Adventures in Nature: Flaming Geyser State Park.

My eight-year-old son Malachi and I are on a quest this spring: To visit every Washington State park in our three-county region.

This includes state parks across King, Pierce and Thurston counties in western Washington State -- a total of 16 parks.

Our goal is to learn more about the history of each park -- most importantly, the reason for its designation as a protected area -- and, of course, to spend time in each park, enjoying the natural features, historic areas, and hiking trails.

Our first stop was Flaming Geyser State Park, located just east of Auburn, Washington, in King County, and set alongside a beautiful stretch of the Green River.

Despite having lived with Malachi in downtown Auburn for a short time before a COVID-19 pandemic-pricing inspired home purchase, we never made the short drive out to Flaming Geyser State Park.

I never knew it existed!

If I had, I absolutely would have visited. The park landscape is very pretty, but the history of the park -- the whole "flaming geyser" part of it -- is fascinating. (I mean, from a geological perspective, if you happen to be the sort of person who finds geology "fascinating." I am such a person.)

Here's the story:

Flaming Geyser State Park straddles the Green River at the lower end of the Green River Gorge, a unique place where sandstone bedrock, covered by glacial deposits in most of the Puget Sound lowlands, is revealed by the downcutting of the river through the formation. Seams of coal interwoven with the sandstone fueled a mining industry in the local area. On October 4, 1911, coal miner Eugene Lawson drilled a test bore in today’s park area, attempting to locate a coal seam. At 390 feet deep, he found a seam 6.5 feet thick. Methane gas began releasing out of the hole as the drill depth passed 900 feet, on its way to a final depth of 1,403 feet. Returning to the drilled hole a week later, Lawson observed gas and saltwater 'bubbling furiously' out of the hole. He ignited the gas and it burned, with a flame from 5 inches to three feet in height, occasionally leaping up to fifteen feet. The methane seep has depleted over time, and the flame sometimes blows out. It is usually easily relit, though, and serves as a reminder of the park’s past. (Read more here.)

While we managed to catch ourselves a day with some sunshine, and even a little bit of seasonal "warmth" (mid-40s), the ground was still wet and the clouds were spitting. (It was January 9th in the Pacific Northwest, after all.)

Unfortunately, whether as a result of the depleted and now erratic gas seep, or the consistent wetness of winter, we did not see much in the way of an actual flame. BUT, the water around the "geyser" was certainly bubbling.