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 the Columbia River in the distance. The original plan was to get up on the rock walls and walk along them, where they look like cobble stones. After reaching a point were we could see the far wall we realized should have hiked up onto the wall closes to the road. From the top we were able to spot the climbers on the far wall, and hear all kinds of voices bouncing around the basin. After deciding that we didn't want the make the whole loop around the basin, especially with out knowing the full distance, we returned the same way we hiked in. By the time we reached the view point some clouds had moved in and helped bring out the color of the rocks and made the walls not look so dark. Lots of very interesting rocks, rock formations, and beautiful walls. Didn't see a soul on the trail till we headed off the top and met up with a few folks playing in the sand dunes, and a couple of runners raced by us. Turned into a interesting hike, great views, fascinating signs from the huge flood, incredible rock formations.
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