Trip Report
Basic Backpack - Ancient Lakes and the Columbia River
Excellent outing; consider camping and back-ups carefully, though.
Alina Badus
- Sat, May 2, 2026 — Sun, May 3, 2026
- Basic Backpack - Ancient Lakes and the Columbia River
- Ancient Lake
- Backpacking
- Successful
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- Road suitable for all vehicles
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Route is easy to follow. Lots of water in the coulees this year, all the lakes were higher than last year.
Traversing the boulder field around the last lake, and the ascent near the waterfall, might give some backpackers pause and require careful walking. I did not remember this part well enough from last year and told my group "it's easy and no big deal," but this section was looser and more challenging than I had remembered. We traversed and climbed carefully, making sure to guide some people and not kick rocks on each other.
Wondeful outing with a great group of people. We had a great time with lots of leisurely breaks, and a relaxed afternoon in camp. The coulees are nice and green this year. Rattlesnakes are active.
I mostly wanted to write a report to warn leaders about possible campsite limitations. The camps along the Columbia would not fit a very large group; we felt that six people was about right, using two double tents and three single tents. I think the camps are also getting more popular: on a Saturday night, we were able to get our desired group area arriving around 1:30pm, but the northern group site also got occupied that night, and another small group arrived late and had to cram into a small site next to us. We did not identify any other suitable sites, although I suppose you could camp in the grass? But you really shouldn't, plus there are rattlesnakes. If you arrive late and all the sites are taken, you need to have some sort of back-up plan in place: we figured that if needed we could spend the afternoon in the shade by the river, maybe even have an early dinner, then fill up on water and climb back up on the plateau to set up camp there. Not ideal, but something to consider.
