The Washington State Hiking Podcast
Welcome to the The Washington State Hiking Podcast with your host, Jennie Thwing Flaming. Along with part time co-host and guidebook author Craig Romano, she provides practical and timely seasonal hiking advice for hikers, trail runners and potential hikers of all skill and ability levels that is practical, accurate, fun and inclusive. We cover hikes near Seattle and Tacoma as well as hikes all across Washington from the rain forests of the Olympic Peninsula to the Shrub Steppe of Eastern Washington.
Jennie is a middle aged, plus sized, frequently solo slow hiker and a born and raised Washingtonian and has enjoyed Washington's trails her entire life. Craig is a trail runner and ultra marathoner who also loves the mellow walk close to home. Originally from New Hampshire, he has made his home in Washington for more than 30 years. He the author of more than 20 guidebooks covering trails across Washington State and beyond.
The Washington State Hiking Podcast
Eastern Washington Wildflower hikes for Spring
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Welcome to the Washington State Hiking Podcast. I'm your host, Jennie Thwing Flaming,
and I'm your co-host Craig Romano.
Craig and I are happy to have you here. We provide practical and timely seasonal hiking advice for hikers, trail runners, and potential hikers and trail runners of all skill and ability levels that is helpful, accurate, fun, and inclusive.
Our sponsor for the month of March is visit Tri-Cities, which is really exciting because this is the time of year that the sun starts to sound really amazing. So if you're looking for a new Washington landscape to explore, discover what's in you in the Tri-Cities. Hike above the last free flowing stretch of the Columbia River at White Bluffs.
Explore the quiet shrub step trails of the Hanford Reach, or climb Badger and Candy Mountain for sweeping basin views. Here you'll find wide open spaces, dramatic geology, and more than 300 days of sense. Sunshine each year. Set up a base camp, hit the trail and stay for the sunsets. Plan your trip at visit.
Try cities.com and discover what's in you.
Hey Craig. Hey, Jennie.
So one of the things that is wonderful about Spring.
It is spring, by the way,
and Spring has sprung.
Yes. And you know, you and I both live in western Washington where it, you know, yes, we got some sunny days, but there are a lot of gray days in the spring and so this is one of my favorite times of year to go over to Eastern Washington where, and I know we've talked about this on the pod before and about just the many.
This warm sunny days and the wonderful wild flowers that are kind of April and a little March, a little may, depending on exactly where you are. So, today we're, and that's also true in central Washington, but today we're really talking about eastern Washington, right?
Yeah. And, and just like you said, I, I love this time of year in eastern Washington and, um, the, one of the main things, you know, Eastern Washington.
Parts of Eastern Washington get really warm in the summertime.
Yeah.
Uh, so spring is a great time to be here and I like fall also. But fall,
yeah.
Thing, things start getting a little browner. Yeah. And we're gonna talk about flower, but this time of year. Quite a bit of rain has made its way over there during this time of the year.
So things are starting to green up, starting to flower and um, boy, I'll tell you, some of the best wildflower, um, hikes in, in the state are, are on, are on the east side of the state. Amazing. Yeah, absolutely.
And I know we've talked about this on the pod before, but we're pretty lucky here because we have wildflowers in different parts of the state at different elevations from like March through September.
It's pretty cool.
You can start getting right as early as March, even in February. Uh, yeah. In certain places you can start, start enjoying the flowers where. Western Washington, other than I'm in the Skagit Valley. We have the tulip. Tulip, but for the wild flowers in the, in the mountains and all Yeah. We,
we still have a a ways to go.
Yep. You
know?
Yeah. So, , we are ready for sun here in Western Washington. Sunnier days. Beautiful flowers. And it's more green than it, you know, it's like, when is it green in Eastern Washington? Well, April is when it's green. Yep.
Great time to be
there. .
So we've got these beautiful hillsides of like. Purple and gold Go Huskies.
Yeah, exactly. You know, it's funny you say that because I I I, I make that reference in, in several of my books. Yeah. And saying how, especially in Eastern Washington, I mean, you know, red and gold.
