Frenchman Coulee

A, C, and I headed to Eastern Washington on Saturday for a desert hike at Frenchman Coulee, one of the many amazing landforms resulting from the ice age floods originating in Glacial Lake Missoula. The weather was partly cloudy and the temperature around 70 - perfect conditions for a leisurely hike.

Our first stop was in that hustling little burg Vantage, home of  Gingko Petrified Forest State Park, where we admired the view of the Columbia and the basalt cliffs on the far side.

The Columbia from Vantage

We crossed the river, drove a few miles, got off of I90 and headed onto the old Vantage Road which  leads to the Coulee.  We continued to the trailhead and started our hike up the Coulee from its outlet at the western end toward its head.

Imagine a flat-bottomed canyon perhaps a quarter-mile wide with high cliffs on either side.

North Wall of the Coulee

The floor of the Coulee is relatively flat with a lot of sagebrush and, in the spring, thousands of wildflowers.

Desert Fleabane Daisy

As we headed east, the walls gradually came together until they met where, during flood times, there was a 400 foot waterfall.  At about the half way point, we came across a party of horseback riders heading in the opposite direction.  Such a 19th century moment and had me wondering if these guys had anything to do with the hole-in-the-wall gang.

Friends or foes?

I reached for my Colt .45 but luckily (for them), they turned out to be friendly.  In fact, they wished us a good hike, and one particularly extroverted horse insisted that we pat its horsey muzzle.  Which we did.  Soon after, I realized they must be riders of the purple sage.

Purple Sage

Looking at the north wall, we could see multiple lava flows quite clearly:

After hiking over dirt, rocks, and sand we made it to the head of the Coulee featuring a pathetically tiny waterfall (irrigation runoff perhaps?) apparently placed there to contrast with the monumental volumes that cascaded off that precipice back in the day.

Really not at all like the ice age falls

Now take a gander at this:

Looking down the fire hose

What we are seeing here is both walls of the coulee with the puny waterfall behind us.  If you look closely near the horizon you can see a darker area on the hills in the distance.  The flood waters rushed down the length of the coulee with such force that they leaped across THE COLUMBIA RIVER and scoured the bejesus out of the hills on the other side.  That dark spot is basalt exposed by the colossal fire hose.  Can you tell that I read up on this?

Here is a closer view:

I wandered around after lunch and took these pictures near the head of the coulee:

Daughter A dwarfed by her surroundings

The Yarrow was blooming

Rarely have I seen such healthy sagebrush.  This one is at least 7 feet tall.

Nice looking erratic no doubt tossed here by the floodwaters from the cliffs above

Very attractive basalt columns

I wish I knew what kind of wildflowers these are

Look at the Common Side-Blotched Lizard!

The point of this picture is really the sky.  Pretty cool huh?

We hiked back to the car and headed home.  BUT, and this is important, we stopped in Cle Elum for  the world's best milk shake at McKean's Drive In.  Just what the doctor ordered after a long day in the desert.