March 2010 Update: Select content from the Mountaineers Books'
six "Day Hiking" guidebooks, Snowshoe Routes Washington and Desert Hikes
Washington is now incorporated into the WTA Hiking Guide. Sales of the books
from this website benefit WTA and help protect and maintain our trails.
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Locate hike descriptions and trip reports for more than 2700 hikes in
Washington. Use hike name or region for most comprehensive results.
And please consider adding missing descriptions and hike data to
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resource for hiking in Washington!
Eastern Washington -- Tri-Cities(Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife)
The White Buffs area offers an incredible desert landscape to explore. The amazing clay/sand bluffs boast amazing patterns woven into their faces--patterns created by the network of sand and clay layers as well as the hundreds of holes that serve as nesting sites for cliff swallows and many species of raptors that come to this area in spring. Heading south, you have numerous roaming options, and going in this direction would take many visits to fully explore.
Eastern Washington -- Potholes Region(Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife)
This route through part of the Quincy Wildlife Recreation Area offers something you seldom find in the desert: a waterfall. But not just any waterfall; here you'll find a waterfall plunging into a lake. Did I mention this watery world is in the desert?
Eastern Washington -- Spokane Area(Bureau of Land Management,Spokane)
Coal-black basalt bluffs and towering colonnades stand over the Packer Creek property. An intermittent lake nestled in the base of a coulee at the east side of the tract dries out in late summer, but throughout the winter and spring it provides a good home to waterfowl.
Eastern Washington -- Spokane Area(Bureau of Land Management, Spokane office)
This is a prime example of a desert hiking area that offers many hours of slow wandering and contemplation of the unique environment, even though the mileage isn't as great as some other areas. You'll find exciting geological formations and history as you explore the huge canyon/coulee that holds the Twin Lakes.
Eastern Washington -- Spokane Area(Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife)
(#)
Just when you thought you were stuck in the middle of endless cultivated farmland, you find this nugget of wild perfection! This wonderful refuge in a farm-rich region offers great habitat to wildlife and wonderful hiking to hikers.
Eastern Washington -- Potholes Region(Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife)
This is desert hiking at its best--a lovely trail (a fisher trail turned into a great hiking trail) that bobs up and down over little dunes for miles. As you walk through the sand dune environment, enjoy expansive views to the south overlooking the heart of the Potholes area--miles and miles of water surrounded by miles and miles of sand dunes.
Eastern Washington -- Palouse(Whitman County Parks)
Kamiak Butte stands like an island in the rolling wheat fields of the Palouse country--not merely a physical island of rock jutting up above the fertile soils of the Palouse hills but also an "ecosystem island."
Eastern Washington -- Yakima(Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife)
Begin with a walk over a bouncy suspension bridge above the trout-rich waters of the Yakima River. This trail meanders up an ever-narrowing canyon, but it also seems to be a path to the past.
Eastern Washington -- Yakima(Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife)
All you'll find here are rolling meadows, broad stands of fragrant ponderosa pine, wonderful views, and wildlife ranging from badgers to black bears. All that, and a modest elevation gain to boot. What more could you want from a desert escape?
Eastern Washington -- Tri-Cities(Walla Walla County Department of Public Works)
Twin Sisters are two pillars of basalt that jut from the cliffs along Wallula Gap overlooking the Columbia River. Geologists say the rock formation is the result of erosion from a great flood near the end of the last Ice Age, about 12,000 to 15,000 years ago.
Eastern Washington -- Yakima(Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife)
The L. T. Murray State Wildlife Recreation Area offers some of the best desert hiking in the state, and this far-eastern edge of the preserve boasts the best of the best.
Eastern Washington -- Spokane Area(Bureau of Land Management, Spokane)
The BLM showed good sense in preserving this wonderful, if small, slice of desert paradise. Wilson Creek flows south of Govan (past an old turn-of-the-nineteenth-century schoolhouse in Govan). From the south access trailhead, you'll find a lovely trail, great wildflowers, wonderful views up and down the Wilson Creek coulee, and an incredible vantage from which to view wildlife: owls, prairie falcons, northern harriers, red-tailed and rough-legged hawks, warblers, white-crowned and golden-crowned sparrows, horned larks, meadowlarks, mountain bluebirds--it pays to visit in different seasons!
Eastern Washington -- Yakima(Washington State Department of Transportation)
This simple little trek offers visitors some of the most impressive geologic and historic views of the Columbia River area. The uniquely beautiful sculptures at the top of the ridge offer great exposure to one of the most impressive outdoor art pieces in the Northwest.
Eastern Washington -- Tri-Cities(Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife)
This area is a natural coulee. The sandy soil allows water to drain through soil and collect in the bottom of the coulee forming the Wahluke Branch-10 (WB-10) Wasteway. The wasteway water flows westward into the White Bluffs area. The gradual slope of this coulee has allowed the water to spread out and form several small ponds and cattail marshes. Russian olive and willow trees have been spreading rapidly, taking over some of the wetlands.
Eastern Washington -- Yakima(Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife)
Though this land is called a "wildlife area," it could as easily be named a state wildflower area. On any given spring day, hikers can expect to see an array of wildflowers that puts the pretty alpine meadows to shame.
