Cowlitz River Blue Creek Boat Ramp

The Cowlitz River Blue Creek Ramp, was a nice launching ramp on the Cowlitz River, very close to the Cowlitz Trout Hatchery.

This launch ramp is where lots of Pro Fishing Guides trust launching their high dollar jet boats from. It has a wide, nicely-tapered concrete launch ramp, with no sudden drop-offs.

Todd, our guide, from Two Tails Guide Service, told us that this was typically a good area to fish, during peak Steelhead Runs here, as the Steelhead Trout, which return from the ocean to spawn, were raised just a short distance away, at the Cowlitz Trout Hatchery. Because of this, the Steelies will stick around, for long periods of time, in this 2 mile stretch of the Cowlitz River.

It was a pretty crazy day, weather-wise, on the Cowlitz. We left the boat launch at 6:45am, on 4/3/23. Skies were dark then, with strong cloud-cover obliterating any sunlight from seeping out early. Temp on the water then, was a chilly 40 degrees F.

As the day wore on, we'd get patches of bright blue sky, with huge puffy white clouds that'd quickly drift past us. The bright sunshine beaming down on us, during these stretches, felt so rejuvenating.

Then, moments later, dark clouds would sail back into position, blocking all that scintillating sunlight. Moments after that, small pellets of hail began incessantly pounding down, & the wind would pick up noticeably. The hail felt worst, whenever our fishing guide, Todd, went to reposition the boat, up river. We'd be flying across the water, directly into the hail & wind, with small hailstones bouncing wrecklessly off our faces. This is typical Spring-time weather in this part of Washington, according to my son.

We saw two groups of Blacktail Deer along the Cowlitz River. 3 of the 6 deer in the large group eased themselves into the edge of the river, & played there a bit, until our boat spooked them back onto the bank. I also saw 2 Bald Eagles- one of them flying directly over our heads, plus 2 of the larger Golden Eagles.

Earlier in the day, we saw 3 large fish leap acrobatically out of the water, before splashing back into the Cowlitz. Parts of this river were scenic, & hard to look away from, especially bathed in majestic sunlight.

As far as amenities go for this boat ramp, there were 2 concrete block-built restrooms with pit toilets in them, which looked rather sketchy, cleanliness-wise. There were also several Porta Potties, near the boat launch. Didn't go in any of those, but I'm guessing they weren't pristine, either. That said, hey, when nature calls, you can't always be too picky about the details.

There was a large parking area here, at Cowlitz River Blue Creek Boat Ramp, perfectly-capable of handling all parking needs, of folks trying to launch their boat, even on a busy day at this boat launch.