| Trout Creek Hill | |
|---|---|
  Trout Creek Hill Location of Trout Creek Hill | |
| Highest point | |
| Elevation | 2,946 feet (898 m) |
| Coordinates | 45°50′11″N121°59′41″W / 45.8365040°N 121.9948065°W /45.8365040; -121.9948065[1] |
| Geography | |
| Location | Skamania County, Washington, US |
| Parent range | Cascade Range |
| Topo map | USGS Stabler |
| Geology | |
| Rock age | Pleistocene |
| Mountain type | Shield volcano |
| Volcanic field | Marble Mountain-Trout Creek Hill |
| Last eruption | 340,000 years ago |
Trout Creek Hill is a smallPleistocenebasalticshield volcano inWashington, United States. Located inSkamania County, Trout Creek Hill rises to an elevation of 2,946 feet (898 m). It is part of theCascade Volcanic Arc, located in theMarble Mountain-Trout Creek Hill volcanic field.
Trout Creek Hill produced a lava flow about 340,000 years ago that traveled 20 km (12 mi) southeast, which dammed theColumbia River for a short period of time.[2] A shield volcano, it has twocinder cones atop it. The nearby area is forested and hosts theWind River Experimental Forest, and it can be hiked.
Located inSkamania County inWashington state, in the United States, Trout Creek Hill rises to an elevation of 2,946 feet (898 m).[1][a] It is also known as Trout Hill, and was registered with the United StatesGeographic Names Information System in 1979.[1] The region has a "rugged" topography carved by glaciers andcirques, which have created glacial valleys.[3]
Trout Creek Hill and the rest of the Marble Mountain–Trout Creek Hill field can be accessed by roads in theGifford Pinchot National Forest andMount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument. Washington Route 503 and Forest Service Route 90 lie 31 miles (50 km) to the east of Woodland. To reach Trout Creek Hill, visitors should travel north on the Wind River highway and follow Forest Service road 54.[4]
The area around Trout Creek Hill contains theWind River Experimental Forest, which containsWestern hemlock,Douglas fir, andPacific silver fir.[5] Known as "the cradle of forest research in thePacific Northwest",[6] the Wind River Forest represents a center for ecological research. It lies east ofVancouver, Washington, and it is administered by theUnited States Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station and the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.[6] The forest encloses ponds, streams, and wetland marshes, with otherconifers present includinggrand firs,noble firs, andPacific yews,western red cedars, as well as other tree species consisting ofbigleaf maples,black cottonwoods,Pacific dogwoods, andred alders. Smaller plants include shrubs in theunderstory such asbig huckleberry,Oregon grape,Pacific rhododendron,red huckleberry,salal, andvine maple. Other forest floor plants include thebrackenfern,prince's pine,swordfern,trillium,twinflower,queencup beadlily, andvanilla leaf, withbeargrass and huckleberry at higher elevations.[6]
As far as animal life, forest visitors often seeDouglas squirrels, though nine species ofbats, threeshrew species, threevole species, one species offlying squirrel, andTownsend's chipmunks can also be seen less frequently.Black-tailed deer andelk are often hunted by predator species. Predators in the forest area consist ofAmerican black bears,bobcats,cougars,coyotes,martens, andweasels. Bird species includebrown creepers;dark-eyed juncos;goshawks;hairy woodpeckers;Northern spotted owls, which are athreatened species;pileated woodpeckers;red-breasted nuthatches; andwinter wrens. In the Trout and Panther Creeks,rainbow trout are residents throughout the year, as are summer and winter steelhead, the onlyanadromous (migratory) fish in the streams. Easternbrook trout only inhabit Trout Creek.[6]
In southern Washington state, the Cascade Range sits south of the dacitic volcanic belt running fromMount Garibaldi toLassen Peak, which spans 600 miles (970 km) fromBritish Columbia in Canada tonorthern California in the United States. Volcanoes in the range have been produced bysubduction of theJuan de Fuca tectonic plate under theNorth American Plate. The Washington Cascades consist ofCenozoic era volcanic andintrusive rocks,[7] and they can be divided into two segments based on age and rock type: the Western Cascades (formed between 50 and 5 million years ago) and the High Cascades (produced within the past 5 million years).[7] Whereas the High Cascades have largely been unaffected by geological deformation processes, the Western Cascades are more folded and faulted.[8]
