Category: Eastern Washington

Palouse Cascade Trail, Rock Lake and Pine Creek, a return trip.

Today I repeated an adventure from last summer. The hike from Hole in the Ground Road to the end of the trail is relatively short but extremely scenic. Best of all being an old railroad grade it is flat.

Less than a mile from the starting point is a bridge over Pine Creek and the site of a derailment before the rail line was abandoned. Two old rail cars were left here as they were too damaged to repair and moving them would have cost money. The Palouse Cascade Trail crosses Washington State from the Idaho line to the outskirts of Seattle. The trail is the Washington portion of a former transcontinental railroad known as the Milwaukee Road.

The trail follows Pine Creek from Rosalia to Rock Lake. Along the way it joins with the creek that drains Bonnie Lake, Rock Lake’s sister to the north with which it shares a canyon, the aptly named Hole in the Ground.

About two miles in we came to this old railroad tunnel. The tunnel is in excellent shape and you can get through it without using flash lights, barely.

This is the first of two tunnels along this stretch of the trail. The second is beyond the point the trail is closed. I have hiked through it many years ago before the state closed off the bridge that accessed it. The second tunnel is in much worse shape and I remember having to climb over rock fall at the far end of it.

Not long after the tunnel Rock Lake comes into view. The views of the lake steadily improve the further you push on. The far side of the canyon the lake is in is very impressive with multiple benches shaped by multiple catastrophic flood events clearly visible.

At this point the trail is hundreds of feet above the lake. Rock Lake is the largest natural lake in Eastern Washington.

The landscape the trail passes through dominated by basalt cliffs. The primary vegetation consists of open Ponderosa pine forests.

Rock Lake is a fascinating body of water. In places it is over four hundred feet deep and surrounded by shear cliffs. Boaters are strongly cautioned as it it subjected to strong winds, submerged rock pinnacles and has almost no safe landing places along the shoreline.

Just before the trail is blocked off at three and a half miles in you will be treated to awesome views of the north half of the lake.

At this bridge the trail is blocked by a chain-link fence and is well posted. The decking on this bridge is extremely rotten and the funds to rebuild it are simply not available at this time. Not too far around the bend is the second tunnel which would require extensive work to make it safe for trail users. A shorter section of the trail starting on the south end of the lake is likewise blocked by a deteriorating bridge. Additionally a section of the rail easement between these two closed bridges has reverted back to private ownership and is closed for public use.

This is one of my favorite easy hikes in Eastern Washington. The round trip is only seven miles and the grade is flat. Trail users are asked to register with Washington State Parks as the trail has extremely remote sections and no amenities. You can do so here. On this day we passed five other folks enjoying this slice of Free State America.

East from the crossing with Hole in the Ground Road, the trail continues to Malden and eventually Rosalia. Between Malden and here, several old rail bridges are still closed due to the damage they suffered from s wildfire five years ago.

Spokane River Alert

For the first time I’m aware of, parts of the Spokane River have completely disappeared. Today I took a bike ride along the river to check out this phenomena.

At Corbin Park about three miles upstream of the Idaho Washington state-line and below the Post Falls Dam, the river is still flowing, albeit at a much reduced rate. The Post Falls Dam recently restricted the flow through their gates to the minimum allowed by law to keep water levels stable in Lake Coeur d’Alene through the boating season. During high water in the late spring, I have kayaked this section of the river to Harvard Road in Washington. .

The Spokane River is a substantial waterway running about 100 miles from it’s source at Lake Coeur d’Alene to it’s junction with the Columbia River and Lake Roosevelt. Lake Coeur d’Alene is fed by two large rivers, the St. Joe and the Coeur d’Alene Rivers in addition to numerous small streams. Downstream from downtown Spokane the Spokane River is also fed by Hangman Creek and the Little Spokane River. The river drains much of the Idaho panhandle as well as Spokane County.

By the time I reached the Harvard Road bridge in Washington at mile marker 4 on the Centennial Trail, the water level had dropped considerably. This actually isn’t that unusual for late August. I’ve seen the river this low at this spot at least a couple of times over the past two decades.

By the time I made it about two more miles down the trail near the Barker Road bridge, the river bed was completely dry. This I have never seen before. An organization called the Spokane River Keeper has posted about this issue on social media.

