So Alan Bauer has his flora and fauna fixation; I have my Bretz Floods formations fixation. Ancient Lakes is a short hike within Quincy Wildlife Refuge, a former ORV area, so the trail is an old road. To get to Ancient Lakes, keep left at each fork in the road. Going right will take you to Dusty Lake, which is equally pretty, so that would not be a big mistake. The landscape is healing nicely from ORV recreation, thank goodness. I hate to think of the silent beauty and the lives of little creatures there disrupted by gassy, belching, roaring machines tearing up in a few gaudy, raucous years what took Mother Earth patient eons to perfect. Indeed - sometimes Man is not a very gracious guest.

Ancient Lakes is located in Potholes Coulee, west of the town of Quincy (which, by the way, is sorely in need of a locally owned café). The floor of the 2ish mile long coulee is about ¼ mile wide; undulating soft, green grassed terrain that invites you to meander around (watch for snakes!). You can’t get lost – there are 400-500 foot tall columnar basalt cliffs on each side of you. I had the whole quiet place to myself. The flowers are not in bloom yet; however millions of tiny white buds will be opening within the week. I saw nary a rattlesnake.

I pitched camp at a very round clear lake (I called it, Round Clear Lake), then immediately wound my way around Ancient Lake and traveled the talus slope to the top of the first waterfall, then on to the second waterfall, where there was a beautiful meadow. I clambered up to the third waterfall coming from more pothole lakes on the plateau of Babcock Bench, and lay on a large rock in the warm sun and gazed at what seemed like the entire world below me. Purple, hazy cliff edges framed the distant greenish brown hills, and beyond that a snow patched gentle ridge in the distance (Teanum Ridge, I think). I watched as dozens of small, rumbling, whitey-black rain clouds marched across the blue sky. They looked like jellyfish, with their black tendrils of rain streaming gracefully behind them as they slowly marched southward. A very bright sundog developed before being swallowed by a rain cloud, then several rainbows appeared in various lengths and vividness.

Evening brought an otter-like creature out to play in the lake in front of my tent. The call of Canadian geese echoed against the canyon walls and reverberated back and forth several times before falling silent. An owl began to hoot, frogs from nearby Susan Lake began to croak, magpies trilled. Billions of stars came out and reflected in the lake a little while before the continuous cold nighttime wind rippled it for the rest of the night. How beautiful!

A quick trip for me, and well worth the drive. People drive to The Gorge and back in one night for a concert; this isn't much further.

Looking for something completely different than the usual rain-soaked forests, the rather obscure hike to Ancient Lakes seemed just the ticket. After following Spring's/Manning's driving directions to the tee, I arrived at the unmarked trailhead. A makeshift gate to keep the jeeps out, along with a state wildlife department property sign assured that I was in the right place. The parking area is a rocky wide spot just before the gate with a porta-john nearby. If you come to a sign that asks you to slow down because of worms crossing the road, you're in somebody's driveway, and need to back up a few feet to the parking area. The old jeep track begins at the mouth of an impressive hanging coulee, high above the hidden Columbia River below. Getting lost is almost an impossibility, so I improvised a loop trip that is not described in the 55 Hikes book. At about one-quarter mile from the car, I made a left on what appeared to be a simple foot/horse trail. Sticking with this, the trail stayed high on the north side of the coulee floor, quickly delivering me to the lakes. A nice waterfall cascading down the coulee wall was passed en route, and great views were had across the expanse. I camped on a knoll separating the two lakes farthest up the coulee. Yet another waterfall emerged from the head of the coulee, and its sound made for pleasant sleeping. Although the wind had blown mightily all afternoon and evening, it diminished at sundown. Prior to retiring for the night, with the bats beginning to emerge, I explored a foot/horse trail that climbed the coulee wall to the southeast. After coming out on a ledge looking straight down to one of the lakes 100 feet below, the trail eventually attained a rolling plateau of sage and grasses. Although I did not follow this trail in its entirety because of failing daylight, long-distance viewing suggested this to be a connector trail to several other lakes in the wildlife area accessible by car. Retreating to my sleeping bag, I was awakened periodically by the chirps, clucks, honks, quacks, and screeches of an incredible variety of birds that visit Ancient Lakes. I spotted Canada geese, numerous ducks, gulls, raptors, and hundreds of colorful, swallow-like birds skimming over the surface of the water eating insects. A nearby coyote's yelp at dark-thirty also opened my eyes briefly. The following morning, after breakfast and chatting with a fellow on a horse, I followed Spring's/Manning's suggested route past the lowest of the three lakes and back out of the coulee to complete the loop. This portion is a well-defined jeep track. The morning birdsong was outstanding, superior to any symphony. Red-winged blackbirds were easy to spot, but an especially lovely birdsong seemed to rise up out of the sagebrush. All in all, a fine overnighter for early spring; definitely one of the more attractive spots east of the mountains. One final plus worth mentioning is the amount of open grassland throughout the coulee, contrasting nicely with the basalt cliffs. Y'all come!

We started out early
Saturday morning July 4th. There were thunderstorms looming on the horizon wich should have been an indication of the day to come. We started out winding our way through the broken scrub of the channled Scabland. In spots on the dusty trail there were indications of numerous snake tracks wich kept us on the alert. The trail continued very destinctly for about 2 miles or so to the first lake; a small pond surrounded by scrub-brush and nettles. Mosquitos ruled this lake so we continued on another half mile to another scenic lake framed by desert cliffs on one side giving way to a flat scrub field near the outlet side. Upon our arrival at the lake shore there was a sudden flash of lightning followed by an intense explosion of thunder that literally shook the ground. Feeling that it was a little to close for comfort we decided to make our way to the far side of the lake below the cliff. As we were making our way around some rocks my friend Dave stepped into a gopher hole and broke his ankle. Then, to add insult to injury, Dave was promptly bitten on his left hand by a rattle-snake as he lay writhing in pain from the broken ankle. Like a couple of extras from an Abbot and Costello movie we had no first aid kit so we doused the snake bite with a cold bottle of Red Hook Beer that Dave had in his pack. The thunder and lightning gave way way to sudden torrential rain so we knew that someone up there didn't like us. I instructed Dave to stay put while I sprinted the entire distance back to the trail head parking area to get my cell phone I had hidden behind the bench seat of my pick-up truck. Once again, Murphy reared his ugly head and, much to my complete horror some jerk had broken the passenger window out of my truck and stole both my stereo and cell phone. Just when I thought the world was coming to an end a County Sheriff pulled into the parking lot. I explained the situation and he was on the radio summoning help from a local search and rescue unit. To make a long story short Dave was airlifted to a hospital in Spokane and made a complete recovery. The trail to Ancient lakes is in great shape!!! (enjoy)