Whiskey Dick Wildlife AreaAmong the plethora of blooms spotted during visits here are thyme-leaf desert parsley, Douglas buckwheat (huge masses of it), thyme-leaved buckwheat, shaggy daisy/shaggy fleabane, linear-leaf daisy (also called line-leaved fleabane), Cusick's sunflower, Hooker's onion, woolly-pod milk vetch, brodiaea, silky lupines, rock penstemon, Thompson's paintbrush, thread-leaved phacelia, Hooker's balsamroot, white phlox, Scouler's penstemon, small-flowered penstemon, cushion fleabane, large-flowered collomia, narrow-leaf collomia, bitterroot, and bitterbrush. Bring your wildflower guide to keep track of the plants, but keeping in mind that this is a wildlife area, expect to see some critters, too. Our recommended route has you bypassing the first access road into the Quilomene Wildlife Area (that first access is just past highway milepost 18). Our route takes you along the long ridge across from Whiskey Dick Mountain before plunging down into Rocky Coulee and then hiking up the easternmost end of Whiskey Dick Mountain to roam the ridgeline along that peak. The hike along the old road goes fast since the path is wide, smooth, and relatively level as it contours along the ridge. After a quick couple of miles, the road drops 800 feet in elevation to the bottom of Rocky Coulee. (With high-clearance vehicles, it might be possible to drive this far, but doing so has you driving over some of the most beautiful wildflower fields). The wildflowers carpet the entire desert floor, from the ridge top to the coulee bottom. This section of the route is rich in bitterroots, hedgehog cactus, and balsamroot, as well as various species of buckwheat, lupine, and daisies. Coyotes hunt throughout this coulee country, and they can often be heard, if not actually seen, in the morning and evening--their yips and howls echoing off the coulee walls. After following the coulee basin for a mile or so (remaining alert for poison ivy), the route turns up the side of Whiskey Dick Mountain. More stunning wildflowers abound, with increasingly clear and stunning views over the rest of the wildlife area. Keep an eye on the sky to watch the raptors soaring, and another eye on the brush to look for mule and white-tailed deer. You'll top out on the low summit of Whiskey Dick, a bit more than 4 miles from your starting point. This is the place to turn around and enjoy the long, scenic desert stroll back to your vehicle. Note: Whiskey Dick Mountain is now a part of the Wild Horse Wind and Solar Facility. April-November you can drive the now paved Beacon Ridge Rd. to the Renewable Energy Center, located on the slopes of Whiskey Dick Mountain. From here you can fill out an access permit which is good for 8 months. Once you have this permit you can park in any of the five parking lots along Beacon Ridge Rd., and hike in the surrounding areas. Keep three hundred feet from the turbines as specified in the access permit. If you would like to get closer, sign up for a guided tour at the Renewable Energy Center. They also have a few trails around the visitor's center that can be done without a permit. Also, in late April/early May they have a guided wildflower hike featuring local naturalists. For more information on access to this area you can call the Renewable Energy Center at 509-964-7815.
Driving Directions:
From Seattle, drive east on Interstate 90 to exit 115 for Kittitas. Go north over the freeway. At 1.2 miles, turn right at the stop sign. Veer to the left onto County Road 81 and continue 1.2 miles from the stop sign (2.4 miles from I-90), then turn right onto the Vantage Highway. Drive past the first access to the Quilomene Wildlife Area at 12 miles, and at 13.7 miles turn left onto the rough dirt road accessing the Quilomene Wildlife Area. At 0.4 mile on this rough road, veer right at the Y, and at 0.6 mile veer right at the second Y. A good place to park is at the pullout 1.2 miles from the Old Vantage Highway. Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife permit required. Recent Trip Reports
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Whiskey Dick Wildlife Area
— Jun 27, 2011
— Jackson
Multi-night backpack
Features:
Wildflowers blooming
Issues:
Overgrown | No water source
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On Monday me and a couple buddies hiked outta vantage into the whiskey dick. The weather was hot and dry...
