lake is a state park, the usual $5 day-use fee applies there.
While you can’t quite walk all the way around Vancouver Lake, you sure can disappear into the quiet cottonwood forest on its upper west side if you follow the so-called North Trail. Pay a $3 fee to park in the gated parking area and walk north past the picnic shelters to enter the woods. Or drive farther up the road and size up the two roadside trailheads there, which feel a bit remote and are notably unkempt, but send walkers directly into the trees.
The wooded section of trail, built entirely by Washington Trail Association volunteers, is only about 1 mile long.
No local hiking trail is cooler and shadier than this unlit, unheated, underground lava tube. The 2½-mile-long tunnel was formed by the slow flow of basalt lava from a vent on the side of Mount St. Helens about 2,000 years ago. When the superhot lava sank away again, it left behind distinct shelves and the baked-slick skin that gives Ape Cave such a smooth, shiny appearance.
Ape Cave is so popular, it requires timed reservations ($2) to go inside. Day-use parking costs an additional $5. Lantern rentals cost $5 too. Yes, you do need to supply your own light down there. More is better: both a headlamp and a flashlight. Cellphone lights aren’t adequate.
Even when it’s hot and bright up on the surface, Ape Cave is always a chilly 42 degrees. Bundle up!