Uh, no, it's gonna be purple and gold.
It is, yeah. For flowers.
Sorry. But when that looping comes out, . It's gonna be amazing. And carpets and carpets of it.
Yes.
And of course there are lots of other wild flowers that, that aren't as big, or there aren't, you know, there's pl plenty of places that you go to where you're like, oh, what's this cool flower?
Yeah.
Um, but I feel like those ones are really the dominant ones. Well, you know
what's interesting about eastern Washington too, when you start looking at the types of flowers,
but one of the things I will mention right off the bat. Once you start getting off into getting into the eastern part of the state, you start seeing a lot of species that you don't see in the western part of the state. 'cause you start get seeing the Rocky Mountain species over there. Mm-hmm. And one of the things I, one of my absolute favorite flowers in the state that you probably associate more with Montana and Idaho are Bitterroot, the Bitterroot flower.
Oh,
yeah. Uh, and you know, and matter of fact, if you've never seen one when you stumble upon one and, and it's a spring flower in, the basin, the Columbia basin, it's gonna look like someone. Took stem off of a flower and left the flower there. 'cause you just see the bloom coming outta the ground.
It is a fantastic flower and for a lot of the native people, it, you know, it was a, it was a food source and everything. It's a amazing, flower. You will see that in the Columbia basin in the springtime. Yep. It's a great, great place to see it.
Yeah. So, the ones that I wanted to share today, and by the way, we did get a listener question that asked if we could do a deeper dive into this topic and also Central Washington wildflowers.
So the ones that I have are kind of in the greater Tri-Cities area and then also around Vantage that area east of Ellensburg, west of Moses Lake where I 90 goes over the Columbia River. And I know you know where that is, but sometimes people, especially in Seattle or like Vantage what,
so what about you, Craig? What are some of the areas.
Well, we talk about those areas too. And also, , extreme Eastern Washington, I'm gonna send you to the northeast and the southeast corner of the states. Oh
yeah.
Yeah. Cool. , And particularly, um, a place you might, I think when you think about the Palouse, um, I mean the Palouse, you know, most of it, it for agriculture and everything, but one of the best wild flower hikes in the state.
Matter of fact, it's one of my 100 classic hikes is Kamiak Butte.
Awesome. Yes.
Great. That is a
wonderful one.
It's, it's an amazing place to hike from April to June. It's incredible for the flower and it's also one of the best places for views in the Palouse too. You can get a three state view there and everything.
So, um, yeah, not too far from. From Pullman, you've got one of the best wildflower hikes and south of Pullman. We go into the Lewis and Clarkston. Lewiston and Clarkston Valley area. And I know Jennie, you've been here too, is Puffer Butte. Yes. Which
I
love. Puffer Butte, which is, which is in field Spring State Park, which is, yeah.
Right where Oregon, Idaho, and Washington all come together. Now Puffer be's up higher, so it's not a place you're gonna go in February or March, unless you wanna go cross country skiing. It's a great place to ski, but in May, the flowers there are amazing. Yeah, it is one, it is another one of my a hundred classic hikes.
Yeah. A hundred classic hikes book. So two, your best flower hikes are in that part of the state. Mm-hmm. So to your extreme, your, your extreme southeastern corner of the state, the northeastern corner state. Amazing flowers too, but you wanna wait a little bit longer. It's higher mountains. They have snow, they have real winter there.
Yep.
But the shed roof divide, which goes right along the Idaho, Washington area, uh, uh, Washington border, um, a lot of it burned and burned over, uh, various. Times in the past. You have different stages of forest succession there. So a lot of flowers in that area. It's a great springtime. Uh, a have great, early summer hike for flowers.
Likewise, in the Kennel River range. Uh, this is, near Colville Republic. Yep. So it's sinking in the northeastern part of the state. One of my favorite flower hikes there is Copper Butte. That's another one you're gonna do in June. For July.