On Monday me and a couple buddies hiked outta vantage into the whiskey dick. The weather was hot and dry sometimes around 90 degrees down in the coulees. We hiked the old road just west of ginko state park, up to park peak and north along the wall past hole in the wall, spring cayuse creek (which was dry) and up to the mouth of whiskey dick creek. The views day one of babcocks bench and the Columbia were awesome their were still a few wildflowers hanging around too. Whiskey dick creek was running but there was no easy water access so we hiked out and filtered water out of the cloumbia. Saw lots of birds of prey osprey, baldy, red tail etc. As well as a few mountain blue birds. One of my friends saw a rabbit and I saw a haron perched on the river bank. That evening was warm and loud from the crickets, frogs and bats. The stars were awesome. Day two we set out following the road up the whiskey dick, just outta camp the creek ran across the trail and my friends de booted to cross the 9+ inch deep water. About a half mile after that the road turned away from our intended destination and we continued off trail, the road was supposed to continue and there were portions that we used to continue on. Kohler springs was running. We hiked up off the road on to the Platue on the south side of the whiskey dick creek coulée where after a little bit of route finding, wandering and looking at the map we found the road continuing south over the ridge down to lone star spring and rocky coulee.the climb up the ridge was rough in the sweltering heat and the packs soon felt heavy. Lone star spring is not running. There are trees and vegetation from the water and two small muddy stagnate puddles so instead of camping there (which would have presented more probles then water) we hiked the remaning 4 1/2 miles down rocky coulée through hells kitchen and back to the trailhead. All in all was a fun trip the heat and lack of water were a little disappointing but the views of babcocks bench and frenchmans coulée defiantly made up for it. O' by the way there were a heard of sheep at the trailhead when we got back.
Day hike
Features:
Wildflowers blooming
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We drove to the Wild Horse Wind and Solar Facility and parked at the lower parking lot displaying our access...
We drove to the Wild Horse Wind and Solar Facility and parked at the lower parking lot displaying our access permit. From here we hiked the Bluebird Canyon Trail, Bitterroot Trail, and Ridgeline Solar Trail for a total of 6 miles RT gaining 820 feet. There are only 2 bluebird houses along the bluebird trail. We saw Mountain Bluebirds feeding their babies at one of them. --Very fun to watch! We saw no sign of bitterroot on the bitterroot trail. There was a herd of elk near the summit of Whiskey Dick Mt. From here you can view the entire wind facility with its impressive turbines and you get "up close and personal" with the 2.406 solar panels near the summit. Flowers seen were large-headed clover, Hooker's balsamroot, ball-headed waterleaf, cushion phlox of many colors, puccoon, lupine, sagebrush violets, Thompson paint brush, to name a few.
Day hike
Features:
Wildflowers blooming
Issues:
Bugs | No water source
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What better to do than hike in tick and rattlesnake infested desert on a Friday the 13th? The wind,...
What better to do than hike in tick and rattlesnake infested desert on a Friday the 13th? The wind, as it almost always does was blowing today, but the sun was shining through a thin layer of clouds. I didn’t follow the route in the Bauer/Nelson book but generally hiked on and off the closed roads to the top of Whiskey Dick Ridge. For those who enjoy wildflower hikes now is the time to hike this area. The balsamroot may be a few days past peak, but there are a good variety hybrids, more here than I have seen in other areas. The south slopes of Whiskey Dick Ridge have the best bloom. I noticed the many of the lower elevation stony ground lupine did not bloom , but most plants are blooming near the ridge top. Some of the other lupines are just beginning to bloom. For me, blooming Simpson’s or hedgehog cactus is the highlight of hiking in this area, and the cacti are just beginning to bloom. Thompson’s paintbrush, several desert parsleys, several locoweeds, bighead clover (almost gone), several species of phlox, linear-leaf daisy, another daisy, probably cushion daisy or a fleabane, western groundsel, desert or wavyleaf dandelion (Nothocalais troximoides) which has many names, narrow leaf or threadleaf phacelia, puccoon, several species of buckwheat, narrow leaf goldenweed and a number of other plants that I don’t recall or can’t identify right now are also blooming. I saw plenty of ticks, but no snakes. If you just walk the roads you will avoid most of the ticks. I enjoyed a couple of horned lizards, an assortment of birds, but no larger wildlife. I heard a coyote howling first thing in the morning. Although there was a pickup with a camper and ATV’s at about the same location I parked (1/2 mile off the Vantage Highway), I didn’t see anyone else all day. Other than the wind, it was a beautiful, warm day.
