Steamboat Rock
May 30, 2010
by
Mr Hound
—
last modified
Jun 01, 2010 12:52 PM
- Type of Outing
- Day hike
- Read More in our Hiking Guide
- Hike: Steamboat Rock
- Region: Eastern Washington -- Inland NW
- Agency: Washington State Parks and Recreation
- Avg Rating: 4.22
- Why You Should Go Now
- Wildflowers blooming
Me, just before reaching the base of Steamboat.
My wife and I attempted the Steamboat Rock hike over Memorial Day weekend. We left our car Sunday morning around 11:30am. It was a beautiful day, about 70 degrees out, and very few clouds. There was a nice gentle breeze that grew stronger as we gained elevation. The hike starts out easy, though the sand makes the going a little more dificult, but it felt good to get a little burn in my calves. After ascending through beautiful desert wild flowers and sage brush, we came to the base of the rock. Here, the going gets much more dificult as the trail becomes a loose slot of crumbling basalt and boulders. Though not strenuous by any means, we definitely had to slow down and pick our footing, though not all the hikers that day followed our precaution, more on that later. After a 1/10 of a mile or so, the "trail" gets very steep. There were about 20 people hiking along side us on a narrow, rocky, and steep trail, and hardly any of them had any trail etiquette as we politely waited in queue for our turn to ascend the steepest section. As we waited groups of children and their parents, wearing sandals, scrambled up the loose rock and flung small rocks and softball sized rocks behind them at the hikers below, endangering us all. My wife and I decided to call it quits at this point and get down before one of us got knocked out by the falling rocks. We returned to the park across from Steamboat and had a nice lunch, relaxed in the sun, and admired the impressive monolith from the ground instead.
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View from about half way up.
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