Ancient Lakes Trail

Good morning, my friends. It was a perfect day for hiking the Ancient Lakes Trail yesterday. We had both clouds and sun, and it kept us cool along a rather dry and unshaded path. But let's just back up to the start of the day. When I looked out our back window, this is what I saw:

Before we left, I had time to finish off the sheep. (Sorry about the wrinkles)

While we've been traveling, I learned that the designer of this pattern, Meg Hawkey, had passed away. I read that on Facebook, and I haven't been able to confirm it any other way. In any case, I've decided to call this piece "Meg's Flock," as a way of honoring one of my favorite designers, and because it's original name, "Home is Where My Flock Is," is awkward to keep typing.  

Now I've moved my hoop up, and I'll finish stitching the heart and the words. There are some flowers and leaves too, but the most time-consuming part of the piece is finished.

Okay, and then we headed out to find the trailhead. We left Sadie enjoying a morning sunbath.

We've been using the AllTrails app for all of our hikes this trip. The app is available without purchasing a membership, but when they offered the membership at half price, I decided to go ahead and cough up the change. By purchasing the membership, it opened up all of the app's capabilities. It's been a godsend. It will give us directions to the trailhead, and the maps of the trails are downloadable. If you are hiking in a place with no cell signal, you can still see the map. 

Along our way, we passed by many more square miles of apple orchards. The harvest is on, but the trees we saw yesterday were still loaded with apples.

Okay, and so we found the trailhead with no problem. The trail is a natural surface all the way.

It was a single trail until it split into a loop. This is the map from our AllTrails app. (It also gives detailed directions, and notifies us if we get off the main trail.) When we came to the fork, we decided to take the left fork and the upper portion of the trail...the high road, you might say.

Looking up was this towering edifice.

We were walking through another coulee...the Pothole Coulee. It is comprised of a deep, box-canyon formed over 15,000 years ago by catastrophic Ice Age floods.

Along the way, I spotted this bush.

Looking at it closer, I could see it had some kind of red berry. My phone identified this as a rose, but I doubt that. It could be a wild rose, I suppose, and these could be rosehips.

Indeed, we saw animal droppings all along the way and their droppings were filled with berries just like these.

Also along the way, we spotted lots of small waterfalls. We wondered where the water was coming from. The Google tells me that it comes from irrigation runoff and natural springs. At this time of year, the waterfalls were mere trickles. Here's one:

About that time, we spotted the first of several "ancient" lakes across the way. They are leftovers from when massive torrents of water from a glacial lake in Montana swept across Eastern Washington at the end of the Pleistocene epoch, scouring the basalt rock and gouging out the deep canyons and plunge pool basins. The individual lakes formed as deep plunge pools where roaring glacial waterfalls once crashed into the coulee floor. While the geologic basins themselves were carved during the Ice Age, much of the water currently filling the lakes today comes from 20th-century agricultural irrigation runoff from the Columbia Basin above us.

This hillside had lots of waterfalls. I stopped taking pictures of them after about the first half dozen.

Here, we spotted the largest waterfall along the way. 

For this one, I made a short video.

Toward the far end of the loop, we noticed this columnar basalt. We first learned about columnar basalt on a hike in Shenandoah National Park some years back. They consist of very dense stone, formed by great pressure into tall columns and basins. 

Here's another example, and if you look closely, you can see that the two sides of that section appear as if there is pressure on either side, forcing them into a pointed shape.

Okay, this is sad. We happened upon a burn site. This must have happened recently because we could smell it.

It was close to where another lake had formed.

We were at the turning point in the loop here.

There were ducks on the water. Here, they seem to be converging into a duck armada.

I believe these are the leadership ducks.

I took this next picture to show you how the trail along the lake had acted as a fire break.

We found a nice flat rock where we could sit and enjoy our Clif bars. Looking back the way we came, it looked like this:

From there, we started heading back. I took the picture below to show you the extent of the burn. It was too large to capture in a single frame.

And then, we just kept walking.

There wasn't much in the way of blooming things, but I captured this tennis ball-sized dandelion head.

And there was plenty of blooming rabbit brush. This is a member of the sunflower family.

Our hike was 4 miles, all told, and we were tired. The image below was taken as we came around the final bend in the road toward our campground. I've marked with a red dot the approximate location of our camper.