Yep.
The, the flowers are amazing there. Snow Mountain, uh, Sherman Peak, there's so many of those.
Peaks are incredible flower hikes. And then the other one near, um. Meddling falls in the extreme northeast corner where British, Columbia, Idaho, and Washington all come together. Abercrombie Mountain, which is the second highest peak in Eastern Washington.
Mm-hmm.
That one is, it's all open. The fields another spectacular wildflower hike.
And that's also happens to be another one of my a hundred classic hikes. So if you've never ex, you know, if Eastern Washington to you is just Moses Lake and you drive, you've gotta get off. I 90 and, and Venture in. But you know, even you staying on I 90 and you get to Spokane, um, there's some great wildflower hikes in Spokane.
And if you're looking for early season, the Dishman Hills is another great place. And the Dishman Hills will be in my new edition of the a hundred Classic Hikes. Cool. Been so, so many new trails built in that area. It's another great place right outside of the city. , You're gonna feel like you're miles away from the city.
Wonderful. Um, a lot of the basalt soils and everything, you're gonna see lots of flowers that are gonna be more, you're, you're gonna see more in Idaho and Montana 'cause you're practically in Idaho in that area. So I would send you there, I'd send you the Mount Spokane State Park. Same thing. Another great place.
A lot of open slopes in there. Know a little later in the year it's up higher, so later in the spring, um, boy, the Spokane area is gonna keep you busy for, for wild flowers.
Yeah. And that's also something when, when Emily Mandagie came on the, the podcast last summer, she. Talked about, it was a, the episode is about Hener Spokane, and she talked about several other wildflower ones as well, including over in Idaho.
So that's a good episode to go back and listen to. Okay. Well those are, those are all awesome ones. What about around the Tri-Cities? So, I gotta be honest, that April, the Tri-Cities is probably my favorite part of the state. In April. The tulips are time are beautiful. Yeah. In Mount Vernon. But between the Sun, the Wild flowers and the, I feel like Tri-Cities is such a chill place to be.
There's some great food there. There's lots of great. Great wineries. There's, um, the brewery in Richland that has all the amazing mac and cheese, like, I don't know, it just seems like a great time to go and it's very hot there in the summer. So, yeah. Um, it's a really, uh, there's, there are just so many wonderful things about it, but as far as wildfire hikes go, .
Should I tell you what mine are or do you wanna
tell me? Yeah, you can do it. I have, I'll have at least one. That's, I have two, two of my favorites, which also happen to be two of my a hundred classic hikes. And I bet you're gonna talk about 'em. Okay, so let's, let's talk about the Tri-Cities.
Okay. So. There's, there's two plus one that is a little bit further away from, not far from the Tri-Cities, but not quite as close, which is Hanford Reach National Monument.
Yeah. Hanford Reach.
Han Reach. Bingo.
Yeah. Amazing place. It is one of my five favorite places like hikes in the entire state. It's one of my a
hundred classics. Yeah.
Yeah. It's just incredible. And if you're listening to this and you're like, what the heck are you even talking about, Jennie? It? We'll, we'll talk about it more in another.
Time. But, um, there's a lot to say about the Hereford Beach. There's a lot to say about Hanford Beach, but as far as the Wildflower hiking, just confining myself to that for the moment. Um, you, it takes about an hour and 15 minutes to get there from the Tri-Cities and it, there's no parking fee and there's this awesome trail that is like.
You have a view of the river, you can see over to where the old Hanford nuclear site was, which is pretty interesting. Um, there is amazing wild flowers along there. And then those crazy dunes at the end of the, the
dunes are some of the best dune hiking up there. I know you're 300 feet above the river. Um, the white's, it's amazing.
It's, it's incredible. There's there. There's several areas you can hike over the old road. Yes. Used to be an old ferry crossing there.
Yep.
And you park with the old ferry crossing. You can hike south or north, you can hike some of the old road. That's actually the dunes are, are, are eating it or taking it over.
Yeah.
