The River is Risin' Again!!!!

The peace at our 'almost Christmas' park has been a little jangled by the river rising rapidly today.

 The Park Office and shop where we are located is about a half mile from the entrance and the main part of the park borders the river about 1 and 1/2 miles away.  The entire area is called Mission Bottoms and floods every winter and spring.  The office is in the trees beyond the cars.  (Click on the picture and you can see our trailer beyond the flagpole.)

This field is down the hill from the office and parking area pictured above.  The Willamette River is just beyond the distant tree line.  In an extreme flood in 1996 the entire field was a lake.  Even then the Office and Shop stayed dry.  The road through the park winds along the field toward the river.

The low area at the sign and depth post will become a creek as the River floods back into it when it reaches the 24-26 foot level.  There's another dip at the end of the field which floods at 12 feet.  Prior to the 1861 Flood it was the original River channel.  We checked it at about 2pm and took this photo.

At the low point in the road the water pushes through with quite a current as it rushes past the boat ramp farther down the lake.  This 'old channel' is called Mission Lake.  The Methodist mission to the local Kalapooya tribe was built along what is now the Lake, but was the river in 1834.   Because of the constant flooding the 1834 mission families moved in 1841 to establish the town of Salem, about 10 miles south of the Park.  The edge of the Lake is normally out there at the boat launch deck.

The Lake cuts through the lower part of the park and rejoins the river at the Bike Trail Bridge.  The Bridge gets swamped by the merger of the Lake and the River frequently.   Terry helped remove the bridge rails about a month ago.   Tonight as the river continues to rise the bridge will be covered.

It has been amazing to watch all these changes today as Terry has monitored the river levels on the computer.  The river will continue to rise as the Cascade Mountains get more rain tonight.  These picnic tables might not be visible by morning.  It's a little wet for a picnic anyway!!!