In the Wind River area, the Cascades sit atop Cenozoic era lava flows andvolcaniclastic deposits, which have acalc-alkaline composition. Divided into the Ohanapecosh Formation, Eagle Creek Formation, Yakima Basalt, and Quaternary basalt flows, they show variable thickness and topographies.[9] The Cascade Arc formed during theOligocene epoch, and by the lateMiocene epoch there was a low but broad gap between the Washington segment of the arc and Cascade volcanoes in Oregon. Activity picked up during the Quaternary period in Washington, as andesitic stratovolcanoes and small, olivine basalt cinder cones and shield volcanoes erupted.[10] Before the Pleistocene, uplift and erosion was widespread, which was followed by eruptions from the northeastern part of the Wind River area during the early Pleistocene. Like Red Mountain, a shield volcano with cinder cones, Trout Creek Hill formed west of the Wind River area.[11]
Rocks in the Wind River area have not been altered significantly byorogenic movement (large structural deformation of the Earth'scrust and uppermostmantle due to the interaction betweenplate tectonics).[12] There are a number of faults, but they show relatively little displacement.[13] The western slope of the Wind River valley is shaped like afault scarp, and it seems to be aligned with Trout Creek Hill, suggesting a potential fault line there that trends to the northwest.[14] However, the six or seven emplaced lava flow deposits in the area only show small amounts of alteration to the west of the valley, and they show no alteration to the east. Moreover, there are only three significantly altered deposits along the Bear Creek.[14]
Trout Creek Hill lies in theQuaternaryMarble Mountain-Trout Creek Hill volcanic field in southern Washington state, formed by smallbasaltic andbasaltic andesiteshield volcanoes andcinder cones.[2] This field runs from Marble Mountain to the area to the south of Trout Creek Hill.[2] Located south ofMount St. Helens, it extends for 40 miles (65 km) and has a width of 12 miles (20 km). It consists of mostlymonogeneticscoria cones, each of which produced three or four lava flows. There are at least 22 cones, and all volcanic landforms older than 12,000 years have been glaciated, the oldest the Soda Peaks basalt lava flows, dated to 0.36 million years old.[15]
Trout Creek is a shield volcano.[2] Small in size, it is topped by two nearby cinder cones that produced dark gray olivine basalt lava flows with glomeroporphyritic olivine inclusions.[16]Hornblende andesite can also be found northwest of the Trout Creek Hill volcano, nearWest Crater.[17]
Trout Creek Hill erupted approximately 340,000 years ago during thePleistocene, producing a lava flow that extended 12 miles (20 km) to the southeast and temporarily dammed theColumbia River.[2] This eruption produced high-aluminaolivine basalt,[18] which make up the shield volcano and possess a dark gray color.[19] Lava flows from the two cinder cones on Trout Creek Hill did not move far to the west from their source vents, instead moving to the southeast down the Wind River Valley into the Columbia River and around Bunker Hill. Within Wind River valley, these deposits reach depths of more than 325 feet (99 m) at the Bear Creek, Panther Creek, and Wind River junction; the shorter flows that extended to the west likely exceed thicknesses of 200 feet (61 m) with lengths of 1.5 miles (2.4 km).[16] Other lava flows from Trout Creek Hill are also embedded withtill from Salmon Springs and Fraser Glaciation, but their exact age is unknown.[20] Basaltic lavas from Trout Creek Hill show alithology ofpāhoehoe toblocky olivine, with pyroxene, breccia, scoria, and cinder deposits.[21]
Within the Marble Mountain–Trout Creek Hill field, there have been three eruptions during theHolocene epoch: at West Crater, another cone near Hackamore Creek, and aphreatic vent (producing steam and rock fragments) near Bare Mountain. These all took place about 8,000 years ago. The West Crater eruption generated an andesiticlava dome and lava flow, while the Bare Mountain vent formed a large explosioncrater at Bare Mountain.[2]
While overnight facilities at Wind River Forest can only be used by researchers, there is camping permitted at the Panther Creek and Beaver campgrounds on the Gifford Pinchot National Forest area. Their popularity means that reservations are often necessary. Motels are also available in Carson and Stevenson, as are restaurants. The Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail #2000 can be hiked, moving through the Trout Creek division of Wind River Forest. Whistle Punk Trail 59 runs for 1.5 miles (2.4 km) through young forest area near the experimental forest, with a short span ofold-growth forest.[6] It offers views of logging artifacts and an old railroad.[22] Sedum Point, located along part of the Pacific Crest Trail, offers views of the Trout Creek Hill volcano.[23]
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