But the, the wild flowers in the spring are, are, are amazing. They're amazing. And likewise,
April is like perfect. Yeah.
Perfect time to be there. And the birds, the birds are incredible there too. Yes. You can see white pelicans.
Yep.
Uh, I, and I think I've mentioned this to you before, Jennie. I had the opportunity several years back that I got to kayak.
That stretch of the Columbia. Oh, that
would be very
cool. And, and it's made, it is the largest free flowing, um, stretch, not non damned free flowing stretch of non-Title free flowing stretch of the Columbia River. The rest, other than, you know, outside of Portland, the tidal area. The entire Columbia River all the way up to the Canadian Rockies has been damned.
Yeah. And you've got a 50 mile stretch here where it's free flowing and yeah, go right through the Hanford, reach, all that area.
Thanks. Hanford Nuclear reactor. That's a topic for another time.
And we have this beautiful national monument there because of the Manhattan project. That's right. Um, again, we should, we have to do a whole program.
There's so much to talk about Hanford. Yeah.
Yes. Yes. Okay. So we agree about that one. Not that we disagree about any of these, but I'm not surprised that you were like that one too. That's a great one. Okay. So the other ones, the other two that I really love are a little bit closer to town. Mm-hmm. Um, to like the west side of the Tri-Cities, I guess, guess so.
One of those would be Badger Mountain
Badger's, one of my hundred classics.
Yep. And. There's a lot of different ways to do Badger Mountain. You know, there's a whole trip, like you did an ultra run there. I
did an ultra there in March, which is not a good wildflower time. It's still a little early and the weather can be rough.
Let me tell, I was on the, so
wait until April to go to Badger Mountain. So April,
April is the time to go there.
Yeah. But beautiful flowers, beautiful views, um, and there's a few different ways to, to do that hike. There's more than one trail. Head and a whole trail system there, but it's wonderful. And then the other one that I love there is Candy Mountain
right next to Badger.
Yeah. Yeah. And Candy Mountain is, like you said, right next to Badger Mountain. I mean, candy Mountain is chill, right? Like it's pretty short. , It has something like. 500 feet of elevation gain. 300. That's not
very much. Yeah.
It's not more than three or four miles ran trip. But it's so snugly like I feel like no one has heard of Candy Mountain for one thing.
Well, for, for a long time it was, it was privately owned and yes. So that, that was the main reason. But now it's definitely getting more use because Yeah. Um, it's close to Badger the whole idea. I know a lot of. A lot of people in the area would love to see a whole trail system connect. It would be great to go out to RA all the way out to Rattlesnake Mountain, uh, which there's still re some restrictions in such, in that area.
Yeah. But, um, but candy, was secured with easements. I know a lot of it was owned by, by one of the wineries in that area. Yes. So, yeah, it's , the trail's fairly new. It's in great shape. Yeah.
Yeah. And it's like wide and gravel. So like for someone who wasn't super sturdy on their feet or whatever, it would still be pretty doable, I think.
It's also the other thing I love about Candy Mountain. Great Wildflowers, of course, like these other hikes we've mentioned. But I love the interpretive science that they have.
Yeah.
About the, about Glacial Lake Missoula, and they're sort of like, okay, this was underwater, you know? However, many thousand years ago.
It's just really cool. They're like, here you are at the water level at this, and you're like, way up above the valley.
Way up there. Badger has it too. It's crazy. You're up at 700 feet above the, and you can see like this is where historically you were on the water at this point.
Yep.
Before the great floods.
Yeah.
Yes. And then, um, the other thing is there's a wonderful winery, like right at the base of, right. I think the trail head during
Ourt Ultra, we ran through the backside of that.
Yeah. You could just walk over there and sit down and do a tasting or, have a glass and just look at the mountain that you just climbed.
And even though it's not super tall, it really stands out in that landscape. And I don't know, I just love it. It's such a great hike.
Yeah, it's great. And they're, and they're right in town. I mean, uh,
totally.
