Enloe Dam-Simiklameen River

While we were up in the area hiking Whistler Canyon Trail, near Oroville we decided to take a side trip and visit the Enloe Dam....WARNING.....The road down to Enloe Dam requires a high clearance vehicle....we did make it in a Chevy Equinox....but I would not recommend it...SCARY....and hard on the nerves....Without good directions and a confusing map we got turned around in Oroville...figured our our location and headed towards the Simiklameen River....Beautiful river....green in color and winds its way through the valley....Enloe Dam Road is well marked with a sign on the right...road on the left...the first section is not terrible....the bottom section I would not do again in anything but a 4x4 rig.... explored the trail that follows the river down past the dam towards the power house.....very nice place to visit...it is really to bad the road is in such terrible shape....I would imagine that it gets its fair share of people that stop and sight see....from there we continued up the road after a nerve shattering drive back up from the dam....followed the Simiklameen River around and through the old town of Nighthawk....lovely country....the hills show signs of mining from years past....and down around into Loomis then back out on to the main highway......in a couple of weeks the hills will be really green and most likely covered with sunflowers.....watch out for deer....they make sudden road crossings....crazy animals...the fields are full of them....Wont be long and more trails will be open and ready to hike....

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Echo Basin, Eastern Washington

Echo Basin was our last early spring hike in the Eastern Washington area. We were planning to hike the Frenchman Coulee side that heads toward the waterfall but changed our mind due to the amount of cars parked at the trail head. So down the road just a little ways we went to hike the Echo Basin trail. Even with a early start the sun was way too bright, not hot, just bright. We hiked up the jeep trail that starts on the left hand side of the road as your facing the Columbia River. Didn't seem like a real exciting trail till we reached the sand dunes, which put us closer to the rock walls. Up and over the sand dunes and on up a goat trail to get above the walls. Without really knowing were we were going we just winged it. Lots of faint trails and trails in the sand, hard to know which was the true trail. The rock walls are huge and fascinating, the columns are even more interesting up close. We hiked until we had a view looking down into Echo Basin, and a nice look at th

Cutthroat Trail.......Snowshoeing North Cascades Highway

I have a confession to make, I have been having some winter blues. Not sure if they can be officially called winter blues due to we have had little to no winter. I have been very impatiently waiting for the snow to arrive, it comes, blows through, makes the ground white, then its gone. The last few days we have been sitting at temperatures in the 40's. What is up with winter. One thing I can say for sure is I am very thankful for the few trips we made up highway 20 before the silver star gate was closed. Our trip to Cutthroat Trail was back in November, when we had visions of winter coming to the valley very soon. The snow was nice and fluffy and deep. Pleasant day to get out and enjoy it, one of those days where your not sure if the clouds where going to allow the blue sky to show it self or not. We parked right off the highway with a couple of other cars and Snowshoed up the road to the trail head. Wasn't very long and more hikers, cross country skiers, and furry

Looking For Mountain Views....................

Since I couldn't get anybody to go snowshoeing with me this last weekend....I went on a drive and took pictures.....It was a lovely day...lots of variation in the clouds...started down on the Columbia River in Pateros and continued on down towards Chelan...stopped at the park...which has a great view of the mountains...then on up around Manson...drove as many roads as I could looking for the best view of the mountains....drove a couple of roads I have never been on....what a festive little town Manson is right now....Drove on up towards Echo Ridge trail area...roads got a little on the icy side up in that area....then found my way back home....now I have a camera card or two loaded with pictures...plus basketball pictures.....lots of computer time...The season is moving right along...lots of new snow in the mountains...Can't wait to get out there and play.

Lost In The Right Direction

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