For between two and a half to three miles the river bed was totally dry. In June and July this section of the river is very popular for kayaking, tubing, fishing and swimming. Now the only activity is rock hounding. I wanted to make a post about floating the river from Liberty Lake to Sullivan Park but never got around to it this summer. I’m guessing it’s a little late now.

By the time the river passed under the Sullivan Road bridge a tiny trickle of water started to refill the channel. The support post are newer so it’s hard to see but the normal high water mark in spring is about twenty feet up.

From this point downstream the river looks like a spring run as that’s because that is what it for all practical purposes is. What little water there is comes from the aquifer below. There is none coming from the lake or anywhere upstream.

The Spokane River is an important recreational asset and having even a short section of it totally disappear is a cause for concern.

It was a dry year but not a record setting one and the Post Falls dam is releasing water at the minimum rate allowed but that isn’t unusual for the time of year either. The best guess is that the river dried up here because the aquifer below it dropped significantly over the last year due an increase in local water use.

This is what I’m used to seeing on my rides along this section of the Spokane River. It would be nice if we could find out what caused the problem and do something about it. In the meantime I’m going to hope we get a super snowy winter and at least some summer rains for next year.

The Ferry County Rail Trail near Republic Washington.

I made a three day road trip to the small town of Republic in the middle of the Okanogon Highlands, a mountainous area in North Central Washington. The highlight of this trip was that I finally got to ride much of the Ferry County Rail Trail.

There are a couple of ways to get to Republic from Post Falls Idaho. One of them involves driving north from Spokane and then crossing over the five thousand foot Sherman Pass. I took the other route. North of the town of Wilber, the State of Washington operates a ferry across Lake Roosevelt. This service is free and was an interesting way to start my adventure.

After crossing the lake the first few miles of the trip ran next to the Sanpoil Arm of the lake. It was a scenic fifty plus miles from the ferry landing to Republic.

After checking into my hotel I immediately drove the ten miles or so to the Herron Creek Road trailhead which is the start of a particularly scenic section of the Ferry County Rail Trail.

Within the first mile. the trail guided me to the south end of Lake Curlew.

For the next four and a half miles the trail was mostly right next to the lake.

At places where the trail strayed inland away from the lake shore, pretty countryside and mountain views were the norm. I even got to cross this little bridge over a stream that fed the lake.

Lake Curlew is a popular recreational area ringed with hundreds of vacation cabins. The lake is a couple of hundred feet deep and hosts numerous islands.

The surface of the trail is made of crushed compacted gravel and is about the best non-paved surface I’ve ever ridden on.

Even the non lake views are pretty spectacular. The Okanogons are a beautiful if little known outside of the immediate area mountain range. Being sandwiched between the Northern Cascades and the Selkirks will do that.

Around one more bend I caught a glimpse of my destination, a trestle bridge over the north end of the lake.

The bridge is one of the highlights of the trail. The acquisition and improvements to this trail have been a grass roots effort. Ferry County is an extremely rural area and much of the work has been done by volunteers and through grants and donations.

The views of the lake looking south from the trestle were beautiful.

When I crossed the trestle and arrived at what I thought was the end of the improved, or ridable section of the trail, I was pleasantly surprised to see that they were working on completing the graveling of the trail to the community of Curlew ten miles away where a second improved section has already been completed.

The return trip was just as pretty but from another perspective.

After an eleven mile leisurely ride, I was back to the trailhead and as time was getting short, I headed into town for my reward.

Republic, in addition to having an awesome name for a town featured in the Free State America blog, is a great little place to stay during trips to the Okanogans. Across the street was the Republic Brewing Company, a great place to relax and enjoy the products. Behind me was the Knotty Pine Restaurant where I got just about the best cheese steak I’ve ever had.

Bright and early the next day I drove to the trailhead on the edge of Curlew to ride another section of the trail.

This trail gets you out in the countryside in a hurry. As with the section along Lake Curlew, this part of the trail had an excellent surface and I could have easily ridden it on my hybrid.

The trail follows the Kettle River downstream towards Canada. Lightly traveled State Road 21 is on the opposite side but you rarely even hear traffic from it.

About three miles in you come to one of the highlights of this section of the trail, an old tunnel.

It is one of the shortest railroad tunnels I’ve ever gone through.

Looking back after passing through the tunnel was also a nice view.

Beyond the tunnel the trail seemed even more remote and appeared to get less use. Despite the grasses growing on the trail, the surface was still excellent for bicycling.