That's the great, if you're staying there, these are two of your best hikes. Absolutely. Right In town for wildflowers.
Absolutely. Yeah.
Yep. Yeah. Okay. So shall we move over by Vantage or are there others by Tri-Cities that you wanna talk about?
You know, those are, there's, there's, there's some shorter hikes you can do generic, those are the classics as far as, um, for wildflowers, those are excellent hikes. Uh, as we're moving farther towards Vantage.
You gotta go to the Columbia Na, the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge is there. Othello? Oh yeah.
Yep.
In that area. Same thing. This is another place,, it's in the channeled scab lands. You're not gonna wanna be there in the summertime. It's gonna be brutally hot. Springtime is great. The flowers, the other, the other advantage of being in this area too is, um, it's one of the pla the flyway for the sandhill cranes.
Yes. So there's a big, crane festival out there. Yeah. So there's some really nice short trails out there that are gonna give you some good spring flowers. ,
Over there by Vantage, I have a couple favorites.
One of them, one of them is kind of obscure and I'm curious if you've been there, Craig been, if there's a place in Washington that's
obscure, let's see
if there's a place in Washington that you haven't been other than the. Peak that will not be named.
And we're gonna, we're gonna change that this year too.
We are so, we'll, we'll, we'll announce that. We'll, was this the peak that May well shall not be named Other than that, this is a place where I think there is a remote possibility you might not have been to. Are you ready?
I'm curious now. Yeah.
Okay. It is the Puget Sound Energy. Wild Horse Energy Visitor Center.
Have you been there?
The visitor center? Yes. Well, what? Not, not the, the sculptures off the highway.
No, not the sculptures off the highway. No.
No, I don't think, where is that?
Okay, well I'll tell you where it is. This place is so cool. I discovered it last year and my friend and I were basically, well, how we found it is sort of irrelevant.
Well, it's actually not irrelevant because we talk a lot about avoiding crowds and finding new things. We were looking for a hike kind of in the Whiskey Dick Wildlife Refuge, which is. The same. It's right. This is right next to that. Right. Okay. And there's also some DNR land.
So we're getting, so between, , we're getting between Vantage and Wenatchee and Ellensburg in that area.
It's between, it's between Vantage and Ellensburg. There's like that back, not I 90, but there's like a back, an old highway Vantage Highway Old Highway 10.
The old Highway 10.
Yeah. You get on there and then you make a few turns and you're like, I'm definitely going the wrong way. Okay. So we were looking at the map.
Is the point. And then we were looking on Google Maps to be like, Hmm, how does this road actually work? Because the map was like super old. And on the map, let me look and see what it says on the, okay. There was this, you know how when Google Maps has that little icon that's like a. It looks like a tower.
Like a castle tower. That just means like a viewpoint or a point of interest or something. I like to check those out. 'cause sometimes they're nothing and sometimes they're really cool. Really weird thing. Yeah. And so there was this thing that said the wild horse visitor center or something, and I was like.
What the heck? I have never heard of that. Right. And so we're like, well, we gotta go. Right. So I looked it up on the internet. It's owned and operated by Puget Sound Energy. And it's in, it's where one of those big wind farms is. Yeah.
Yeah.
Giant wind turbines. Okay. So you go up there and park, and then there's a visitor center, which is an ener.
You know I Have you been to the Wyser? Visitor center on the way to Mount St. Helens.
Yes. It it?
Okay. It's very rah rah. As far as like the, this is a very rah rah visitor center. Flat. Flat.
It's, it's, it's promoting the business and all.
Yes, but you know, the business is renewable energy. So like I can get behind propaganda for renewable energy.
Now
this is, this is for the wind turbines, right?
Yes. Yes. And they, in addition to information about how wind turbines work, which I thought was fascinating and I will admit to having absolutely no idea how wind turbines work, they also had, I thought it was really cool that they had extensive information about Native American people in this area and that like.
