Graham Family Farm NW

Eastern Washington Expeditions
Around the Columbia River Overland Trip
Part 1: Near the Columbia River
Hosted by Eastern Washington Off Road & Overland
Chuckwagon Cook: Charlie Graham
Report & photos by Clay Graham / CegPics.com

On Friday, June 4th, 2021, Eastern Washington Expeditions members left Graham Family Farm in Selah around 5:30 PM for the Columbia River. We took the Yakima River Canyon to Kittitas Valley. We stopped in the City of Kittitas for some lunch meat we forgot to bring.

We took the Vantage Hwy to Vantage and got on I-90 to cross the Columbia River. We head south along the east side of the Columbia River to Mattawa and head up onto Saddle Mountains. On top it was very windy. It was hard to keep the camera straight. We got a few photos looking down on Beverly Dunes. We headed back down looking for a place to camp out of the high winds. Nothing looked good so we headed over the Beverly Dunes and set up camp for the night. One we got camp set up, Chicken Caesar Salad dinner the EWE Chuckwagon.

Saturday morning we woke up in the heat with no wind. The EWE Chuckwagon breakfast was French toast and coffee. The wind started up as we packed up camp. We headed out about 9:30 AM and headed north to see the sights along the Columbia River.

The first stop was at Wanapum Dam’s Turbine Park. We shot of a few photos and then drove up the highway just a little and stopped at Wanapum Dam Overlook. From there there is a great view of the area. I took some photos looking back at Saddle Mountains where we were Friday at sunset. I also took other photos of the area like the Beverly Train Bridge that is now part of the non-motorized “Palouse to Cascades Trail”.

We continued north onto I-90 and stopped at the Wild Horse Monument. The Wild Horses are cool and so is the view overlooking the Columbia River. You have a good view of the I-90 bridge. Ginkgo Petrified Forest Interpretive Center is a cross the river. That is also a cool place to visit.

We got back on I-90 heading north and took the next exit. Not far was the Frenchman Coulee. We made a few stops along the way as we worked our way down to the Columbia River. There is a 100 foot low-volume waterfall, people camping, people climbing rock formations, hiking trails, a boat lunch, and some great views.

We moved on up the river with our next place to see being Sunland. It was a windy road dropping down to the river. Most of the area was a private community. We drove though and headed back out to the main road.

We turn north and pasted the Gorge Amphitheatre. The road turned to the east and then we planned to turn off to the north to go through the Quincy Lakes. There were big signs saying not access to the lakes. So we kept going and circled around through Quincy and got fuel. We then went to the Quincy Lakes from the north gate. There was a sign saying the “south gate was closed due to vandalism”. So we drove all the way through the Quincy Lakes area to the south gate to see what all was there. We decided that we would eat lunch at Evergreen Lake. Shelly, our Black Lab had fun playing in the lake. After lunch we head back up through the lakes and back on the highway.

We turned off at Crescent Bar. We took in the view for the top of the ridge and then headed down stopping at Cascade Park. At Cascade Park we took a look down at the Columbia River. Looking across we could see the West Bar Beach were we go with the Jeeps when we camp on Naneum Ridge. We then took a drive to the south end of Crescent Bar to see what was there. There was a lot of people camping in the RV Park. Then we headed back up to the highway.

We headed toward Wenatchee and turned off a few miles up to go east and run Douglas Creek. Click for that report!

Here are some photos of the Eastern Washington Expeditions Around the Columbia River Overland Trip (Part 1):