The river views kept coming. The Kettle River starts in Canada, flows south into Washington, then heads back into Canada for a while before once again heading south into Washington before it finally empties into the Columbia River.

In addition to deer and rock chucks “marmots” I did get to see a couple of moose crossing the trail. I missed the first and got this poor quality photo of the trailer.

I turned around near a place called Lone Ranch Creek about three miles short of the end of the trail and the Canadian border. I thought this little bridge could have used guardrails.

The views on the way back were just as nice as the ones on the way out.

The Kettle River Valley in Washington is a beautiful place.

And I got to go through the tunnel once more.

After about eighteen miles of some of the prettiest bike riding I ever done, I was back in Curlew.

After a brief stop at Lake Curlew State Park on my way back to Republic to grab lunch, I decided to take one more short bike ride.

On the same abandoned railroad line a second trail called the Golden Tiger trail connects Lake Curlew to Republic. I’m not sure why this section has a different name. The first few miles from Herron Creek Road towards Republic are unimproved and used primarily by ATV’s.

Heading towards Republic, the final two miles of the trail are paved and there is a trailhead at each end of this paved section.

Here the trail is located fairly high above the valley providing some pretty awesome views to the south.

Despite being very short, the paved section of the Golden Tiger Trail has some of the best views off of a bike trail I’ve seen.

I completed the four mile round trip and called it a day, at least as far as bicycling went.

After three short rides over two days I figured I got in about thirty three miles and saw much of the trail. I can’t say enough positive things about this trail and highly recommend that if anyone gets the chance, they should head out to Republic and check it out. Lake Curlew looks like a gem for kayaking too and Sherman Pass has some highly rated hiking. Until next time.

After a good nights rest at the Northern Inn I took my time driving home via Sherman Pass and Colville. It was a good road trip.

Hiking the Palouse Cascade Trail along the south end of Rock Lake.

The three mile section of the Palouse Cascade Trail from just east of the boat ramp on the south end of the lake to the point were it is closed to the public at an old railroad trestle is about three miles. As this section of the trail is a dead end it is seldom visited by cyclist or hikers. I decided to check it out anyway.

The old easement for the Milwaukee Railroad crosses Rock Lake Road about three miles north of the tiny village of Ewan. A section of the old rail bed south of Rock lake Road reverted to private ownership and is closed to the public. At the old railroad crossing there really isn’t anyplace to park so I settled for a gravel road shoulder just wide enough to get my car off the pavement.

From the road, a steep incline got me up to the second of two gates. For gate combos and trail rules go to the official site and register there. There must have been a bridge or an embankment here when the railroad was active. Now an abrupt cliff on the south side of the road leads to the old railbed that is now closed to the public.

Near the beginning of the hike the trail passes by Lavista Lake, a small body of water just east of Rock lake itself.

Washington State Parks places these markers so you know how far west of Chicago you are. They do correspond with the original markers used by the railroad.

Along the old railroad bed many of the old telegraph posts complete with some of the wires and glass insulators line the route. It’s nice to see a little bit of railroad history.

Less than a mile in I came to gate number three. Apparently this one stays open all the time.

The trail from here on followed the shore line of Rock Lake. Last year I hiked a section of the trail on the north end of the lake to the point is was closed to the public. Here is the post of that adventure.

For most of the route in addition to the lake on one side of the trail. The opposite side was flanked by relatively steep and impressive bluffs.

While researching Rock Lake I came across stories about lost rail cars full of Model T cars, stories about a lake monster and warnings about submerged rocks that have ripped the bottom off of boats piloted by the unwary. I wondered if these could be them.

Rock Lake sits right at the boundary between the Palouse Prairie and the Channeled Scablands. It is dry here and most of the trees are Ponderosa pines, an extremely drought tolerant species.

At three miles in I came to my turn around point. Another mile or so down the line another section has reverted to private ownership and is closed off anyway.

I held my camera above the chain-link to get a photo of the old bridge. I have to go with Washington on this one. I’ve walked across some sketchy railroad bridges before but I wouldn’t cross this one even if it wasn’t blocked off.

From the end of the trail there is a nice view of the lake. Rock Lake is the largest natural lake in eastern Washington at over two thousand acres in size. It is also very deep, over a hundred feet deep almost everywhere and over three hundred in places.

I took one last look at the old bridge and began my return trip. The supporting structure of the bridge looked okay to me but the deck was rotted almost down to sawdust.

