Hanford Reach -- White Bluffs (North Approach) — Saturday, May. 3, 2008

This weekend's trip was to the Hanford area. There had been a lot of chatter in hiking magazines about the Hanford Reach and I wanted to see what it was all about. We left Seattle around 8:30am and reached Mattawa at 11:00am due to a number of stops along the way. The roads were perpetually straight from Mattawa on. There were no signs pointing to the road to the trailhead, so we zipped right by the solar powered gate before we even knew it was there. Upon correcting ourselves, we went through the gate and drove ~5 miles down the road to the boat launch parking area. After taking a look at the old log cabin, we set off in search of the trailhead, which is a little tricky to find. From the actual parking area, it is about a quarter-mile up the road on the left, just past a psuedo-parking lot with signs that read ""no vehicles beyond this point"". From here, the trail is faint but gradually becomes more visible within a quarter mile. The trail climbs gently to the top of the bluffs, eventually opening up to 360 views of the Columbia and the entire Reach. It wasn't as windy as we expected, but at one point we could hear the howl of coyotes down below. We followed the trail to the sand dunes where we had lunch and watched the local beetles climb up and down the dunes. On the way back, we tried to beat a pack of kayakers floating down the Columbia, but we simply couldn't beat the current. All in all, a gorgeous hike. The area is full of history and mystery, which only adds to the beauty of the area. We only hiked out to the sand dunes (probably not more than 3 miles), but you can go as far as the Hanford warning signs will let you. On a side note, make sure to turn left onto the Mattawa highway instead of right (as the directions in the ""Best Desert Hikes"" say). Distance: ~6 miles Elevation gain: 300 ft Difficulty: Easy Actual hiking time: ~2 hours Cost of gas round trip from Seattle: $75 (in a Pontiac Grand Prix)