Corgi-friendly hikes in central WA: Quincy Wildlife Refuge, Gingko State Park

On Google Maps, google "Ancient Lakes". It's NW of George and SW of Quincy. We went there in November. Maybe not a great idea in snake season, whenever that is. Autumn/winter/early spring might be best. Make sure your dog does not bother any wildlife, esp. in nesting season. Start early, make a long day of it, loop from Ancient Lakes over the plateau to the south and come out via Dusty Lake (be prepared for the occasional "corgi toss" in the talus there).

Geologically, a unique and amazing place: flood basalts, channeled scablands. You can see that these lakes are gradually draining; my guess is they were formed when their drainages were dammed by debris from the cataclysmic Missoula Floods down the Columbia channel. Look up "Channeled Scablands" and "Columbia_River_Basalt_Group" on Wikipedia before you go.
Dawgs in Cougar country, look out (I work at U.W.).

Here's a link for a crude road map (you'll need a better one for hiking):

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Gingko State Park, out of Vantage on the west bank, is great desert dogwalking, esp. around April when the desert starts to bloom:

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Permalink Reply by John Wolff on April 8, 2009 at 3:40pm

We just did a lot of hiking in and north of Gingko State Park, too. A place for west-siders to go Feb-March-April to escape the rain. Before the snakes and scorpions come out. Don't forget there are ticks on the east side.

Permalink Reply by Gail and Ashton on June 17, 2009 at 1:38pm

Now this environment looks quite familiar to me! I live in Moses Lake which is about 45 minutes away from Vantage. Another great area to wander around with your dogs is near the rock climbing area called Frenchmen Coulee. My hubby and I use to be avid rock climbers until I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis. There were always plenty of "rock dogs" hanging out at the base of climbs. Our dogs always loved going out climbing and hiking with us. There are a few trails to check out and if you continue past the climbing area you can get down to the river to cool off. This area is blazing hot in the summer so come prepared.

Remember: Snakes, ticks, blue green algae, porcupines, skunks (stinky stinky!)... just a few of the things to watch out for in Eastern Wa. :)

Permalink Reply by John Wolff on June 17, 2009 at 2:57pm

Not to mention ROCKFALL. Vantage has seen some really horrible rockfall accidents, and dogs are stupid about rockfall (both ends of it), you have to be extremely aware. I happened to be there recently, doing some climbing, but there wasn't much for the dogs to do -- luckily, they were ready for a break -- tied them up under improvised shade in a hopefully safe place -- but I was really nervous about leaving them unattended even briefly. Not sure rockclimbing and dogs mix all that well; they'd rather be hiking.
Artist's Point on Baker is now closed to dogs, I believe because of a dog-induced rockfall accident.
My partner recounted a tale of someone who LOST a dog to rockfall at the base of some climbing area; remember that dogs are used to chasing tennis balls... you can imagine what happened...!! Awful.

I try to keep the dog above me in rockfall terrain -- the dog is unlikely to dislodge a rock big enough to hurt me -- but lookout for other people below, and warn them, better yet, keep away or below them.

Permalink Reply by John Wolff on June 18, 2009 at 12:40pm

So what other nice corgi-friendly hikes are out around there in central WA? Seems unpardonable to spend so much gas just to walk the dog, but there are times in autumn or winter when we Seattleites get tired of the clouds and rain, or there isn't enough snow in the mountains yet, and we just wanna see some sky, so we'll pack a few too many dogs and people in the Saturn and carpool out there.
Central Washington is fascinating and beautiful. When we did this Ancient Lakes hike, it happened to be early Nov., one week after I'd returned from SE Utah, so the contrasts and similarities were fresh: wide-open canyons, steep cliffs, horizontal layers, but different colors.

Permalink Reply by Sylvia on July 30, 2009 at 7:26pm