Hanford Reach National Monument — Friday, Apr. 14, 2006

The Saturday before Easter wasn't the best of weather conditions, but for this aired part of the state probably the spring / fall will do a lot better then the mid summer heat! This newly designated national monument doesn't come outfitted with it's own set of hiking trails. It's going to be tricky to find until the signage catches up. From the Tri- Cities area, find road 68 out of Pasco and head north. This means out through all the construction going on. Keep right all the way out to a ""T"" intersection with Ringold road. Don't be alarmed if you realize you're leaving Taylor Flats road to turn onto Ringold road. It just happens. 68 becomes Taylor Flats. You will need to remember this for the return trip! It's a left hand turn on Ringold and you're headed west. There's a sign showing a 6% grade on a hill and as you get near the bottom of the hill there is a SMALL, GREEN and WHITE Sign showing Ringold (fish rearing ponds) POINTING FOR YOU TO MAKE ANOTHER LEFT. It's easy to miss! Once making the turn off, you will get to a point showing public fishing straight ahead. TURN TO THE RIGHT. Follow a dirt/ gravel road along past the residence for the fish hatchery folks until you get to a gated area. There will be a informational sign on the right showing the Monument area. This road is packed, it's not terribly rutted and a car will travel it fine. There are several parking areas along the way. Don't be expecting them to be paved! They are just dirt and really provide fishermen access to the Columbia River. Follow the road out to it's end. The road is blocked at that point by another locked gate. The trail begins here. Lets understand - it isn't really a trail. This was once a principal roadway along the Columbia. If you're into mountain biking and want to ride a comfortable, fabulous paved highway, free of any car traffic, this thing is perfect. If you want to walk a long abandon stretch of Washigton byway without worrying about scrambling a trail, this is it! It's really as close as one can come to a "" rural sidewalk "". You can go as far as you want. There is another gated area a top a hill if you make it all the way to the end. You are between the wind carved, banded, White Bluffs of the Columbia River and the river itself. There are stretches of grass lands flowing out between the two. Red tail hawks soar overhead. Red winged black birds, yellowheaded black birds, meadowlarks, robins, crows, ravens, ducks, blue herons.... in short, a birders paradise. If you look just off the paved surface you will see the tracks of deer and coyote.Once in the upper segments of the road you'll be able to look back and down on the unbroken Hanford reservation. Shurb steppe boundless to Gable and Rattlesnake mountains beyond. On this cold, bitter day it's not too hard to imagine the ice age floods that poured through here eons ago to scour out this massive coulee , river delta, flood plain territory. From high a top the final rise you might even consider yourself at the end of the earth!