Quincy Lakes, Ancient Lakes — Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026

Speedwell (photo 4) and I went looking for early flowers in sunny Central Washington. We found quite a bit of Whitlow grass (photo 3), a few sagebrush buttercups (photo 2), and a few white desert parsleys (photo 1, the leaves were not developed enough to guess the species). We saw many leaves of plants coming out, including silver-leaf phacelia and larkspur (photo 1). There were some spots of mud, but the trails were mostly in good shape. Some of the shaded ground is still frozen. Evergreen reservoir is quite low, which might explain why for the 1st time in 4 years we could cross through the marsh on the trail that starts near the south gate and takes you into the Dusty Lake portion of the coulee. We found and took the bootpath just east of Dusty Lake that takes you to the Ancient Lakes portion of the coulee. It's kinda steep, but not exposed. It looks like it might be scary once it gets to the top and it traverses to the west above a cliff, but it is wide and won't be at all scary for most people. It's a cool trail. I've attached a Caltopo map of our route. On the Ancient Lakes side, the lakes are much higher than usual. The trail between the 2 lakes in photo 4 is covered by water. 

More Information on this Trip Report

• https://caltopo.com/m/P1ADSG9