This is not just a place where you put wind turbines. This is a place where people have been for thousands of years. I always appreciate seeing that and learning more about that. Anyway, so you go in there, they have beautiful bathrooms. You go in there. Yeah, plenty of beautiful parking, and then you go in and you do this little form and they give you a free parking pass.
That's like a season pass, and then there's a huge trail system.
Now, now you, you know, I, I'm thinking my next trip. It's awesome
trip
heading over. I'm, I'm gonna swing by because now you, it's
really, really cool.
Yeah.
Yeah. And you can also drive up this road very far, like. Beyond where you'd maybe wanna drive in a sedan like I was driving a pickup truck and glad to be in one.
And then you come back out on DNR land and then you get up to this high plateau where you can see like Mount Rainier and the Columbia River and Forest at the same time. And you're just like, what the heck? Anyway, but there's tons of trails up there. They're not super well marked. It's you, it's good to like.
You know, have a GPS or a map or your phone having, you know, you kind of need to be able to figure out where you're going. But it was really, really cool and there were a ton of wild flowers and right across from the visitor's center, they had like a little wildflower display garden that was like, here, our 50 species of flowers that are on this PSE property.
And it was really cool. I mean, there's not a ton of development on the trails. You know, they're a little rough, they're not super well maintained. The road is perfectly maintained, but, um. And
I imagine there weren't many other people or anybody out there? No, no. That's, there's, there's your bonus right there.
No, it was awesome. And it was like when I was there, it was I think at the end of April and it was already quite hot. Yeah. It was like in the low eighties when we were there and we were like, Ooh, glad we're not doing this in July. The other thing, this is not related to Wildfire hiking, but um, you can also do a tour of the wind.
Turbine, which I thought would be super interesting. We didn't do that because we had a dog with us and um, we ca it was too hot to leave the dog in the car, like way too hot. Oh yeah. And you can't take dogs into the wind turbine, obviously. So I was like, oh, well next time when I'm here and don't have a dog.
Oh, anyway. Very cool place.
I'll check it out.
It's, yes, it is called the WildHorse Renewable Energy Center.
All I think, I think there's several people listening to this program. There are probably gonna, I, there's a good chance I may run into you there. I think it's
really
cool. We're gonna be out there.
Yeah. I'm gonna make an annual pilgrimage there because it was so cool.
Yeah. Yes. There. And, and that's, again, this is the, the beauty about. Going off, you know, the beaten path and discovering a lot of places, it's, it's amazing some of the places I've discovered just by having that little bit of curiosity, pulling out the map and saying this, this looks intriguing.
And it's funny you mentioned that 'cause it's the same thing. I was in Calgary last year and I had to do this drive and, and I'm looking at the map and Google's got this thing about the okotoks glacial erratic. And I'm like, what the hell is this? And it was enough that I'm gonna go check it out.
Mm-hmm.
And these two big giant erratics out in the middle of the prairie. And one this, and, and. Yeah, there's, this is the fun thing about, you know, not listening to the influencers all the time where everyone's going, kind of doing your own discovery. Pull out a map, even Google, just look at the, the Google map and just hit things or get your, I love the official roadmaps and, and, and let curiosity guide you to some of these places.
Um, some of the, some of the, the coolest places I've, I've encountered are, those are not the places that everybody's hyping about.
And you know, Craig, I need to try to remember. When this episode goes live to share on Instagram a photo I took that day. I mean, I took a lot of great photos, but one of them was like.
A photo of the trail with like wild flowers on both sides of the trail. Yeah. And sagebrush. And then you could see Mount Rainier behind that. Very cool. I mean if that doesn't scream Washington, I don't know what does.
Yeah, I'm gonna check this out. Makes sense.
It's really cool.
I'll be over in eastern Washington a bunch this, this year, so.
Okay, well, very
cool.
You can check it out and. You'll dig, you will dig it. Cool. You will think it is really interesting.
Cool.
And beautiful. Um, okay. And then the last one that I wanted to mention, just as Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park.
Yeah. That's a great place. Yep.