Eastern Washington -- Yakima(Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife)
Ray Westberg was the popular wrestling coach in Ellensburg who died in 1997 at the young age of 47. This trail was built and dedicated to him, with a memorial placed at the high point on the ridge. The route isn't heavily used by hikers, but it is popular with birds--birds on the ground and in the air.
Eastern Washington -- Tri-Cities(Washington State Parks and Recreation)
The broad, deep chasm of Washtucna Coulee cuts through the sagebrush flats of the Snake River plateau country, providing a wonderful expose of the power of the Great Missoula Floods that carved Washington's coulees after the last great Ice Age.
Eastern Washington -- Tri-Cities(U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife (least through U.S. Army Corps of Engineers))
This is a lonely area of the Walla Walla River Delta, where the Walla Walla River empties into the Columbia River. The waters here are flat and slow moving, creating great habitat for a number of birds and animals, both in and out of the water.
Eastern Washington -- Tri-Cities(Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife)
This area is a natural coulee. The sandy soil allows water to drain through soil and collect in the bottom of the coulee forming the Wahluke Branch-10 (WB-10) Wasteway. The wasteway water flows westward into the White Bluffs area.
Eastern Washington -- Wenatchee(Washington State Parks and Recreation)
Dry Falls was once the world's largest (in water volume) waterfall in the world, but that was during the Great Missoula Floods at the end of the last Ice Age. Today the falls is a massive cirque of basalt: Dry Falls Lake.
Eastern Washington -- Spokane Area(U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge)
Covering more than 16,000 acres, the Turnbull Wildlife Refuge serves as a wildlife sanctuary to hundreds of bird species, including twenty-seven species of ducks. Mammals thrive here as well, taking advantage of the vast undisturbed habitat (only 2200 acres of the refuge are open to the public). Most visitors never leave their vehicles, taking advantage instead of the great views along the 5.5-mile auto-tour route on a well-graded gravel road. That means hikers can find solitude as they explore the wonderful wildlife habitat of the area.
Roundtrip mi.:
1.0
High point:
2300 ft
Lakes, Fall foliage, Wildflowers/Meadows, Wildlife
Eastern Washington -- Inland NW(Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife)
The Tucannon River Canyon is a transition zone, from the sagelands of the lower river to the dry pine forests of the Blue Mountains at the upper end of the canyon. The Tucannon is a blue-ribbon trout stream popular with anglers of all kinds. Humans, of course, fish here, but so do kingfishers, bald eagles, falcons, raccoons, black bears, and river otters. The area around the Wooten Wildlife Area straddles the prime transition zone, with high, dry bluffs and desert prairies bounded by ponderosa pine forests. Camp Wooten is a popular recreation camp used by local 4-H and other youth groups.
Eastern Washington -- Wenatchee(Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife)
Waterfowl flocking to the desert? You bet--when the desert is the coulee country of eastern Washington, with its plethora of lakes nestled in the rocky basins at the bottoms of the coulees.
Eastern Washington(Bureau of Land Management, Spokane)
The rewards of this wonderful hike are pretty straightforward. You get to wander a great jeep road for 3 miles to a glorious desert waterfall. You'll have the opportunity to enjoy a side trip to the banks of picturesque Rock Creek. You'll also find amazing views of basalt mesas rising 150 to 200 feet above the surrounding landscape. In short, this is a desert journey with incredible water works.
Eastern Washington -- Spokane Area(Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife)
The Swanson Lake Wildlife Area is a magical desert oasis. Between gorgeous expanses of sageland, you'll find fantastic pools of water, sparkling like gems on the desert floor. These jewels not only reflect the glorious beauty surrounding them, but they also draw in another type of beauty: a bounty of wildlife.
Eastern Washington -- Wenatchee(Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife)
Wow! That was our first reaction when we saw this desolate desert canyon. Though you'll be following an old road, this canyon seems to have been carved just for hikers.
Roundtrip mi.:
6.0
Elev. gain:
1500 ft
High point:
3000 ft
Fall foliage, Wildflowers/Meadows, Mountain views, Wildlife
Eastern Washington -- Inland NW(Washington State Parks and Recreation)
Steamboat Rock is a massive "island" of a rock mountain floating on the shore of Banks Lake. The durable rock was left behind through all of the Great Missoula Floods and was later nearly surrounded by the waters diverted by the Grand Coulee Dam. The top of the rock is a broad, flat plateau offering stunning views across the scablands of coulee country.
Eastern Washington -- Tri-Cities(Washington State Parks and Recreation)
The 134-mile-long Columbia Plateau Trail (also called the Pasco/Fish Lake Trail) followed the old, historic route of the Spokane--Portland--Seattle Railroad from Pasco to Spokane. The trail today is a fabulous way to experience the human and natural history of this unique landscape.
Eastern Washington -- Yakima(Bureau of Land Management, Spokane)
With its crown of radio towers, Selah Butte doesn't seem, at first glance, like a desert wilderness. But the expanse of open public lands that surround this massive butte harbors some of the best desert ecosystems in the area. Selah stands on the eastern edge of the Yakima River Canyon, offering amazing views of the canyon and the sheer wall of the Yakima Rim.
March 2010 Update: Select content from the 
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