As far as wildlife goes I saw plenty of deer and turkeys but they didn’t let me get close enough for decent photographs. That’s fine as I know what they look like anyway.

It is lonely country out here. I saw not a single other person on my six mile hike except for some fishermen in boats out on the lake.

This is the fourth trip I’ve made to hike or bike a section of the Palouse Cascade Trail. I find the old railroad history is fascinating. I’ve ridden the sections west of Tekoa and west of Rosalia on previous occasions.

The Milwaukee Road was once transcontinental railroad. It was the last one of the five completed and the first and so far only one to be abandoned. Other sections of the railroad are now used as trails like the Olympian in Montana and the Hiawatha in Idaho.

Four hours and six miles later I was back to where I started. I was relieved to find my car still intact on the side of the road.

Hawk Creek Falls

Today I drove about an hour and a half west to Lake Roosevelt to check out a water fall I heard about. I found it and much more. Hawk Creek Falls is part of the Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area. Lake Roosevelt is the name of the reservoir created by the Grand Coulee Dam over twenty miles downstream.

Hawk Creek Falls is a few miles past Fort Spokane and the historical site that includes remnants of the former military post. This building is the post’s stables. If time allows, I highly recommend a brief stop here on the way to Hawk Creek.

A short road leads to a small campground. Here Hawk Creek is only a creek during the winter/spring drawdown of Lake Roosevelt. In the summer this is a bay of the lake.

Just upstream of the campground, the creek passes through a small short basalt canyon.

At the end of the canyon is a beautiful little waterfall that supposedly flows year round.

From the campground a short roadway leads to a parking lot for hiking trails. On the way to it I caught a glimpse of a cave in a basalt canyon wall above me.

Even though there really isn’t a trail to it i just had to check it out. A really steep informal path lead from the parking area to the cliff. It was more of a climb than it looked at first.

On the way up the views of Hawk Creek opened up. What appeared to be a small canyon connected the creek to a bay of Lake Roosevelt. Up here the vegetation was mostly open grasslands.

The last part of the climb up to the cliff face was extremely steep and involved some hand crawling. The lichens were a nice bonus.

When I made it to the cave, I went to the back and enjoyed the view back out. Like most caves in basalt cliffs it was short and didn’t lead to the underworld.

It did make for a nice frame for the epic scenery below.

While up here I checked out the views. It looked like their might be other small caves on nearby bluffs but by now I knew the distance to these cliffs was a lot further than it looked and the topography much steeper. Also the faint trail I had followed to this point pretty much disappeared.

I made my way back to the parking lot and then took the real trail. The first part of the trail meandered through an open ponderosa pine forest and climbed over a small saddle that divided the uplands from a small ridge that screened the canyon part of Hawk Creek.

Looking back towards the waterfall I could see the valley of the creek kind of as it was before the dam flooded it.

When I made it past the saddle I had a nice view back up the canyon I bypassed. During summer pool stage boaters can head up this waterway to a small boat ramp at the same place I was parked.

The trail kind of ended at the beginning of a beautiful beach. It looked almost like the coast of Oregon.

I wasn’t expecting a beach hike but that’s what I got, at least for about a mile or so. It looked almost like dune grass growing along the shoreline.

Even through there’s no elevation gain along the lake, the hiking is harder than it looks due to the soft sand and noticeable cross slope. The beach wrapped around a couple of distinct headlands offering a variety of views.

It definitely looked like the tide was out but here instead of twice a day the water rises and falls once a year.

Eventually I did come to an end point. A headland of basalt blocked further progress along the shoreline. From here I had a view of the main body of the lake, the part that once was the Columbia River.

The return trip was just as nice and interesting. In places the terraces made by the receding water were obvious.

A waterfalls, a cave and a beach. This hike had all three. I’m not sure what my favorite was but Hawk Creek is truly a gem in the middle of Washington.

If you want to explore this area I would recommend sticking to the springtime. When the water level rises most of the beach hike would be impassible and like much of Central Washington it can get awfully hot in the summer and the shade is limited.

Palisades Park and Indian Canyon, Spokane Washington

For todays outdoor activities, I opted to check out Palisades Park on the west side of Spokane. It is an easy drive to get to and an easy hike. A group called the Friends of Palisades Park supports the city’s efforts to preserve and improve this site.

