Discover Kalama

Transportation history and river parks offer different focuses for a trip to Kalama. The Transportation Interpretive Center and the Historic Downtown Walking Tour explore different aspects of local history, while the parks feature trails, river access, and sand volleyball courts. If you’re looking for a hotel in Kalama, these differences can help you decide which themes you’d like to shape your trip.

Transportation History and Kalama’s Past

The Transportation Interpretive Center tells how transportation shaped Kalama’s settlement and development. Immersive exhibit models, replicas, and videos explore this theme in a variety of formats. In this way, the center connects the broader question of transportation’s role in the community with specific exhibits.

Also on display is the 1917 Northern Pacific steam locomotive. During its years in service, it traveled railroad lines through early Kalama. The locomotive is a concrete example of the broader transportation history the center tells in the context of settlement and development.

The Historic Downtown Walking Tour offers a different perspective. Its 18 brief historical features cover Kalama’s founding and its pioneer founders. Along First Street and Elm Street, informative signs point to historical media and vivid stories about the locations. In contrast to the Transportation Interpretive Center, which focuses on transportation and development, the tour turns the spotlight on the founding and individual sites. These two areas offer different ways to explore Kalama’s history.

Parks, Trails, and River Access

Marine Park is a five-acre day-use park on the Columbia River. It is lined with scenic walking and biking trails.

At Haydu Park, the focus is on the riverbank and fishing: the park offers access to several thousand feet of Kalama River shoreline and has several fishing access points. Haydu Park is known for its river and fishing access along the Kalama River, while Marine Park on the Columbia River stands out for its scenic walking and biking trails that line the park. Weighing these features can help you distinguish the river access along the Kalama River from the trails along the Columbia River.

Louis Rasmussen Day Use Park adds sand volleyball courts to the mix. Each of the three parks has a different focus: trails at Marine Park, shoreline and fishing access at Haydu Park, and volleyball courts at Louis Rasmussen Day Use Park. The Port of Kalama parks are for day use only. Keep this in mind when planning your overnight stay, and consider park visits and accommodations as separate parts of your trip.

Explore more destinations: Longview, Kelso.

View the broader travel overview: Cowlitz.