Lakeview Ranch...Out in Coulee Country

The weather here has been so incredible; 50's and 60's during the day, lots of sunshine and blue sky. For recreation today I was thinking of heading east to the Montana Idaho divide for some warm air snow shoeing, but Walter got mad at me and said, "Are you insane? We get a burst of spring and you want to go walk around in the snow?" So I changed my plans. I drove out to the Central Washington desert near a little town called Odessa for a walk through the sagebrush and basalt canyons. Lakeview Ranch is now owned by the BLM. When they got possession of it back in the early 90's I went out there to do some archaeology. I have not been back in 16 years. It was a pretty cool reunion.

It was hot today and I actually got a bit of a sunburn on my arms and neck. I gave Walter my t-shirt because I was worried about him getting a burn and did not worry about myself. Oh, well. What's a little mitochondrial DNA mutation. I must say, I had an excellent time and just felt a breath of Spring air push into my body. We started out on a trail behind the ranch buildings and then just wandered around, up and down the cliffs and draws, finding little ponds and lakes hidden behind the basal spires. Since there are very few trees out there, we had to seek out shade against a north facing cliff. That was really cool. The two big lakes, Pacific and Walter (isn't that funny) are actually bone dry. We saw tons of ducks and other birds and actually saw about 5 mule deer that we scared away from one of the ponds. Oh, and we found a dead turtle and I thought about carrying it home but it was sort of rotten and squishy and I did not have an extra plastic bag to put it in. Ultimately we ended up going in a big circle, with 1/2 of our walk off trail. I love being out in the scablands and just taking off. So here are some of our pictures.