We've enjoyed our time here in Quincy. Today we'll be moving on to Toppenish, Washington. You might remember when we had to take our camper to the manufacturer in Yakima, Washington, for some work on one of the slides. We passed through Toppenish both coming and going, and I was quite taken with the murals. Toppenish is known as the City of Murals. You can read my post about it in that link I've given you. We didn't have a lot of time to spend in Toppenish on that trip, but I've always wanted to go back and see more of the murals. Also, we'll be making a daytrip to Zillah, Washington, to see the Teapot Dome Service Station, which is on the National Registry of Historic Places. It was another thing we missed on our trip, and I've always wanted to go back to see it.

Okay, so there's still more sight-seeing to do, but you can retire your hiking boots for the remainder of the trip. Orrrr...you could keep wearing them if you want. It's all the same to me. We're in no rush to get out of here this morning. I'm going to spend some time on my slow-stitching and play my word games, and then we'll be on our way. Buckle up, my friends. There's still more to see.

Quincy, Washington

Good morning, my friends. It was a beautiful drive from Electric City to Quincy, Washington, yesterday. So much of the way, we were driving alongside Banks Lake. We’d driven through the little town to the state highway. As we passed through this canyon, we could see the lake on the other side.

Remember what I said about the dam in yesterday’s post. The pumps we saw on our tour pump water from Roosevelt Lake into some large pipes where it is then dumped into Banks Lake. This is the water that is used to irrigate over 1 million acres of farm land in Washington. Given the number of small “islands” we could see on the lake, we presume it is a rather shallow lake.

Beyond was a portion of the Grand Coulee. It was on the far side of the lake for the entirety of our drive.

Grand Coulee is a large geological feature, approximately 50 miles (81 kilometers) long and averages about 1 mile (6 kilometers) in width. It is designated a “National Natural Landmark.” Within the coulee there are illustrations of a series of geological events beginning with a low range of granite mountains through which the ancestral Columbia River flowed. Outpourings of lava built up the Columbia Plateau, diverting the course of the river. That was followed by deformation of the lava beds, advance and recession of glacial ice, the cutting of a new river course, the formation and retreat of waterfalls, and the return of the Columbia River to its present channel, leaving the Coulee high and dry until humans turned part of it into a huge reservoir by artificial damming. 

There were only a few barns…maybe they’re garages…along the way. This is farming, not ranching, and so barns aren’t really necessary.

We did see a lot of silos, but I didn’t take many pictures of those.

This one though…what do you suppose this is about? Coffee, maybe?

We saw some fall color, but not that much. What isn’t farmed here is an arid grassland…amost no trees except those planted within town limits.

In this next image, we were crossing the "dry dam" portion of the Columbia Basin Project. Banks Lake (mentioned above) covers nearly 27,000 acres within the northern portion of the Grand Coulee and was formed by building dams at both ends of the coulee channel. At the other end from here is the Grand Coulee Dam. To create a reservoir, dams are required at both ends. The reservoir is filled by pumping water uphill from Lake Roosevelt behind the Grand Coulee Dam to supply irrigation and power generation. The lake is named after Frank A. Banks, the construction supervisor for the Grand Coulee Dam.

Looking to my right, this is Banks Lake, stretching to the horizon. Indeed, it was the lake beside our campsite at our last location in Electric City.

I thought it might help to show this to you on a map. The red pin marks where Grand Coulee Dam is. The large circled area shows the extent of Banks Lake. The smaller circle in the lower left is where we are now.

We came down a long winding path to reach our campground. After driving through the towns of Soap Lake and Ephrata, it was good to see the river again…pretty much free-flowing here…until it reaches the next dam, that is.

It was a pretty downward spiral getting to where we’re situated.

And Welcome to Quincy!

We’re actually camped on a little spur off the river. It’s like a small peninsula and we’re surrounded by water on three sides. We can only see one side, however.

It comes at a big bend in the river.

And this is the view from our campsite. It’s a lovely place…quiet.

Turning around 180 degrees and looking in the other direction, there’s another coulee. This trip has taught us a lot. The definition of “coulee” is just one of the things we’ve learned along the way.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, our one agenda item for this stop is to hike the Ancient Lakes Trail. I’ll tell you more about the trail in my next post. Scouting out the location of the trailhead, I realized that we’ll be walking on the other side of the coulee pictured above.

Today’s hike is a loop, approximately 4 miles, and so you’ll want your most comfortable hiking boots. I recommend a good breakfast too. That’s what’s up next here. Scrambled eggs are sounding good. The weather is looking sunny, and I’ve read there’s not much shade on the trail. Hats are recommended.