Yeah. And again, it's about a thousand degrees there in the summer.
Oh, it's awful. In the summer it's so hot. Yeah.
But it has great wildflowers both. So there's a couple different places,, that you can hike there. But one of them is near where the visitor center is, which is super interesting and um. Then you can go up. That's a, that's a place I've gone with my dog, actually.
'cause it was not busy. It was very open, very wide. There were some rattlesnakes, but he did great with that. He was like, Ooh, I don't think I wanna mess with the rattlesnakes. And, you know, I had him on a leash. He was close to me. , you know, again, big high ridge views of the river, of the Cascade mountains and then lots of wildflowers along the trail.
So it was really cool.
Yeah, that, that whole area's cool. And if we go up farther up the river and speaking of rattlesnakes, so if you don't like rattlesnakes, they're gonna be coming out out in the springtime or,
yeah,
one of another, one of my a hundred classic hikes is the Steamboat Rock. Oh yeah. And, and that again, if you've never been out there in the springtime, uh, the flowers are amazing up, up there.
Uh, and you know, it's a rattles snakey area. I'm not that worried there. Where you're more apt is gonna be, even snake here is across the way in Northrop Canyon. Uh, but it's another great wildflower area and you can hike up one of the old, uh, carriage roads up there to a plateau. And same thing, you're gonna see bitterroot out there.
The flowers are amazing. . Wonderful area if you, if you haven't been, and two other areas are kind of off the beaten path again, if you're not. Too worried about snakes and you wanna see some, so one is going east, uh, one is going west of where we were just talking about near Alfreda is the Beasley Hills.
Mm-hmm.
And that's another fascinating, the Nature Conservancy has a very large property out there. That's lot. It's in my day hiking Eastern Washington book, if you wanna check it out. Um, but there's cactus again. You see flowering cactus in that area. This is another great place for wild flowers.
And there's also, , a trail system outside of Alfreda that you can go and explore this area too. So spring's grape, and then the other place is probably one of the least visited. Wilderness areas, federal wilderness area in the state of Washington. Um, access has always been an issue here. But spring happens to be one of the best times we, when there is access, there's a private landowner that allows you to access, , this wilderness area in spring.
That's one of the best times, , for wildflowers., Not too far from the Tri-Cities. Jennie, any idea what I'm talking about?
It's, it's not Columbia. Um,
it's a federal, federal wilderness area. It's a BLM, uh, wilderness area, the juniper dunes.
Oh yeah. Have you ever Yeah, I wasn't gonna get that. I was on the potholes.
Columbia.
, So what's it called? Juniper.
Juniper dunes. Okay. It's,, it's northeast of, uh, Pasco.
It is, it's a wilderness area, was included in the 1984 Washington Wilderness Act is probably one of our least visited, 'cause, excuse me. In essence, it's a 10,000 acre wilderness that's enclosed by fences because outside is an or v area where the dunes have been kind of, you know, abused,
but in here you've got an area where, where the dunes can do what they're supposed to do, shift, and all you've got, old growth junipers and, um, incredibly, you would not wanna be there in the summer. There's no water. . But in the springtime, and this is when I've hiked in this area, the flowers are amazing in here, uh, you'll see a lot of reptiles other than rental snakes.
I met mostly lizards. A lot of lizards. It's an area that you wouldn't really associate with Washington. Mm-hmm. Uh, and, and it's, that's what makes it special. Yeah. And it's a very endangered area too.
So it's an area, and the thing is, depending on when you're there, you're gonna be hiking. Well, you're probably gonna hear that on the motors in the background. Um, so it's not gonna give you that Exactly, uh, that, that back country experience. But boy, I'll tell you, you're gonna see plants and, and flowers and such in there that, that you're not gonna see in other parts of the state.
Oh, that's awesome. Well, I hope listeners, you've got some great ideas and that you're inspired to get over to Eastern Washington in the near future and don't miss this amazing brief like kind of dreamy time over there.
Great time to be there.
Yeah.
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