At the top of the bluffs, a small parking lot servicing the site is located up Greenwood Road from Government Way. There is overflow parking across the road.

Palisades Park is a natural area owned and managed by Spokane, the second largest city in Washington and is located on the edge of a bluff overlooking the city.

This hike is mostly about enjoying the city views and the views of the surrounding region. The main trail is an old scenic road that runs right along the edge of the bluffs for about a mile and a half. The first part of the hike has extensive views towards the east overlooking downtown.

The old park drive is no longer open to vehicles. Being flat and having a good surface makes it for easy walking or bicycling.

After a turn towards the west the view changes. Now you’re overlooking north Spokane and Spokane Falls community College. The brick buildings below are remnants of old Fort Wright. Across the valley snow capped Mount Spokane is a local landmark. This is the final week of ski season up there.

Looking down the bluff I saw one of those ubiquitous abandoned vehicles that seem be be in all the natural areas around the city. At least this one has an interesting paint job.

It is the beginning of wildflower season here. Only a couple of varieties are in bloom so far.

A mile and a half in I came to the end of the old park road and a promise of more access and trails in the near future. I see they have plans for an extension to be built by “others”.

It looked like “others” have been busy. I followed this beginning of a trail for a few hundred feet before it ended.

Returning the way I came I had a nice city view with a bend of the Spokane River included. Just across the river at the top of the river band I could clearly see the Spokane River Centennial Trail. In the far distance is Mica Peak Idaho, AKA Signal Point.

I did come across a couple of these guys trying to hitch a ride (and get a free meal). I guess it’s officially tick season in the Inland Northwest. At least this only lasts a couple of weeks, not like Florida were it’s 365 days a year.

The old park road crossed over a small seasonal creek on this arch. It made for a pretty view. In a couple of weeks it should be dry.

Inland from the bluff side of the old park road, the vegetation was mostly an open Ponderosa pine forest interspaced with seasonal wetland ponds.

After walking three miles I made it back to the trailhead crossed Greenwood Road and took a non-descript trail down into Indian Canyon, another natural area owned and maintained by the City of Spokane’s Parks Department.

Indian Canyon has a trail system. The highlight of this natural area is Mystic Falls at the bottom of a narrow steep canyon.

The view from the top is limited and finding a way to the base was a challenge.

It took a couple of tries I finally found a way. The base of the falls was kind of crowded and after a couple of minutes I wanted to get the heck out of there. One lady insisted on standing right in front of the falls preventing anyone from getting a good photo of it for the longest time.

From the canyon, I made my way back to the top of the buff through an open pine forest with scattered basalt boulders.

Palisades Park and Indian Canyon combined make for a nice place to explore. The contrast between the natural areas and the nearby cityscape is a change a pace from most of my outdoor adventures.

Ancient Lakes in the Quincy Lakes Wildlife Management Area

On a clear cool spring day, I made the two and a half hour drive to check out the Quincy Lakes Wildlife Management Area near unsurprisingly the town of Quincy Washington. As there’s still a lot of snow in the mountains close to home, I opted to spend the day hiking in the Channeled Scablands of Eastern Washington. It was my first time visiting to this particular place. I’m glad I did as the scenery was epic.

The road to the wildlife management area is a non-descript gravel trail marked only with a fishing access sign. Several trailheads are spaced along the gravel park road. There was pretty much no signage at them and the entrances to the trails weren’t really obvious so I picked one and headed cross country towards the west and what I believed would be the edge of a canyon. There were neat rock formations and wild flowers along the way. Being managed by the State of Washington a Discover Pass is required.

Half a mile in I came to an opening and followed the trail down this small side canyon towards an open basin.

The view opened up. The floor of the basin was a couple hundred feet below. Looking towards the west I never saw the mighty Columbia River as it was still hidden in it’s own gorge, but across it I could see the foothills of the Cascades still with patches of snow on them.

At the edge of a basalt cliff I enjoyed the view of several small pothole lakes below. This striking landscape is widely believed to have been formed by catastrophic ice age floods that scoured the region down to the bedrock and carved gigantic canyons as the flood waters cascaded towards the Columbia River.

Across the basin I could see what looked like a substantial waterfall. The trail I was on didn’t head that way so I continued towards the west on a bench below an impressive rock wall.

When the lava cooled, it fractured in hexagonal patterns creating the classic basalt columns that dominate the region.

