Lake River is a tributary, about long, of the

Columbia River The Columbia River (Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, C ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

River mile A river mile is a measure of distance in miles along a river from its mouth. River mile numbers begin at zero and increase further upstream. The corresponding metric unit using kilometers is the river kilometer. They are analogous to vehicle road ...

s are marked and numbered on the relevant map quadrangles: Vancouver, Ridgefield, and St. Helens. It flows north from

Vancouver Lake Vancouver Lake is located just west of Vancouver, Washington, United States, north of the Columbia River and Portland, Oregon, south of Ridgefield, Washington, and the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge. The lake is shallow, with a maximum depth ...

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

to meet the larger river near Ridgefield and the northern tip of

Bachelor Island The Elizabeth Islands are a chain of small islands extending southwest from the southern coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts in the United States. They are located at the outer edge of Buzzards Bay, north of Martha's Vineyard, from which they are ...

. The

Wilkes Expedition The United States Exploring Expedition of 1838–1842 was an exploring and surveying expedition of the Pacific Ocean and surrounding lands conducted by the United States. The original appointed commanding officer was Commodore Thomas ap Catesby ...

of 1841 referred to Lake River as ''Calipaya Inlet''. The river is part of the Lewis River – Vancouver Lake Water Trail linking Vancouver Lake to

Woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (see ...

by waters suitable for

kayak A kayak is a small, narrow watercraft which is typically propelled by means of a double-bladed paddle. The word kayak originates from the Greenlandic word ''qajaq'' (). The traditional kayak has a covered deck and one or more cockpits, each se ...

s and other boats. Portions of the

Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge is a wildlife refuge, one of the national wildlife refuges operated by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, located in the westernmost part of Clark County, Washington. The refuge protects more than o ...

border the river.

Course

Lake River, a "slow, flat slough of the Columbia River", loses only in elevation over its entire course. It flows north, roughly parallel to the Columbia until curving slightly northwest to join it. At times, tidal fluctuations and high flows along the Columbia cause Lake River to flow backwards into the lake, sometimes for long periods. Flowing out of the lake and Vancouver Lake Park, the river receives Buckmire Slough from the

left Left may refer to: Music * ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006 * ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016 * "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album ''Curb'', 1996 Direction * Left (direction), the relative direction opposite of right * L ...

. Beyond the confluence, Shillapoo Wildlife Area is to the left, and the unincorporated community of Felida is to the

right Rights are law, legal, social, or ethics, ethical principles of Liberty, freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convent ...

. About further downstream, Salmon Creek enters from the right. Over the next , the river passes between Curtis Lake on the right and Round Lake on the left. About from the

mouth In animal anatomy, the mouth, also known as the oral cavity, or in Latin cavum oris, is the opening through which many animals take in food and issue vocal sounds. It is also the cavity lying at the upper end of the alimentary canal, bounded on ...

, Lake River enters Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge and passes between Green Lake on the right and Post Office Lake on the left. Whipple Creek enters from the right at RM 7 (RK 11). Over the next , Campbell Lake is on the left. Flume Creek enters from the right about from the mouth. The river exits the wildlife refuge, and about from the mouth, the stream curves to the northwest and enters Ridgefield, which is on the right. A mile or so later, Bachelor Island Slough enters from the left, and Carty Lake is on the right as the stream re-enters the wildlife refuge. Lake River enters the Columbia River at the north tip of Bachelor Island, about upstream of the mouth of the Lewis River and about from the Columbia's mouth on the Pacific Ocean.

Watershed and water quality

Lake River drains more than . The watershed includes the mostly urban catchment of Burnt Bridge Creek, which empties into Vancouver Lake. Also parts of the watershed are the lake and its surrounds, land along the

main stem In hydrology, a mainstem (or trunk) is "the primary downstream segment of a river, as contrasted to its tributaries". Water enters the mainstem from the river's drainage basin, the land area through which the mainstem and its tributaries flow.. A ...

, and the urban, suburban, rural lands along tributary streams, principally Salmon, Whipple, and Flume creeks. The water quality of all these water bodies is relatively poor.

References

{{authority control Rivers of Washington (state) Rivers of Clark County, Washington Tributaries of the Columbia River

Course

Watershed and water quality

See also

References