Columbia National Wildlife Refuge

South of Moses Lake and northwest of Othello is a large area of land that was scoured in a major way by prehistoric flooding. On Google Maps it looks like:

According to Wikipedia, the area is:
"an extensively eroded channeled scablands landscape, characterized by hundreds of isolated, steep-sided hills (buttes) surrounded by a braided network of numerous channels. All but the channel through which Crab Creek flows are currently dry. It is a classic example of the tremendous erosive powers of extremely large floods such as those that reformed the Columbia Plateau volcanic terrain during the late Pleistocene glacial Missoula Floods."

It really is a weird landscape. Since we'd already spent a good chunk of time at the playground (see previous entry), the temperature was up closer to 80 and, as you can guess from the image above, there isn't much in the way of shade.

I checked some maps in advance and the marquee trail seemed to be the one along Crab Creek. Unfortunately, the mosquitoes over here hadn't gotten the word that it's near the end of September and they're supposed to be done munching on people. I got EATEN alive and had trouble sleeping last night from all the bites on my legs. Also, it turns out the rattlesnakes have not gotten the message either, seeing as we did have a little run-in with one (who rattled a lot but was happy to escape into the brush). I also saw a reddish brown/black snake that was really fast (thankfully heading away from us). Wasps/hornets were in abundance too, although thankfully not aggressive either.

So maybe this is a good hike to do in a month or two in the morning if you really like birds. As it was, I have no desire to do it anytime soon. (Man, I ITCH!) The kids did NOT dig it either and L soon took them back to the car. My 2 year old was in the backpack, so he had to come with me.

Perhaps I'd be game for going back, though, with a mountain bike to do some exploring. Or the paved route through the heart of the park with be good to work into a road bike loop.


You can really get the idea that a LOT of water has poured through here in the past. From this angle, it seems there wouldn't be any mosquitoes, right?


Ah, but now that you see this angle . . . "riparian habitat" . . . "ripe" for breeding blood-suckers!