Category: Eastern 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.

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 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 to 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.

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.

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.

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.

For my first post since my return to the Inland Northwest I headed fifteen minutes down the road to Spokane County’s Saltese Uplands Conservation Area.

I chose this hike because partially due to our mild winter, the site is mostly snow free and is open to the sun. When the wind is still and the sun is out thirty degrees isn’t too bad. Down at the valley floor at two thousand feet we’ve had les snow so far this year than Pensacola or New Orleans. The mountains are another story and I would have to trudge through several feet on the mountains that border Spokane and Coeur d’Alene.

The hike starts at a trailhead on Henry Street between the towns of Liberty Lake and Spokane Valley. As always Spokane County offers free access for day users and maintains an excellent trail system on their properties. This is the first sign I’ve seen telling people not to leave their used dog poop bags on the trail. I see them all the time and am amazed at the mentality that thinks someone else should pick up after them.

They’re about seven miles of trails winding around the six hundred plus acres of native semi arid steep. Not all of the Inland Northwest is covered in farmland or evergreen forests. as I climbed a series of gentle switchbacks up Turtle Gulch, I had a view of the Saltese Flats Restoration Area, another Spokane County conservation site.

Only a few scattered Ponderosa Pines are found mostly in sheltered draws. The rest of the site is covered in grasslands with a few rock outcroppings.

The trail climbs to the sites highpoint next to a water storage tank. It is a leisurely walk. The total elevation gain around five hundred feet.

The Saltese Uplands are known for being a place to view bird life. I saw a couple of hawks, magpies and this little guy who let me take a photo.

Across the wetlands of Saltese Flats are the Dishman Hills with its excellent hiking including the Rocks of Sharon.

After climbing out of the gulch you are treated to nice views of the surrounding mountains. This is the view of Mica Peak Idaho, AKA “Signal Point” and Shasta Butte, “AKA Big Rock” along with smaller Cable Peak on the right side of the photo.

At the top there is a nice view of Liberty Lake with the mountains behind it. I could see ice forming on the lake. The marshland on the far right side of the picture is in Liberty Lake Park, another excellent hiking site owned and managed by Spokane County.

At the top there was a couple of inches of old snow from a few weeks ago. Due to the cold dry air and the effects of evaporation what was left looked like tiny shards of white glass.

Looking towards Idaho and Post Falls from the high point I enjoyed the view of Mt. Rathdrum center left and Chilco Mountain on the far right horizon. It was kind of neat seeing so many of my favorite hiking places. Now I can’t wait for the snow to melt.

I had to walk around the water storage tank on the top to get a view of Mount Spokane across the valley. They are definitely skiing up there.

After the high point, it was an easy three mile walk back to the trailhead. On the way I checked out Mica Peak Washington with its distinctive FAA radar dome. So you might ask why are they’re two Mica Peaks within six miles of each other. Well its because at some point the one in Idaho was renamed on topo maps. Most everyone who grew up here still calls it Signal Point. There is a town of Mica on the west side of Mica Peak Washington too.

Near the end I crossed the gully’s again and walked through this little tree tunnel where a seasonal creek runs in the early spring.

It’s not the most exciting hike in the area but it is different and more importantly a good place to stretch your legs in the winter. I ended up covering about five and a half miles which provided a much needed excuse to get outside this time of the year.

Hopefully I’ll get in a couple of more winter hikes while we are enjoying the break in the weather. I’m looking for low elevation sites that are mostly snow free and they’ll all be west of Spokane in the scablands.