Excellent view of the columns We loved the ride and took…read morepictures of the formations. However we didn't get to see the tall ones or maybe the shadows did not allowed a great view

There is a pull-off from West McManamon Road where you can park your car as you visit Drumheller…read moreChannels National Natural Landmark. I had been debating about whether to stop here after hiking some of the trails past the main entrance of the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge and decided to stop because the pull-off had ample space for me to park and a sign denoting the pull-off corresponding to the National Natural Landmark was easy to spot from the road. From the parking area there is a short gravel path to a vista/viewing point that looks out over the channeled scablands. This viewing area has a few informational placards with information about the history of the area and about the importance of the natural habitat the area provides for wildlife. A number of small trails branched away from the vista/viewing point that I chose not to explore. I enjoyed stopping here and it tickled my tastebuds to do more exploring in the vein of past geology projects of mine. In my sedimentology and stratigraphy course as an undergraduate training in geology and geophysics one of my focus projects was on the channeled scablands. I chose the topic because the word scablands was not familiar to me. Funny enough, the channeled scablands ended up being in my home state (Washington State)! So stopping here carried a large sentimental meaning to me. Even if the channeled scablands have not been a focus of your professional activities I recommend stopping here. The location provides a good view of the scablands and a great cursory background of the importance of the area in understanding Earth's (natural) history.

Dry Falls is a must see in Eastern Washington. Created during the Ice Age melts it was at one time…read morethe largest waterfall in the world. It's fascinating and worth a stop. There is a visitor center and beautiful viewpoints.

Dry Falls. Yes, it's…read moredry and you won't see a single waterwall at all. So, you will probably say to yourself, "Why should I visit a falls without any water? You see, this used to be the location of the world's largest waterfall in the history of planet earth. It's about ten times the size of Niagra Falls. The flow of the water was as powerful as all of the rivers on this earth times ten! The scenery was quite breathtaking and it somewhat reminded me of the Grand Canyon, except there is a lake below the canyon. There is a visitor centre where you can see the history of the site and you can buy gifts such as toys and postcards. I learned at the centre that there used to be rhinos, camels, and wooly mammoths that roamed this area when Dry Falls actually had a water flowing. Also, I was told that this spot is very popular with Western cowboy movies. Dry Falls is a true gem and I want to spread the word for more people to explore what used to be the Mount Everest of waterfalls in Washington State.

It's not the landscape, the wildlife, the trails or the views. It's the people. Most are…read moreperfectly fine and are out there to camp, hike, and fish for the sake of the activities. However, there is a percentage that is there because it's free and remote while still being accessible to a town where they can get their drug of choice. You'll recognize them by the ancient, filthy, motorhomes. My son was hiking with his girlfriend when they were approached by one of these "campers" who asked if they had any fentanyl to sell! Wow! Is there no where to escape this scrounge? Anywhere?

Mileage: estimated about 10 miles total (2 miles to where we set up our tents, then we hiked a loop…read moreof about 6 miles, then 2 miles back to the car the next day) Backpacked: April 16-17, 2016 This past weekend a group of us did an overnight backpack trek to Ancient Lakes. 3 first timers backpacking and it turned out to be an awesome trip! We had some problems trying to find directions out to the place, so here's directions from my personal experience. Directions: we stayed in Quincy the night before, so we took the 28 to Whitetail Road. Made a left on Whitetail from the 28, then a right on road 9 NW. follow road 9 NW and it turns into Ancient Lakes Rd NW. At the end of the road, you'll find the west parking lot. I am not sure how to get to the east parking lot. There's a lot of parking here, when we got there by 11 am, it was really crowded but we still found a spot. (When you are on Whitetail Rd, it might look like you are just driving through farms, but buried in there, there's Ancient Lakes!) There is a port-o-potty at the trail head on the west side. Trail head: is well marked, we hiked in about 2 miles and got to the lakes and the rolling grass area where you can set up tent where ever. There are some man made fire rings scattered through out the area. Hiking: After we picked a spot and set up camp, we hiked a loop around the lakes. We started towards the waterfall. It was a scramble up the side of the waterfall, like a class 4 rock scramble lol. Loose rocks, loose footing. From there, we went pass that waterfall and onto the backside where the east parking lot is. Which there's another waterfall there, and there's also camp spots there too. We looped around, it wasn't too hard. We estimated this part of the hike to be around 6 miles round trip back to our tents. Lots of people camping, we counted about 50 tents, then you estimate about 2/per tent, so like 100 people were out here! But you still are able to find solitude. We came across 3 snakes, an owl, and a marmot. Easy trek, not very hilly at all. Good for first time backpackers. The area can be explored in a day. I found this site useful: https://www.theoutbound.com/washington/backpacking/ancient-lakes-day-hike-or-backpack

heading down to the coast for a night of racing and come upon this ridiculous thing in the middle…read moreof the desert. don't get me wrong, I've bridged up here a lot but this span is in its own league entirely... besides being a half-mile long ramp across the river it's got twisty turns on the other end feeding in or leading out or just driving past on Rte 26 heading to Tacoma and by the time I realize how cool it is there's no place to pull over and have a look until next time (getting turned around counts as next time) and realizing there's way too many spots to get a better look at the bridge and sometimes it takes two or several passes which is kind of a good problem to have... totally digging the man-gates on the richland side; the stunted brush and broken terrain brings odd notions about what went on here before the fences got staked... enjoy :-)

Holy smokes, what a great view! But holy smokes, the wind nearly blew me off the bridge!…read more The Vantage Bridge is the second one at this location, which carries Interstate 90 over the Columbia River and joins Vantage with George (and who was clever to name their town George in the state of Washington?). This section of the river is the Wanapum Lake that is formed by the Wanapum Dam that you can't see from the bridge but it's there. This type of bridge is a "through arch bridge" and it has a total length of 2504 feet. It was dedicated in 1962 and is in great condition considering it is 60 years old. There is a "scenic view" spot on the east bank where you can get a great view of the bridge. It was so windy up there that I could barely stand! [Review 17107 overall - 95 in Washington - 623 of 2022.]

