Eastern Washington Coulee Country Tour - 05.25.2008
Generally, I don’t like to travel on holiday weekends, especially when it involves going to Eastern Washington. However a day trip on a Sunday isn’t bad - no Monday stop and go traffic over Snoqualmie Pass to contend with.
On Sunday, my son Steven, our dog and myself headed out around 6:00 a.m. over Snoqualmie Pass to Eastern Washington on a photographic tour. After a stop in Ellensburg for gas, coffee and food (plus a few stops on the way for the dog), we headed east on I-90 to Vantage, across the Columbia River and south on SR 243 towards Beverly to head up Lower Crab Creek.
From the small community of Beverly, we traveled east on the Lower Crab Creek Road and through the Crab Creek Wildlife Area and on into the Columbia National Wildlife Area just east.
We made quick stop into the Beverly Dunes ORV area to check the site out. A lot of people were camped out with their RVs and ATVs as expected for the holiday weekend. It was only about 9:30 a.m. when we drove through the ORV area so only a few kids were out riding their quads.
We continued on up the valley and the nicely graveled road turns to pavement near the community of Smyma. A short way past Smyma, the paved road turns to the left (and becomes E SW). Here the Lower Crab Creek Road continues east. At this spot is an old railroad trestle and an old abandoned railroad junction. One thing different from last year at this time was the old shack near the railroad crossing and junction is no longer there. It appears that a fire may have swept through the area and probably consuming the old railroad shack.
From the railroad junction, the road narrows and eventually climbs up the small cliffs that border the green valley of Lower Crab Creek and into shrub-steppe terrain. We eventually made our way through the community of Corfu, onto Gillis Road and back to SR 26 and into Othello.
From Othello, we headed north out town on the McManamon Road and then turned right onto S. Morgan Lake Road. This road leads back into seep lakes below the Potholes Reservoir and into the Seep Lakes Wildlife Area.
It’s about 13+/- miles from McManamon Road to the O’Sullivan Dam. There are many lakes along the way, however the only lake that was open to road traffic was Soda Lake. All other lakes, including Upper Goose Lake was gated and only open to foot traffic.
When we reached the O’Sullivan Dam Road (SR 262), we traveled east to the junction with SR 17 (the Coulee Corridor Highway) and traveled north past Moses Lake to the city of Soap Lake and into the Lower Grand Coulee. SR 17 travels past Soap Lake, Lenore Lake (where we stopped for a break and some photos), Blue Lake and Parke Lake before reaching the Sun Lakes State Park on the north shore of Parke Lake.
Of course, Sun Lakes State Park was very busy. We traveled past the busy campground area and headed towards the Dry Falls area. We first drove to Deep Lake but the parking lot was a little crowded so we turned around. We then made our way on a rough, gravel-surfaced road past Umatilla Rock, Perch Lake and to the roads end at Dry Falls Lake.
After touring the Sun Lakes State Park, we traveled the short distance on SR 17 to the Dry Falls Visitor Center where there are extensive views from the top of the dry falls cliffs into the coulee below. After shooting a lot of photos, we headed back onto SR 17 and then headed west on US 2.
From the map, it appeared that it was possible to travel from US 2 south on some primitive roads and reach the Moses Coulee and to SR 28 on the Columbia River just north of Crescent Bar.
From the junction with SR 17, US 2 travels primarily through areas of cultivated fields on each side of the road. One change in the landscape is when US 2 drops into Moses Coulee and climbs out the other side.
We made a stop at the old Highland School House that is just off the highway. Unfortunately, vandals have left their mark to the old school house. I’m sure it’s a matter of time before this landmark is no more.
A short ways past the Farmer Grange, we started our only true adventure for the day. We turned left and headed south on “H” SW, which is a straight, smooth gravel county farm road. “H” SW eventually becomes Slack Canyon Road (or Stotts Road, depending on the map you are reading) and drops down into the Douglas Creek Canyon via a narrow gravel road.
Once we reached the canyon bottom, we passed a few nice occupied campsites along the creek. At this point, we didn’t know if the road actually went though or not. The road led us through several water crossings, including one crossing up to the body of my Land Cruiser. We eventually met up with a group of people on ATVs (all packing rifles) that told us that the road does go through. We continued on through a few sections of road that required the use of four wheel drive and high clearance, but nothing too technical.
We came to a fork in the road and took the lower fork. There were a few people camped along the creek below where there were water carved bowls in the bedrock and small waterfalls (I would be worried if a flash flood occurred if I camped there). The road ended but we could see another road above us that may lead out to the cars we could see on the hillside above us. After verifying the route, we made our way to the end of the Douglas Creek Canyon and into Moses Coulee. I was able to flex my suspension a bit (low range four wheel drive is definitely required on this section, but again any decent clearance four wheel drive with low range could make it.) I’m not sure how much longer this last section of road will be passable. It gets pretty narrow where the roadbed is washing away. Right now it’s tight but passable for a full size truck.
From the end of the Douglas Creek Canyon, it’s a relatively short downhill drive down a gravel road to the Palisades Road and pavement (passable to roads end by cars). On the way down, we crossed an old railroad grade that continued up the Douglas Creek Canyon. Our guess is that it was from a mining operation up the canyon. On the way out on the Palisades Road, we visually followed the railroad grade to where it disappeared onto the valley floor near the community of Palisades. We then followed the Palisades Road through the farmlands of the Lower Moses Coulee, through the community of Appledale and finally reaching SR 28 near the Columbia River.
Once we reached SR 26, we turned left (which is actually eastbound) and headed south toward Crescent Bar. As we were approaching Crescent Bar, we had some great views across the Columbia River to West Bar.
Once we reached the turn off to Crescent Bar, we decided to take a drive down to see Crescent Bar. I was expecting to see a small town over run by new resort development but I never realized it was just a resort (at least that?s what it appeared to be before we turned around and left the chaos.
From Crescent Bar, its only seven miles to Quincy, where we fueled up for the trip home and had a quick fast food dinner before heading west over I-90.
Overall, we had great weather for most of the day. At times it was down right hot (for us coast people). We didn’t get on and off rain showers until we were almost to Moses Lake. Then the rain was with on and off again throughout the remainder of the day.
We were only able to see small wildlife on the trip. The wildlife count for the day including a rattlesnake, a turtle, frogs, rabbits, ground squirrels, herons, ducks and lots of other birds (not to forget the thousands of cows). The worst spot for mosquitoes was along Lower Crab Creek (a spray down of mosquito repellent made it tolerable).
In the end, we drove over 500 miles and still didn?t see all of the coulees in eastern Washington. Gas prices ranged from $3.97 (Ellensburg) - $4.12 (Quincy) a gallon. Don?t ask how much the gas bill was. Ouch.
Another great road trip completed.
You can view all of the photos from this trip at Eastern Washington Coulee Country Tour.
Tags: appledale, atv, beverly, blue lake, columbia, columbia river, corfu, coulee, crescent bar, deep lake, Dry Falls, dry falls lake, dunes, highland school, junction, land cruiser, lenore lake, lower crab creek, lower grand coulee, moses coulee, moses lake, o'sullivan dam, orv, othello, palisades, parke lake, perch lake, potholes reservoir, quincy, railroad, road trip, rv, seep lakes, shrub-steppe, smyma, Soap Lake, soda lake, sun lakes state park, tour, trestle, umatilla rock, upper goose lake, washington, west bar