We drove out to the Whiskey Dick Wildlife Area (near Vantage Washington) to hike and look for wildflowers. Last week, when we arrived at the trailhead it was 24F and very windy with snow blowing fiercely around so we opted for another hike out of the wind. Today it was 36F when we started with the wind being not as fierce as last week. There are 3 trailheads and we choose the middle one. We hiked 8 miles round trip with an overall gain of 800 ft. We saw elk, wildflowers and no other people on the trail today.
Our destination was following the currently closed roads to that distant ridge.
We were blessed to see two herds of elk, this was the larger herd.
Although the hillsides seemed bereft of color, we saw many low lying and short wildflowers in bloom. They have seemed to have recovered quite well from last weeks late snow storm. It looks like many more flower will bloom in the next few weeks.
Most of the "trail" was wet with some very large puddles. There was quite a bit of slippery sticky mud. We did find a few snow patches further up on the ridge.
Views from our turn around spot, to the northwest looking towards the Wild Horse Wind Farm,
distant snow colored mountains to the west,
and the Columbia River in the distance to the southeast.
We found this piece of petrified wood and left it for others to enjoy.We also saw 3 coyote carcases near the trailhead.
some of the wildflowers we saw along the trail today
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