Ancient Lakes

We drove out to Quincy Washington to hike around the Ancient Lakes area. We parked at the Lower Ancient Lakes Trailhead. We decided to take the trail that goes through the Potholes Coulee to the Columbia River before hiking up to the Coulee Wall and the Ancient Lakes. We only saw one other hiker on another trail in the area today. View as we began our hike.

View with the Columbia River in the distance as we headed the mile long side trail down to the Columbia River.

one of the coulee walls

looking downstream along the Columbia River

upstream along the Columbia River

prairie stars in bloom

Heading back up along the trail in Potholes Coulee

nearing the main trail

There are some interesting rock formations along the way.

Hiking up the scree filled trail up to one of the gaps in the  coulee wall.

Up on the coulee wall in one of the gaps, Ancient Lakes to the left, Dusty Lake to the right.

overlooking Dusty Lake

We hiked a short ways below the top of the Coulee Wall towards another gap/viewpoint. Great columns in the rock wall.

Heading up to the next gap in the wall.

View overlooking Dusty Lake

desert buttercup in bloom

Overlooking a couple of the Ancient Lakes as we head down the trail.

Hiking along the trail next to the lakes, waterfall n the distance.

zoom of the waterfall across the lake

another zoom showing the higher waterfalls as well

As we head towards the trailhead, we looked across one of the Ancient Lakes to the coulee wall where we hiked up to a couple of the gaps/viewpoints earlier today.

another waterfall coming off the coulee wall about 1 mile from the trailhead