Lake Easton Snowshoe

We drove to Lake Easton State Park to snowshoe. There are both groomed trails for snowmobiles and skiers. The trails had not been groomed recently because there was only 5-10" of snow. We snowshoed through these trails (staying to the far side of where the trail would be groomed) to the Palouse to Cascades Trail and continued for a bit before returning. We did not see anyone else out on the trails today.

View of Lake Easton near the non motorized parking area (SnoPark Pass is needed to park)

The first 0.6 miles of the trail is shared with snowmobiles and runs parallel to I-90, this was the noisiest part of the trail.

View along the shared trail where a bridge crosses over the outflow from Lake Kachess to Lake Easton.

A stream near the groomed trails in the woods.

When we reached the Palouse to Cascade Trail, we first turned east to the bridge that goes over the Yakima River on the south side of Lake Easton for this view. The gate to the bridge crossing was closed and locked. We saw a train go by (note far right).

We then turned round and hike another mile or so west along the Palouse to Cascade Trail.

There were lots of icicles on the rocks.

some views of the Yakima River

a stake noting we are 2,100 miles from Chicago

a small waterfall

some patterns in the ice at the side of the trail

another view of the Yakima River further upstream

We found a spot to take a lunch break and turn around.

On our way back, we saw another train heading east on the tracks

Started to snow as we returned down the trail