Mom booked a hotel for a night in Sublimity, Oregon because I wanted to be as close to the state park as possible. She wanted to leave Saturday morning and come back Sunday evening to avoid all the holiday traffic. I told her I would drive if we drove her vehicle because I would be driving my vehicle down to Oregon the following weekend for Amy's birthday along the coast. She agreed. The night before I packed up all the stuff I thought I would need and crammed it into my Nike duffel. I knew some of the stuff would have to be packed after I got up in the morning. I grabbed some snacks and drinks because I knew we would need them.
I headed over to mom and dad's house and parked the Escape out of the way just in case dad needed to move cars around. I loaded my stuff into mom's tank and went inside to see if she was ready. She had most of her stuff together and was putting together some snacks in a small cooler. We hopped into the tank and headed towards the freeway via Tenino and Grand Mound. The weather was decent and we didn't have to get gas...at least not yet. This SUV tank holds a lot of gas and we might not even need to get any.
As we were heading down I-5 towards Oregon, I asked mom what else she wanted to do. The typical answer was "I don't know" and that was the answer I got. A few minutes later she added that she saw some places on Pinterest that she would like to see and new they were down by Woodland. I told her to get the addresses so we can put them into the GPS to see if we have to do any back tracking. I told her also down this way, there was a place I kept seeing on Instagram and on people's Facebook pages, called Moulton Falls. She said yeah, let's go see that too. She was on both of them and scribbled down all the notes she could find on the places we were about to go see.
The first one was called the Cedar Creek Grist Mill and it was just outside of Woodland on the Lewis River Road, opposite side of the river from Hwy 503 towards the south side of Mt. St. Helens. We followed the Nuvi around all the twists and turns of this wooded rural road. We finally got to the road, there was a sign for it, and we got stuck behind a bunch of cars you would see at a car show. I wonder what they were doing out here? Turns out the car club was here to check out the Mill this morning while we were here. It made it really hard to find parking with all the cars everywhere. We did manage to find parking at the top of the hill. We grabbed the stuff we would need and walked down.
We went into the Mill and they were actually showing people the process in which they make flour. It was really fun to see the "tour" by one of the volunteers. Just in the short amount of time we were there, we watched him grind the grains into flour he filled up several bags for people to purchase. I was in awe how much flour was made every minute that machine was on. I could see why someone would need a mask when they were in here actually doing work while there were no visitors. You would definitely get some sort of lung problem over the years.
We spent some time walking around and taking pictures. Since there was an event going on with the car show and all, there was a volunteer outside making cinnamon bread from the flour they were grinding. We decided to try some and it was tasty.
I grabbed a brochure to learn more about the Mill:
"The Cedar Creek Mill rests on a steep and rocky slope at the bottom of a narrow gorge (Lewis River). It is the only grain grinding mill in the state of Washington that has maintained its original structural integrity, grinds with stones, and is water-powered. George Woodham and his two sons built the water-powered mill in 1876. Families throughout north Clark County brought their grain to the mill to be ground into flour or livestock feed. According to an old newspaper article, debris fin the swiftly flowing creek damaged the dam that first winter. Woodham moved away in 1879, taking all the equipment with him.
Mike Lynch bought the mill, but it sat for seven years until he leased it to Gustave Utter. At that time a log dam was constructed about eighty feet upstream. Utter built a flume and installed the Leffel turbine, which is still in use today. The mill quickly became the center of activity where dances and musical entertainment were held frequently. Milling fees were often shares of grain, so Utter raised hogs, which could be sold for badly needed cash. By 1901, Utter couldn't keep the mill operating profitably, so he moved.
Gorund Roslund purchased the mill in 1905 but wasn't able to get the mill in operation until 1909. He added a shingle mill to the rear of the original structure. This addition was removed in the 1980's during the restoration. By 1912 logging was booming and a machine shop was desperately needed. Victor, one of the Roslund sons, was a mechanic and turned the entire lower floor into a machine shop.
Soon the shed on the front of the mill was added as a blacksmith shop. It was operated by Elmer, another of the Roslund sons. Victor remained a bachelor and turned the upper floor into an apartment. Once again musical entertainment were common occurrences in the building. Victor died in the late 1950's. The State Fisheries Department bought the property, removed the old dam, and built a fish ladder. Time and weather took its toll on the mill. The Fort Vancouver Historical Society leased the mill in 1961. They got the Mill registered as a Historical Place and replaced the rotting foundation.
