Lovely, warmish afternoon to stroll up Frenchman Coulee to the waterfall, down to shirt sleeves and shorts late in day. At end of the hike close to sunset, the light conditions were marvelous for shooting the striking landscape. Ended day with a bonus fantastic meal at nearby Cave B Winery/Tendrils Restaurant. Narrative of hike and lots of photos (about dinner afterwards too) at my blog Pacific Northwest Seasons.

Parked at the main climbing lot/campground. First headed over to the basalt columns that stick out and scrambled up to the top of those, avoiding some columns that were a bit too exposed. Then I hiked up the old dirt road in the side-coulee behind the big rock tower and found a trail on the right that easily led to the top of the cliffs of the rim. I hiked back toward the main coulee out to the rim above the road to a point with a rock cairn. Then I found a trail that headed west along the ridge through basalt rock formations to a high point before the ridge began losing elevation. This is where I turned back, but followed the rim on the other side of the ridge, overlooking the big coulee to the south. Pretty cool looking ancient waterfall at the head of that coulee with a big depression in the ground I will have to check out someday. I worked my way back to that point with the rock cairn overlooking the main coulee and the climbing area, then found a main trail leading back down off of the cliffs and back to the parking lot. On the way out I stopped to quickly hike down to the main waterfall at the head of the main coulee.

Nonstop rain all week on the west side, as per usual, the pups and I escaped to east of the mountains in hope for some sunshine. Three other cars parked by the gate when we arrived, and one other car pulled up just as we were getting ready. The area was overcast sky with a little bit of drizzle, but it got progressively better after we started moving. We’ve been here two other times before so we’re no strangers to the place. This time rather than heading straight for the waterfall, we scrambled toward the north wall and then traversed the coulee counterclockwise, just something a little different. There were two other parties in the coulee on our way in as they were heading out via the standard trail. After we arrived at the waterfall, another party with two dogs bypassed the waterfall and went up east end of the trail onto the main road. It was sunny all afternoon and got pretty warm at one point. Glad there wasn’t much elevation change, otherwise I’d be sweating like a pig. We didn’t see anyone else for the remainder of our hike back to the car.

Even on a foggy winter's day this was a great walk with great views. There are many trails to choose from, we started at the trail head and took a left at each y, ended up overlooking the Columbia River. Was an easy walk with dogs and kids on the trail. Will be exploring more of this area.

This is a hike that brought up memories of a Leonard Cohen song "Suzanne" - in the last verse Cohen writes "She shows you where to look amidst the garbage and the flowers" - a powerful image and one that fits this hike/walk in the desert. Frenchman Coulee is not a wilderness hike but one that allows one to see the beauty and fragility of our environment. The walk took our group towards the falls on the Coulee wall. The wall opposite the falls is littered with abandoned junk (cars, campers, water heaters) dumped from the Vantage Road. You would think people would have more respect for their home. That said, the beauty of the hike is the quiet wandering on rocky and sandy road/trail to a falls coming down the Coulee and seeing the small wildlife of ants, lizards (as Paul said 'We're off to see the Lizard of Oz') and hawks. The walk to the falls took about an hour one way with lots of photo stops and lunch at the base of the falls. The weather was great with a bit of cloud cover and breeze which made the 80 degree day seem quite mild. This is probably not a hike to take in August if you want to avoid heat. But yesterday it was nice to avoid the rain in Seattle and Western Washington. No problems with the drive from Seattle which took about 3.5 hours with a pit stop at the pass both ways and dinner in Ellensburg - we left Seattle about 8:00 AM and returned home by 8:00 PM. Asters and Queen Ann Lace were in bloom but will not last long as summer is in full swing in this area of Washington.