Steamboat Rock — Tuesday, Apr. 16, 2002

Central Washington > Grand Coulee

Yawn, nothing like getting up at 2:45am to go out for a day of photography and hiking in the desert! Wanting more time to accomplish more and still be home by mid-afternoon I found myself rolling out of the driveway at 2:57pm enroute to my first stop of the day: Steamboat Rock State Park in the great Grand Coulee country. Even after some snow over the pass (it's almost May for goodness sake!) and stops at Indian John Hill and Ephrata, I was escorting myself up the sandy trail toward Steamboat Rock by 6:20am. What joy it felt like to look across the vast area of Steamboat Rock State Park at that hour and see no sign of life, even in the three lonely campers in the campground. Ahead of me was the massive ""island"" of a rock mountain that was left behind through all of the Great Missoula Floods, the sun was rising against it's green and brown lichen-covered rocks, and I was prepared to look over this huge area of The Grand Coulee...from on top! Down low along the rocks and cliffs arrowleaf balsamroot was blooming and the morning sunrise was making it really glow. Prairie star-flowers were carpeting the desert floor everywhere I hiked this day. The trail becomes very rough and steep the first 1/8 mile up through the slot in the cliffs, even becoming more of a scramble in two places. Upon reaching the middle ledge suddenly a carpet of sagebrush buttercups bombed the ground in all directions turning many areas a glow of yellow! Upon reaching the split in the trail I veered left to explore to the western end of the top of ""The Rock"" until I came to the edge which dropped off to the flatlands below. Through here it was obvious far fewer people come this direction as the path is really a sort of bash through the sage in places. Staying to the trail here is a fine and smart thing to do to protect the fragile ecosystem surrounding you. Here also the flowers really put on a show: bluebells growing under the large sage canopy of the desert, yellow-bells, large clumps of not yet blooming prairie lupines, and the true start of the day was the vast purple areas of desert shooting star! Wow! Just when was standing up from shooting underneath a lovely clump of shooting stars two female ringed-neck pheasants tore off away from the area I was encroaching on them. Scared the daylights outta me! Golden-crowned kinglets were singing a lively song in some shrubs along a rocky area--looked like squaw current shrubs to me. I hiked back after looking down into the waters of Banks Lake off the western end of the rock, and just as I took the eastern trail I was greeted with seven mule deer coming up the same trail area I had come up. They looked like they had enjoyed a night down low drinking and feeding, and now that it was the late hour of 8:00am decided to head up high to hide and rest for the day. I was lucky to have a large rock to hide behind and followed suit by shooting at least four of them...with an equivalent of 800mm of lens on the camera! They had to have known I was there due to their nervousness looking my direction, but it was the only way up so they hurried quickly and soon were gone. What a treat to be up there so early! I then roamed the eastern end of the rock for another hour before hiking back down to the day use area where I parked. I noticed large areas of death camas growing near the trailhead as well, then was on my way out to my second hike of the day by 9:20am. Next: Northrup Canyon.