The Grand Coulee is an impressive gorge carved out by ice age floods. It is divided into an upper and lower canyon by dry falls at about the mid point. All of the coulee was dry until the creation of the Grand Coulee Dam. The upper part of the canyon was flooded to create an elaborate irrigation system in the 1930’s. The by product of this is Banks Lake. Day one was in and around the upper canyon.
It’s a two hour drive east from my house to Grand Coulee mostly through what looks a lot like midwestern farm land. A lot of this farmland is made possible because of the Grand Coulee Dam and the irrigation system it feeds.
When I arrived to the town of Grand Coulee and the site of the dam of the same name, I drove up the opposite side and continued west for about eight miles until I turned south on Barker Canyon Road. The road is a steep gravel that descends into the Grand Coulee on what turns into a winding dirt road.
At this point you’re across Banks Lake from Steamboat Rock State Park. This area is managed by the State Park and a Discover Pass is required.
Ahead I caught my first glimpse of my destination, Giant Arch Cave. Arches like these are common on the side walls of the Grand Coulee but this is maybe the largest one. You can see it across the lake from Steamboat Rock and I always wanted a closer look.
A dirt double tracked trail leads towards the arch. I drove my truck as far as I dared to shorten the walk. It was a very rough trail and I don’t want to beat up my ride too much. I ended up walking the last mile and a half.
The last few hundred feet to the cave involved scrambling over basalt boulders and was extremely steep. Even though the walk was short, the last part of it was difficult enough to make it quite the workout.
Here’s the view I came for. There’s no real cave at the back of the arch, just an enormous overhang.
On the way back I came across several snakes including these two intertwined on the road. None of them had rattles on the ends of their tails. Numerous signs are posted through out the area warning of the danger of rattlesnakes. Glad I didn’t come across any of them.
So I retraced my trip to the dam and then headed south on State Road 155 towards my next destination. By now the wind had really kicked up and I was glad I left my kayak at home. The drive along this road is one of the most scenic ones in Washington with lots of pull outs at view points. This one is at Northrup Point.
After checking in to my site at the campground at the base of Steamboat Rock I returned to Northrup Canyon across the highway from Northrup Point to do an expanded version of a hike I posted about from last March. First on the list was the Old Wagon Road Trail that I skipped last time. It branches off from the main train just past the parking area.
This trail quickly gains elevation while climbing the south rim of the canyon and the views across to the north rim are impressive.
Although it gains a lot of elevation, the grade is very consistent and not too strenuous. Behind you are views back to Banks Lake. Steamboat Rock is the closer formation. The Giant Arch Cave would be all the way across the lake.
After a mile or so you are high above the canyon floor.
Below you can see the farmstead that is the destination of many hikers.
At the point where you finally get near the top of the canyon, the trail turns south in a draw and kind of just fades out. After awhile it looked more like a game trail so I called it good and headed back down.
Its much drier at the top with pretty much only sage brush and wild flowers covering most of the ground. It would have been nice to have the trail end at a more defined spot like one last scenic overlook.
This place will have to make do as my end point. At least it was all down hill back to the trailhead.
A two hour round trip got me back to the starting point. The views on the way down were just as nice as those on the way up. Now it was time to repeat my hike from last March to the farmstead and then push on further.
If you want to see more photos from this part of the hike, they can be found here on my post from early spring. The three mile round trip to the farmstead is very scenic, easy and family friendly.
The trail continues another mile and a half past the old chicken coop at the farmstead.
This continuation was much steeper than the rest of the trail system. In fact it gains the same elevation three and four times which is frustrating for the hiker. The trail does not seem to even try to follow a contour line.
After a steep climb leading away from the old farm, you get to go down steep grades and then get to climb them again.
At the bottom of a couple of these grades are small wetlands which aren’t that common in what is technically a desert. There is a small lake at the end of the trail down another really steep grade. I was tired of reclimbing all of these descents so I skipped the last few hundred feet.
Up high there were a couple of nice flat sections of trail through open ponderosa pine forest. I called it good and retraced my steps back to the trailhead.
On the way back past the farm and beyond I was entertained by about the thickest population of rock chucks (marmots) that I’ve ever came across.
As the day ended, I returned to the campground at Steamboat Rock and enjoyed the view of the setting sun lighting up the east wall of the Grand Coulee. This time I skipped hiking to the top of the rock. I had enough for one day.
And so ended the first day of the road trip.
