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Through a partnership between Lewis County Parks and Recreation and the Packwood Improvement Club (PIC), the Cowlitz River Public Access Park has received a “soft open,” according to Parks and Recreation Director Connie Riker.
The PIC is opening and closing the gates to the park in the morning and night now, and folks can use the park seven days a week. It is just off Skate Creek Road at milepost .05 on Alta Drive.
The park has been in the works for several years and will soon receive a grand opening, giving visitors easier access to the Cowlitz.
Previously, Riker said, folks who were using the area to fish or hang out near the river would park along the road and walk down. The opening of the park allows more safe, off-road parking, bathrooms and a picnic area, plus a small trail that makes it easier to walk down to the river.
There is no boat launch at the park, but with the trail, the river is now more accessible to hand-carried boats such as canoes and kayaks.
The park also has educational signage about plants, birds and fish visitors might see.
Commissioner Lee Grose, of Packwood, who is also a former PIC president, suggested during a Monday morning meeting that the park be named after Fire Chief Lonnie Goble, who has played a role in community projects including this one.
Commissioner Lindsey Pollock said she wasn’t sure she was comfortable naming the park after someone who is alive, so the conversation about the park’s official name was tabled. It has been an agenda item in many county meetings over the last few months.
Previous suggestions for the park’s name have included Gary Stamper Memorial Park after the late District 3 commissioner who preceded Grose. Because there were several other county projects proposed to be named after Stamper underway, the commissioners decided to wait to see how those shake out, Riker said.
The grand opening has not yet been scheduled, Riker said, but she expects it may be toward the end of this month.