The ridge I was paralleling turned out to be Potholes Coulee Rib, I thin blade of rock that separated two distinct basins. Spur trails lead to two notched or gaps in the otherwise solid wall of rock so I checked out both of them.

After scrambling up the slope, I got a peek at another lake . This turned out to be Dusty Lake.

This is the kind of place that makes you stop and really soak up the view for half an hour or so.

Apparently some of the cliffs I was on are popular with rock climbers.

While enjoying the view of Dusty Lake I could hear the sound of waterfalls feeding this lake as well but I could not see them.

Not far from the second gap in Potholes Coulee Rib the trail passed close to an interesting looking cave. Generally these caves in basalt rock walls are only overhangs from rocks that collapsed under an arch and don’t provide access to the underworld. Anyway there might be rattlesnakes hibernating inside.

I wanted to check out some other trails in the park so I returned the way I came except this time followed the trail all the way back to the parking area.

I drove south a short distance until I came across a trailhead marked for Dusty Lake. There was some signage about fishing rules and regulations so I figured this lake was popular with anglers. The trail was well made and even had a guard rail on the steepest part.

At the beginning of the trail there was an outstanding view of Dusty Lake in the distance with smaller pools of water in the foreground that were fed by a creek.

The trail followed the creek and several cascades it created on its way down towards the basin.

The basin on the south side of Pothole Coulee Rib only contained one lake but it was much larger than the several lakes on the north side of the rib.

I had one more trail to check out so I called it good and returned to the parking area.

The first trailhead as you enter the park is for the Ancient Lakes Trail so I stopped there on my way out.

The trail followed a side canyon towards the northern basin. A larger creek paralleled the trail.

Soon the views opened up. Below me was Josephine Pool, a small body of water high above the basin created by the creek.

Beyond Josephine Pool the creek continued. Looking back towards the east this impressive rock formation stood guard over the pond.

Below the pool the first water fall came into view. April is definitely the time of year to see waterfalls especially in the Channeled Scablands. This part of Washington is a semi-desert and almost no rain will fall in the area between June and October.

Further down the trail I finally came to the waterfall I could see from the far side of the basin on my first hike of the day. It had an upper and a lower fall.

The trail ended at the top of the lower falls. It was a long way down to the lake. I called it a day and headed back to my car.

Ancient Lakes State Park had the best scenery of any place I’ve been in the Channeled Scablands. I spent six hours on three different hikes there but still didn’t want to leave.

I brought this walking stick out of retirement this year. It was made for me as a gift twenty four years ago for my birthday by a friend and co-worker. Thanks Sherry Ann.

The five hours of driving to get there and back would put this one at the limit of my day trips. Any farther and I would have had to spend the night.

Escure Ranch and the Rock Creek Recreation Area, Hiking to Towell Falls.

I made the two and a half hour drive , a large part of which was on gravel roads to one of the most remote places in Eastern Washington. The Escure Ranch is in the Channeled Scablands about thirteen miles south of the town of Sprague.

On the way to the trailhead, I passed by this grain elevator in the middle of nowhere. The trail next to it is the old railbed for the Milwaukee Railroad which is now managed by the state of Washington as the Palouse Cascade Trail, I trail I explored last year. There is a trailhead just east of the lonely grain elevator but it is for the Palouse Cascade Trail, not Escure Ranch. You still need to drive a few more miles , mostly on rough potholed roads.

I crossed over Rock Creek on a small bridge. Rock Creek is the out flow for Rock Lake and Bonnie Lake to the northeast and empties into the Palouse River to the south. This time of year it has a substantial flow. By late summer this waterway will dwindle to a trickle.

These signs, the only ones on the way in, let me know I only had another mile and a half to get to the real trailhead. Allow for half an hour for this final part of the drive as you dodge potholes and slow roll over gullies.

Just past the trailhead and parking area a bridge over Rock Creek provides access to the old ranch buildings. Another trail continues on the far side of the complex to Wall Lake and Breeden Falls but that’s not where I was heading today. I did spend a few minutes checking out the old buildings.

The trail followed the creek downstream through basalt rock formations and grasslands. The few small trees on the site were confined to the stream banks. The area is a semi-desert.

The Channeled Scablands presents a stark landscape. Here you can truly be alone.

My car was the only vehicle in the parking lot when I started my hike. Four hours later when I returned it was still the only vehicle. The Escure Ranch is 14,000 acres and I was the only human on it that day.

