Welcome to John Carr Outdoors! 

Please visit the blog and follow. The follow button can be found at the bottom of the page. 

If you are seeing this on Facebook, click the link to visit the blog to see all of the photos.

Henry Hagg Lake

In late April my destination was the eastern foothills of the Coastal Mountains.

A 14-mile up-and-down trail travels around Henry Hagg Lake, the impoundment behind Scoggins Valley Dam.

There are five creeks flowing into the 2 1/2-mile long reservoir, providing outstanding habitat for song birds, wildflowers, blacktail deer and butterflies.

On the bad news side, the trail was closed after five miles due to construction work on a bridge. I had to turn around and return the way I came.

On the good news side, early colorful wildflowers were strutting their stuff. And, to my delight, calypso and striped coral root orchids were in bloom.

By May the orchids will be ubiquitous in the shaded forest duff throughout the lower elevations of the Coastal Mountains and the Columbia River Gorge.