Day hike
Features:
Wildflowers blooming
Issues:
No water source
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The directions to Whiskey Mountain trailhead on the WTA site was somewhat misleading. The coordinates provided was close to eight...
The directions to Whiskey Mountain trailhead on the WTA site was somewhat misleading. The coordinates provided was close to eight miles each way, which would have made the hike close to 16 miles total. We backed up for one and a half miles to the first bend after the turn-off from Vantage Highway and started hiking from there.
The weather started partly cloudy, then became partly sunny in the afternoon. The clouds were moving fast enough, at times there would barely be any clouds above us. The northwestern sky looked ominous with a large group of dark clouds hanging around, and eventually the west wind would bring them closer to us. Lots of wildflowers, too many to name, nor would I know each and every one of them by name. Not too many wildlife activities happening, only saw an owl, a jack rabbit, and a bird along the way. The temperature was just right for a desert hike at this time of the year. This was the first time I saw the wind turbines this close; they were quite impressive. Before I would only notice them while driving on I-90 and already thought they looked really cool looking. The brochure I got from the PSE Renewable Energy Center stated that we needed to keep at least 300 feet away from each turbine. Regardless, they all looked enormous and statuesque even from 300 feet away. To get up close and personal, we would need a guided tour. We scratched our plan to go to Whiskey Mountain due to the number of strewing barbwire fences throughout the protected area. Instead, we circled along the ridge line and stopped just before the group of turbines located directly southeast of the mountain. After admiring the turbines for a while, we turned around and followed the ridge line to the east and stopped at a high point about 2,880'. The weather was beginning to get ugly even before we got to the top, then it started to drizzle just as we were getting to take our group photo. We only had time for one and then the rain came down mercilessly. Good thing I brought my rain gear along, knowing that there would be a 30% chance rain...and hail. It rained and hailed harder as we traversed down the hill heading for the car, which was parked about two miles south of the high point we were on. Flickr: http://bit.ly/whiskey-dick-wildlife-area Day hike
Features:
Wildflowers blooming
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The Wild Horse Wind and Solar Facility was closed by the time we finished our hike yesterday so we returned...
The Wild Horse Wind and Solar Facility was closed by the time we finished our hike yesterday so we returned to visit it on our way home today. We had been there last year after our hike on Whiskey Dick, but had only 10 minutes until closing time. Today we spent over an hour looking at the exhibits and learning about the area and facility. There is a new Trail Guide this year offering a 2.4 mile RT Ridgeline Solar Trail, a 1 mile RT Bitterroot Trail,a 1.7 mile RT Bluebird Canyon Trail, and Whiskey Dick Mountain Backcountry Routes. We each obtained an access permit which enables one to park in designated parking areas along the road and then explore on foot. Time was short and flowers were just beginning to bloom so we did not hike other than near the facility. We drove the Beacon Ridge Road about a mile beyond the gate where the paved road ends. Guided tours are available at 10 and 2 daily. On these you actually enter an operating turbine tower. We plan to return to do this and to hike the trails in 2-3 weeks when more wildflowers should be blooming. We highly recommend spending time at the facility! Flowers are blooming along the road up to the facility.
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Whiskey Dick Wildlife Area. Photo by mytho-man.
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