Ethan & I took a hike along the north rim of Frenchman Coulee on this mild, sunny day.  Instead of driving down into the coulee, we followed Silica Rd to the bridge between two cattail-lined ponds that are the source of the waterfall at the end of the coulee and parked beside the road.  We walked out to the end of the coulee and then along the edge until we came to the creek from the ponds.  After a little searching, we found an easy way across at the very brink of the falls.  From here we followed along the north rim to the little side-coulee just west of the power lines and followed this coulee to its mouth.  We appeared to be cliffed-out here, but then Ethan found an easy way down to the next level at the east corner of the coulee.  From here we followed game/boot trails along the broad bench at the top of the north rim for 1/2 mile or so to a nice lunch spot with a good view of one of the big pillars along the north wall of the coulee.  After lunch we retraced our steps to the larger side-coulee just west of the the one we had come down, ascended it to the top, then made our way back to the rim and then to the car.  The only wildlife we saw were rock doves, crows, and a coyote.  There were quite a few cars across the coulee where the climbers park and we saw a number of parties down in the coulee, but we had the rim to ourselves.  It was another beautiful day in coulee country!

We stayed overnight Friday and woke up Saturday to many climbers filling up the parking lot and getting ready for a beautiful fall day of climbing. We had a lot of fun observing the climbers get ready, and as we hiked along the trails loved to watch them.

We did run into a rattlesnake - we jumped away quickly! Very alarming. Be careful as you are on the trails. We saw one other dead snake. 

Had lunch by the Columbia. Very beautiful! Very windy. 

Climbers and their families were out in force up high on this beautiful weekend, but we had the trail along the coulee floor to ourselves on this Saturday morning stroll. 

Lots of tiny shrub steppe wildflowers right now. We didn't pick up any ticks or see any snakes. 

We were ultimately headed for a visit to the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge, but this was a terrific little hike to start the day. 

A sign at the Echo Basin parking and restrooms said that the area is due to get a second restroom this spring. Huge thanks to the Access Fund and climbing community for all the excellent advocacy work around protecting this special spot. 

Vantage / Feathers / Frenchman is a busy weekend place for sure. You should have the following expectations going into it or you may have a bad time:

Expect everyone's kids running around screaming. This can make it hard to hear what your belay partner just said. Drones flying near you while you're leading a pitch. This also makes it hard to hear as well as the distraction of a freaking drone flying close to you on the pitch. Kids running between you and the wall while you're trying to belay. Dogs running around and playing between your legs while you're trying to belay. People shouting at their kids, dog, wife, mom, who went to the car to get something. Six different bluetooth speakers playing six different types of music. Kids throwing rocks. Parents yelling at kids for throwing rocks. Kids crying because they don't want to be out in the hot sun climbing anything. Parents yelling at one another b/c their kids are crying.

There are a lot of people that arrive here unprepared and do not respect the fact that this is a shared space. If you can accept this early on and realize it's much less like the "outdoors" and a lot more like an amusement park, you'll be okay.