I was far enough out there that I was out of sight of anything manmade other than the trail and out of hearing distance from anything other than the sound of the wind and the coyotes howling.

The trail veered away from the creek and followed a small canyon flanked by impressive basalt cliffs. A group of ravens perched on the rim watched me mostly in silence. Odd behavior for normally very vocal birds. I guess I was far enough below them that they weren’t particularly concerned.

After passing the high bluffs, I came to a place with a view towards the south. The creek was back within sight and through the gap in the coulee I had a fleeting glimpse of the Blue Mountains in the distance.

After about three and a half miles I made it to the waterfall. Not the most impressive fall I’ve seen this week, but it was still a nice place to stop for a while.

The hike itself was very easy. There were only a couple of small hills to climb and then descend along the way.

Hiking in this empty landscape might not be for everyone but I love the change from the forested mountains closer to my home. Late winter and early spring is the time to explore the scablands as it gets awfully hot with no shade in the summer, the few streams are flowing and the snakes aren’t as active. Anyway the mountains are still mostly covered in snow this early in the season.

Rock Creek was a welcomed sight on the way back. At one point at least three groups of coyotes were yelping behind, beside and in front of my path. It was fun to listen to them for a few minutes.

I spent about four hours covering approximately seven miles. This hike was more about the journey than the destination. The solitude is overwhelming and gives one a chance to reflect on a lot things.

Other than the very long drive to get here, I highly recommend this hike. Next time I might explore some of the other trails on the ranch.

Fishtrap Lake, Hiking the south loop trail.

For todays winter hike, I headed southwest of Spokane to the BLM’s Fishtrap Lake Recreation Area. A hour drive brought me to the trailhead for this hike. I had hiked the north loop a couple of years ago and there is some overlap.

The trail starts out going through what looks like an endless expanse of semi-desert steppe. You can measure the sight line in miles, not feet. Beneath the thin grasses the ground is pretty much basalt rocks. Not much else can grow out here.

After a mile I was able to turn around and see my car in the distance. I imagine some folks give up on this hike after half an hour due to lack of scenery.

On the way to the lake I passed several small iced over ponds. When I hiked this site in the spring of 2022 there was a lot of swampy ground and it was hard to keep my feet dry.

After half an hour you start passing by walls of basalt.

The trail descends through an area of scattered pines and rock outcroppings as you get closer to the lake.

When I made it to the shore near the southwest end of the lake, I wasn’t all that surprised to find it covered in a thick layer of ice. A lot of the ice was black (clear) ice that forms when it’s calm and the lake freezes in a hurry. It is the safest ice to walk on.

Next I followed the western shore to the northeast. I thought this basalt monolith looked a lot like a pill box.

I came across this kolk crater. I had to look up what that is and found out these features are the holes left over from vortex’s caused by gigantic flood events. Apparently they are found throughout the Channeled Scablands.

After detouring around the crater I was back to following the shoreline on rocky bluffs about thirty feet above the ice. Fishtrap Lake is about two miles long but only about one to two hundred feet wide and less than thirty feet deep.

At a gully the trail descended down to lake level and I enjoyed the view to the far shore. I got a good look at the ice and it looked to be over four inches thick. The entire basin reverberated with the distinctive sound of the ice cracking under the immense pressure.

Where the trail deviated inland, it passed beneath another wall of basalt through pines and dense stands of aspen trees. It looked like a wildfire had burned through the area a few years ago. There were a lot of surviving pines which means it wasn’t as hot as some others in the area.

Here I stopped to enjoy the view as it was time to call it good. The lake goes another half mile before it ends at a small resort and is fed from a creek that connects to Hog Lake.

On the way back, I took this photo of a very pretty headland. You can see the shadows are starting to lengthen. This looks like a fun lake to kayak as well.

After finishing a four hour hike, I made a quick detour to the Folsom Farm interpretive site.

On my previous trip to the Fishtrap Lake Recreation Area, I hiked out to the waterfall on the northeast end of Hog Lake. There are lots of places to explore out here. FYI, if you want to see a waterfall don’t wait for summer, the creek will be dry by then.

Fishtrap Lake is just off Interstate 90 about 30 miles west of Spokane. The 9000 acre site has miles of trails, two boat ramps on two lakes, a waterfall and several trailheads. I’ve read mixed reviews on the hiking here, but I highly recommend it, especially for winter and cool early season hiking.

