Tremendously gorgeous day out here. And, despite "hike of the week" selection recently, my friend and I had the entire place to ourselves. Lots of rock climbers out on the road in, but we saw three other people in the Coulee all day. If you're looking for solitude, this might be the place. This is not a tough walk and, despite a small parking area, plenty of room on the shoulders to park. Not an issue. The wildflowers appear to just be starting in spots, in grand bloom in others. The waterfall was going nicely at the head of the coulee though folks should use caution in trying to get close to it. Aside from slippery rocks, the adjacent walls are primarily loose talus and not an easy scramble. Trail gets more and more sandy as you approach the waterfall, so something else to be aware of. Several trails in the basin to explore and, face it, tough to get lost in here. Worth the drive down Old Vantage toward the Columbia River Gorge. Several pull-offs with great views and one with a trail down to the riverbank. The wildflowers there are fantastic at the moment there.

Faced with the snow-clogged trails in the Cascades I decided to try one of WTA's "Hikes of the Week", Frenchman Coulee located just across the Columbia River. After leaving I-90 I turned off onto Vantage Road for the short but spectacular drive down the rim of the coulee to the tiny parking spot at the trailhead; there's only room for three cars there, but you can park on the side of the seldom-travelled roadway. The enormous coulee looks rather stark at first glance, especially on a cloudy day. And the wind was howling at the TH, but died down to almost nothing as I hiked up the trail. As I headed up the trail (actually an old dirt road) toward the big waterfall at the head of the coulee, I began to see lots of wildflowers in bloom. You might not notice them at first as they are small relative to the sagebrush that covers the area. Most would be unfamiliar to those used to hiking the wildflower meadows of the mountains, and some are very small; small, yes, but making up for diminutive size with sheer abundance. Yellow Bells, one of the few species I recognized, are reaching the end of their bloom cycle. But I saw many others that are yet to flower, so the next month or so should be good for wildflower lovers; I recognized some Zigadenus (now Toxicoscordion) species, unidentifiable until they bloom. For a more interesting hike, I highly recommend wandering off-trail; the most interesting things I saw were during bushwhacking forays, and the open shrub-steppe makes it easy going. And it's pretty much impossible to get lost here if you have eyes. Unfortunately, the other thing that "grows" in the coulee is garbage. Apparently it's considered great fun to chuck unwanted debris off the roadway far above and watch it crash through this delicate ecosystem. The favorite junk item is tires, and many of these hit the bottom and roll quite a ways into the coulee. I didn't encounter any other hikers the whole day, so you won't be crowded here! All in all, though, it was an enjoyable hike and an interesting change from mountain scenery. But if you go, do it during spring as it looks like it will be baking hot during the summer, and there is no shade whatsoever. BTW, I noticed that some trip reports actually refer to the smaller unnamed coulee on the other side of the road, the one with the big sand dunes, and surely an interesting hike in its own right. According to the USGS topo map (Evergreen Ridge quadrangle), the real Frenchman Coulee is on the same side of the road as the tiny parking area.

Had a great time watching climbers near Agathla Tower and admiring the giant columnar basalts. Then we drove down the road a bit more to the parking pullout and walked over to the sand dunes, they are such fun to play in! We took 5 kids and had a blast running up and down the sand dunes.

I led my last Winter Walk of the season today for the Cascadians to the Frenchman Coulee area. Instead of going up the North Alcove where the waterfall is, we walked into the South Alcove, also known as Echo Basin. We walked back to the plunge pool at the end of the coulee, stopping from time to time to watch all the rock climbers on the columns above. We then walked along the south side of the coulee and down Babcock Bench across the first set of sand dunes to the second area of sand, which is more a steep sand slope that it is a dune. We climbed the sand to a lunch spot overlooking Babcock Bench and the Columbia River. We had started in sun, but it was mostly cloudy by this time. There was a breeze, but fortunately it was not as strong as predicted. After lunch we went back down the sand and back to the cars across the mouth of Echo Basin. We then drove up to the large parking/tenting area and took the trail to the top of the Frenchman Coulee Rib and over to the slot that leads down to the base of Sunshine Wall. This was a fairly tight squeeze and, since you need to use your hands at the bottom, only 4 of us went all the way down. Those that stayed behind had great views out over Echo Basin. There were lots of yellow bells and a few desert parsleys, but not much else in bloom yet. Everybody had a great time.

Heading from Seattle to Clarkston I stopped by Frenchman Coulee to visit the sand dunes. When I saw snow on the ground I feared not seeing the dunes but decided to try anyway. There was only about an inch or two so the going wasn't too bad. The first five hundred feet were on rocks and there after the ground was sandy. In two hours I saw all three sandy spots and made it to the south end of the state land. It snowed or sleeted on me a bit but not to bad. Just me the Jack Rabbits, Coyotes and Deer, (I only saw the tracks).