By 1980, the old grist mill had suffered from both weather and vandals. A group of local residents decided to save the historical structure and formed "The Friends of the Cedar Creek Grist Mill", a non-profit corporation. Dedicated volunteers used broad axes and adzes to replace the posts and beams authentically. The women held bazaars and raffles to help raise badly needed funds for the massive restoration process. They also kept the men at the "work parties" fed. The flume was completed in 1989 and extends 650 feet up Cedar Creek. The group met its first major goal on November 11, 1989, when it ground wheat in celebration of Washington State's Centennial.
The Cedar Creek Grist Mill is a working museum, showing visitors the inside workings of a grist mill of that time period. A covered bridge spanning Cedar Creek was completed in 1994, and continues to draw visitors from all over the United States. Many businesses and individuals have donated materials and cash to the project, and donations are still used for ongoing restoration projects. Our volunteers work the Mill, answer questions about the old style milling process and welcome visitors from around the globe."
We took a few more pictures, walked back up the hill to the tank and went to our next destination. We plugged in the Moulton Falls address into the Nuvi and had her take us the quickest way there. We went through the small towns of Amboy and Yacolt to Moulton Falls. We found the parking lot, ate a snack, grabbed our stuff and headed out. We started exploring the south side of the highway before we moved onto the north side to explore some more. Moulton Falls is a Clark County Park and is located on the East Fork of the Lewis River.
We walked out towards the concrete bridge that arcs over the river. It was very picturesque and our photos turned out great. There were some people along the shoreline enjoying their day and a few of them out in the river wading and swimming. It really wasn't that warm out but everyone had a different threshold.
I tried to figure out which trail we needed to get a few of the caches in the park. I ended up looking for four of them but only found one. That one, Bridge View (GC6QC90) was down below the trail. I actually had to climb down to a rocky landing to find it. After a few minutes of checking every place I could, the coords jumped around a lot, I finally found it and made my way back up to where mom was.
We saw some girls riding horses across the bridge. We asked where all the trails went and they really weren't sure because it was their first time here as well.
We walked back to where we parked and headed over to the other side of the park. I didn't have any luck finding those caches either but we attempted them. We did find a really cool part of the falls though.
After exploring for a bit we headed back to the car and followed our way out through Battle Ground to Vancouver and finally onto I-205. We followed the freeway until it linked back onto I-5 just south of Tualatin. We followed the Nuvi through Salem and then onto Hwy 22. Our hotel was not that far off of the highway.
We checked in at the Rodeway Inn and Suites that we booked for a night because it was cheap and near the state park. We brought in our stuff and decided what we should do for dinner. I got onto the internet and looked for a close by restaurant that had good reviews and came up with a place called Cheers on 1st in Stayton, the next town over. I put it into the GPS and it took us right there. It was definitely a hole-in-the-wall bar and grill. We sat down and our waiter asked us what we wanted to drink, I got a pop and mom got a water. She left us with some menus to check out. Mom decided on a burger and fries and I got a French dip sandwich and chips. The food was surprisingly good. We watched college softball super regionals as we ate our food. We paid, thanked them and headed out the door.
I wanted to find a few caches so I looked at the app to see what was nearby. Santiam Summerfest (GC5XRJN) was hidden right in the middle of town underneath a bench. Of course it was a nano. I signed our names and put it back as quick as I could.
We drove to the next one, Historic Stayton: The Moving/Burnt/Replaced Bridge (GC1KH0P) and tried looking for it but I believe it was missing. It still brought us to a really cool place though. We've always enjoyed the Oregon covered bridges. We took a few pictures and enjoyed the warm evening.
On the way back to the hotel we stopped at one more at the park and ride. I drove right up to it, Park and Ride (GC5ZBM7) signed our names and then I dropped mom off at the hotel and walked over to the last one for the evening, Our Home (GC5BKP4).
We went to bed just after 10 p.m. so we could get up early, check out and make our way to the park before it got busy.
Next Adventure: Silver Falls State Park Hike, Witch's Castle and Papa Pete's
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