RHH's photos with the keyword: coulee

Taken from the trail coming down from the south side mesa, this photo shows where the coulee opens up just above the Columbia River gorge (the distant hills are on the other side of the gorge and the river is down below). The distant mesa shows some of the striking geology of the area and the lakes are two of the three named "Ancient Lakes." We hiked around to the right, to the other end of the coulee and then along the distant mesa and out to the trailhead. I should add that the coulee is larger than it appears from the photo. It is over a mile from this point to the end of the mesa. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2013/04/ancient-lak...

We hiked today in the Columbia River Basin in the area of Ancient Lakes. We hiked two coulees, and visited not only the three lakes known as Ancient Lakes, but another named Dusty Lake where this photo was taken. The area is very dry and is sagebrush country, but we had a good day which, though sunny, was not unbearably hot. We saw some unusual wildflowers though it is still early in the season, the geology of the area is fantastic, and we even visited several waterfalls. I haven't had a chance to review my photos but this looked good enough to post and even though we are still on the road I wanted to get a picture posted. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2013/04/ancient-lak...

As we began hiking some of the coulees at Ancient Lakes early in the morning the sky above was laced with the contrails of many jets traveling to or from the airports in Seattle and Spokane. Photography was a bit of a challenge since the early light made for deep shadows on the mesa and a lot of contrast between the sky and the ground. This was the best of the shots I was able to take. The photo shows only the top of the mesa and the columnar basalt formations that make up so much of the geology of the region. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2013/04/ancient-lak...

I am not very happy with this picture, but perched as we were on the side of the mesa, it was impossible to get a better perspective. For whatever reason the perspective seems awkward and unattractive. I wanted to post the picture, however, because it shows one of the coulees we hiked and the mesas on both sides of the coulee with Dusty Lake in the foreground. Below the coulee is the Columbia River and its gorge. The white on the shores of the lake was typical of the lakes in these coulees and must be some kind of mineral deposit from the water, though I have no idea what it actually is. I'll post a close-up of these deposits later today. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2013/04/ancient-lak...

I do not know if these white deposits are the origin of the lake's name, but the other lakes had these same deposits on the rock around them. Someone has suggested it is calcium from the hard water, but I could find no information about them. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2013/04/ancient-lak...

Another photo taken by my wife and showing some of the unusual rock formations in the Ancient Lakes area. A geologist would be able to explain these better than I and perhaps even give a name to this type of formation, but even to our untrained eyes this is clearly volcanic in origin. The photo was taken near the top of one of the mesas that separate the coulees from each other. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2013/04/ancient-lak...

Actually I'm not sure that this is what they call an erratic, but it sounded good. This huge rock was standing alone in the middle of the coulee. The photo was taken by my wife near the end of our hike. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2013/04/ancient-lak...

This is one of the three lakes known as Ancient Lakes. They are at the back of a coulee in the Quincy Wildlife Recreation area, a coulee that we were hiking when this picture was taken. We had hiked most of the way around the lake at this point, having scrambled over the loose rocks on the far side and stopped at a waterfall hidden in the corner. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2013/04/ancient-lak...