Coffee Pot Lake and Twin Lakes in the Channeled Scablands.

For todays winter hike(s), I visited the Lake Creek Coulee north of Odessa and southwest of Davenport, in other words in the middle of nowhere. The Bureau of Land Management (the real BLM) is responsible for thousands of acres of semi-desert steppe in the area around the coulee including a couple of recreation areas on striking scabland lakes.

To get to this hidden gem I had to drive over two hours west through farmland that looks a lot like Kansas. The areas of central Washington that were not scoured to bedrock by the ice age floods are some of the most productive agricultural lands in the country. Out here you can drive for hours without hardly ever seeing a car or another human.

My first stop was Coffee Pot Lake, a large scabland lake with a small campground and boat ramp just off of the paved road.

From the parking lot I was able to take a short walk over a small headland for a view of the main body of the lake. There were thousands of wild geese all along the shore and in the middle of the open water. I was surprised that most of the lake was ice free. It turned out the lake is deep, eighty feet in some spots and wider than most scabland lakes.

After checking out the day use area, I drove back up the entrance road to a small parking area that accessed the trail above the bluffs on the north side of the lake.

The unmarked trail started out as a double track that looked like it was used for cattle operations. It stayed away from the shear cliffs that bordered the lake at first. Mostly it meandered through sage brush and the tall grass.

A small basalt ridge covered in green lichen paralleled the trail to the north screening the trail from the paved road north of the site.

About half a mile in a short spur brought me to the edge of the cliffs above the lake. It was about two hundred feet straight down from this point. The surface of the lake was covered by thousands of geese all making a thunderous racket with their incessant honking.

To the west down the coulee another lake was separated from Coffee Pot by a low isthmus of dry land. The lower lake is actually seasonally part of Coffee Pot and much sallower.

I continued west off trail along the cliffs using cattle paths and finding openings in the sage brush.

A mile in I came to my turn around point above the isthmus from here I could see the lower lake was indeed frozen as was the far west end of the main lake. I got to watch a coyote hunting below me. He was too far away to get a decent photo of.

On the way back I came across this skull of some unfortunate animal. It is the circle of life.

On the way back I took the spur to the cliff again to soak in the views. Some of these basalt cliffs are beyond vertical. Coffee Pot Lake is listed at over 800 acres making it one of the bigger lakes in the scablands.

Looking back to the west the scene looked like it could have been from the high Artic summer with the dramatic cliffs, patches of ice, little vegetation and thousands of screaming birds.

So after walking maybe three miles along the cliffs, I returned to the parking area and drove a few miles to another BLM recreational site, this time on Twin Lakes.

A long gravel road eventually descended back in to Lake Creek Coulee to a site with a small camp ground, fishing dock and day use parking between two smaller but beautiful lakes.

Time was getting short so I parked and checked out both lakes. Both of them were frozen solid.

A small creek connected the lakes right at the day use area. It was the only open water around.

I checked out the lower lake first. According to topo maps it is very shallow maxing out at about ten feet deep. It was still very pretty. I tossed a couple of small rocks out on the smooth black ice to see how far they would slide.

Some day soon I would like to come back with my kayaks. Both of these lakes looked well worth exploring.

By now I only had a hour or so in my time budget to explore so I crossed a makeshift foot bridge over the connecting creek and followed a trail on the south side of the upper lake. Across the way was a small waterfall that created its own small area of open water. I could hear the sound of the falling water as it hit the lake.

The trail looked like it could have been a little better maintained as it skirted a small ice covered pond. Fortunately it is easy to go off trail in the scablands as long as it’s cold enough to keep the rattlers in their dens.

According to my research the upper lake is quite a bit deeper with a hole around sixty feet deep. At the northeast end of the lake they’re a couple of mature ponderosa pines to break up the grasslands.

Before I called it a day I stopped for one last photo of the upper lake. This is when I saw the first other people in my entire trip. I man and his son set up camp and then set up an ice fishing tent on the ice. They say black ice is the safest to walk on but still sixty feet is a long way down.

I spent more time driving to and from the lakes than i did hiking today. It was still well worth the effort. I had no idea these lakes existed until I researched locations for winter hikes in the Inland Northwest. When I make it back a camping trip and kayaking will be on the agenda. If you want to go shoot for early spring when its still cool and the snakes aren’t active.