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CHS 1 Hike - Ancient Lake

Early season Condition Hiking Series hike

John Sadro Jr John Sadro Jr
April 11, 2025
  • Road suitable for all vehicles

  • After exiting the main paved road, travel 1.9 miles south on a well maintained gravel road to a concrete privy, which was well stocked and clean (early season).  Turn right, behind the privy, into an unmaintained dirt parking lot.  Discover Pass.  

    Note:  both coulees have multiple trails and game trails which are essentially looped within each coulee.

We started from the south end of the parking lot.  The TH was unmarked but east (left), of the lone large tree.  Hike to a balcony view of a water feature and several marshy ponds, which we loudly heard several frogs.  The trail continues to the right, down a guard-railed path, to the coulee floor.  There is no trail to the south and Dusty Lake spans the width of the coulee. Stay right, on the north side of the coulee.

Take the higher trail around the east end of the lake and continue on.  There is no obvious trail on the west end of the lake.  We stayed low but above the white residue on the shoreline.  Hike slowly and safely. We saw migratory pelicans, cranes, ducks, geese and many crows and smaller birds.  Several fisher persons were on the shores and in the lakes.  Not certain if the fish are safe to consume or what the white residue was.

At the extreme end of the lake, rock hop south or bushwack a dry path south than east to find the main trail.  Continue south and east to explore the coulee floor or head west to the coulee's mouth.  From there, continue west and disperse hike to the Columbia River or head north to the Ancient Lakes Coulee.

We entered the Ancient Lakes Coulee and hiked east, staying to the south side of the coulee.  We lunched in the shade of a large boulder field.  Continuing on, we shared the trail with bikers and horses.  We missed the steep trail to the middle of the rib cataract, which has views of both coulees.  We took the more common lower grade trail at the east end of the coulee.  After gaining the cataract we had the lesser view along the rib.

.The elevated view of the Ancient Lake Coulee provided a view of the areas where most backpackers camp along the smaller lakes and the waterfall (agricultural runoff). We passed under a rock formation with swirls in the lava, above the colonnades.  Geologist do not know how the swirls were created in the lava, it's amazing.   The looped trail back to the TH was uneventful.  Post-hike meal in the parking lot before heading home.  It was a blue Bird day here, how much rain fell in Puget Sound?

See CWU Professor/Geologist Nick Zentner's "Nick on the Rocks" video for "Ancient Lakes Pothole Coulee" and a better understanding of the rock features:  https://www.pbs.org/video/ancient-lakes-at-potholes-coulee-lnobqa/

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