Sentinel Bluffs

Ethan & I climbed up the Sentinel Bluffs (the east side of Sentinel Gap, where the Columbia cuts through the Saddle Mts) today. I remembered a broad ramp traversing the bluffs from a trip here in March of 1999 and it was very obvious as we approached on Hwy 243 from the south. The bottom appeared to be on private land, however, so we started up an old powerline service road that petered out in a few hundred yards and ened up climbing straight up the hillside some 400' to reach the ramp. We hiked up the ramp a ways & then took a trail we saw traversing south to a saddle below Pt 2017, then dropped into a small, winding canyon that took us to the top of the ridge just east of Pt 2017. We walked out to the edge of the Gap and sat down for lunch with a spectacular view up & down the Columbia and out northwest to the Cascades, mostly hidden in clouds. As it only took us about an hour and a half to make the 1500' climb, we lounged in the sun for some 2 hrs or so before heading down. We descended the sharp NW ridge of Pt 2017 down to the ramp and then walked down the ramp almost to the bottom before dropping down to the highway to avoid an orchard. There were a few wildflowers out: Yellow Bells, Large-fruited Desert Parsley, Wooly Pod Locoweed, the rare Robinson's Onion, and (can you beleive it's only the 13th of March) Balsamroot near the bottom. There were also a lot of wonderful cliffs, spires, turrets, & buttresses on this hike. The day was sunny with puffy clouds and a cool breeze at times. The only other people we saw were a couple of motorbikers on the ramp below us as we ate lunch.