Two year old visitors center. Clean, informative staff…read more Interesting exhibit and movie. You can't walk in or out the dam. Worth the stop to take a look and stretch your legs.

* Summer Flashback * When I think of state parks and forests…read morein Washington, I always assume they'll consist of lush green foliage. However, Eastern Washington takes on a totally different landscape! The Gingko forest was dry like a desert and I immediately felt like I was transported to a different state. The park is split into two main areas which both require the Discover Pass or $10 for admission. The first area is home to the gift shop, interpretive center and stumps of petrified wood outside on display. This was my first time seeing any remains of petrified wood which are actually considered stone. The wood was smoothed over and some of the surfaces had developed shiny deposits! There are some plaques to read around the exhibit which describe the history of the land and provide more information on the petrified artifacts. It's an amazing realization that we were standing in an area that was once overtaken by lava flows. We could actually see lava remains on the grounds as well! From behind the interpretive center, you can get an expansive view of the Columbia River and Vantage Bridge. Inside, you'll find various types of petrified wood clearly labeled in glass displays which are definitely worth taking a moment to browse. A friendly park guide was also happy to answer any questions. About two miles up the road is a trail which apparently leads to petrified logs. Unfortunately, due to high fire risk (dry summer weather), this area was closed. Somewhere, you can see petroglyphs as well which we also missed this time around. While driving to and from this area, we spotted a herd of antelope! They were in the middle of the road and we caught a glimpse of them as they crossed right in front of us. What a sight! Overall, this is a park that everyone can enjoy, even those who cannot walk a far distance. The petrified wood and interpretive center at the first location is within a very short distance of the parking lot. While not exactly what I expected of a state park, it was still a fascinating visit. I couldn't help but marvel at all of the artifacts that originated from thousands of years ago. Stop by and touch a piece of history!

Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park is a MUST see when traveling back to western WA. I'm still…read moreperplexed at how naturally beautiful the state of WA is, it's truly unreal how this park and Wenatchee can be 1-2 hours from the other. Our goal is visit as many national parks as we can, in an effort to acknowledge and honor the gift of nature.

Great site to visit! Highly recommend. You'll be blown away. The size of the original waterfall…read moremust have been so amazing in its day!

When we first heard about this park, it was hard to picture what would be attractive about a…read morewaterfall without any water. But once you get to see this living geology lesson in person, it's easy to consider this a must-see if you're in the area. The visitor center has great informative panels, 3D representations of what you're looking at, and friendly, helpful staff.

Oooo! the Vernita Bridge is a bit fancier than it appears at first glance with almost 2000 feet of…read moreWA 24 crossing the Columbia River here since 1965 when the Vernita (nee: Jaeger) ferry was decommissioned after serving the area for most of the preceding 150 years. the main spans look like your basic continuous through truss but are actually three smaller spans that have been joined together and appear as one; the center span was apparently constructed for later conversion to a vertical lift bridge to accommodate boat traffic below with features on the oversized central piers and truss-end posts to support installation of the required hardware. the Vernita Bridge was built at the end of an era: riveted constructions were giving way to bolts and weldments but certain sections of the bridge that were being bolted on other structures at the time are riveted on the Vernita Bridge, and other sections that were still being riveted elsewhere were welded on the Vernita Bridge...

We stayed for two nights at Pothole Camp, and from the very first morning (Saturday), the entire…read moretrip was just horrible. First issue: Someone thought it was a genius idea to hang a wasp/hornet trap right in the middle of two campsites -- ours and our neighbors'. Saturday morning, we woke up to wasps swarming all over our tents. At first, we couldn't figure out why until we spotted the trap in a tree, literally buzzing with activity. My husband went to the ranger station to report it, but no one was there. About an hour later, a ranger finally showed up and moved the trap -- by that point, our kids hadn't even been able to leave their tents. Once that was dealt with, I started cleaning up all the trash left behind by the previous campers at our site. Later that evening, while we were having dinner, our older daughter was stung by a bee. Speaking of trash -- let's talk about the lakes. We visited multiple spots around the lakes, and honestly, it felt like flashbacks to dirty California beaches. Everywhere we went: trash, broken glass, diapers, beer cans, baby wipes. Floating in the water. Tangled in plants. Scattered across the shore. My daughter was in the water for maybe 45 seconds before she cut her foot open on a shard of glass, and we had to go back to camp to pull it out. None of us even got to swim. And this wasn't just one spot -- we tried three different lakes and five different locations, hoping for a safe place for the kids. Nothing. We are never coming back. People can say what they want about western Washington coasts and lakes (the weather, the crowds, whatever), but what we do right is keeping our beaches, parks, and wildlife refuges clean. We respect our nature and our wildlife. We don't like people coming into our homes and leaving trash everywhere, so we don't do that to other places. This place could be a gem. It could be beautiful and worth returning to every year. But that won't happen. This was our first -- and our last -- time visiting.

love camping herre use park as base camp and go fishing in the many many lakes within 25 miles…read more love the fishing in eastern washington