We Love Highway 14: Steigerwald Lake Traditional Cache

This is the eleventh in our series of caches designed to share the awe-inspiring scenery and rich history of Highway 14 along the Columbia River. You won't need a calculator for this cache hunt, but you might want to bring your binoculars and a camera. We hope you enjoy the wildlife here as much as we do.

The area surrounding you is the Steigerwald Lake National Wildlife Refuge. It consists of more than 950 acres of historic lakebed and river bottomland habitat with wetlands, riparian areas, grasslands and hardwood forest. The refuge provides habitat for wintering waterfowl and year-round habitat for a variety of wildlife species. It also borders and can be viewed from State Highway 14.

Steigerwald Lake is a former floodplain that was diked in 1964 to create an industrial park. Dredge spoils from the Columbia River were pumped over the dike filling in much of the wetlands. The Steigerwald Lake National Wildlife Refuge was created in 1984, in part to mitigate the habitat losses resulting from construction of the second powerhouse at Bonneville Dam.

The cache container is a large ammo box. The closest parking spot for this cache is at N45°33.851 / W122°19.961. The walk is about 1½ miles on a level surface. This would be an excellent cache to do by bicycle.