Ethan, Karen, & I headed over to the Frenchman Coulee area on this sunny, mild day.  Instead of stopping at Frenchman Coulee proper, we drove to the boat launch at the end of the road and parked in the Grant Co PUD's Frenchman Coulee Rec Area parking lot.  From here we followed the trail along the river/lakeshore until it cliffed out, then started up the sidecanyon south of Pt 1225.  Our goal was to climb up the sidecanyon to the old road built in 1918 (replaced in 1930 by Hwy 10) and then walk south above the river/lake.  Unfortunately, we hadn't gone far when the effects of too little sleep and a lingering cold let me know that climbing up the canyon was not for me on this day, so we turned around and went back to to river/lake and found a nice sandy spot with rocks to lean against for lunch.  We lounged here in the warm sun for a very pleasant hour or so before heading back.  We had interesting clouds all day and along the way we saw a couple of plants of woolly-pod locoweed in bloom, emerging balsamroot leaves, a large flock of coots, and heard a canyon wren.

Quick day trip to test out some gear in the sand dune just south of Echo Basin. On my way back to the car I did a loop around the outside of the bottom of Echo Basin itself, spotting a porcupine in the rocks at the east end. There were some yellow bells scattered about just to the west of the watering hole but no other flowers that I noticed. As always the basalt cliffs were impressive and the snow-free hiking makes visiting this area a delight year-round.

From Cle Elum we headed to snow free Frenchman Coulee.  We mostly followed the old roads in the coulee, but also did some cross country.   Be sure to do a loop as the north side coulee walls are spectacular along with some large boulders.  You can also hike into Echo Basin on the south side of the road or climb up to the top of the coulee ridge.  You can also be entertained by watching the rock climbers.

Spent the weekend exploring the Frenchman Coulee area, specifically Echo Basin which lies just to the south before heading north to camp in the gully west of the Gorge Amphitheater. There were climbers a-plenty on the rocks the first day and a short but intense rain storm on the morning of the second day. Stumbled across a massive sand dune, an interesting pillar, a frozen waterfall, and an old stone crib. Highs around 60, low of 30. Stars were out in force until the clouds moved in. Brought a Sawyer Select S1 filter to allow removal of pesticides from the water but unfortunately it couldn't remove the awful soapy aftertaste and Crystal Light drink mix couldn't cover it up either. Looks like it's back to water carries next time around.

I led my 4th Winter Walk of the season for the Cascadians to Frenchman Coulee on this cloudy, cool day.  We walked the usual route up the coulee to the waterfall, then walked a little ways west and climbed talus at the base of some cliffs up to where we had access to the bench at the top of the north wall of the coulee.  Some of the talus was a little loose which was nerve-wracking for a couple members of the party, but we all made it to the top just fine.  We then walked west along the top of the cliffs for about 1/2 mile and found a nice spot for lunch looking up the coulee.  After 45 min or so we continued walking west along the cliffs to the mouth of the coulee, then  dropped down to Babcock Bench on easy slopes.  From here it was an easy walk along the old 2-track back to the cars.  We didn't see any other hikers except for a couple of other parties on the floor of the coulee when we were up on top and another couple and their dog when we were almost back to the cars.  But we did see buttercups and desert parsleys in bloom and some of us saw a coyote.