The dark basalt mesa above our campsite towers into a blue sky streaked with clouds. Popular with climbers, rope anchor points mark favorable routes to the top. 

The dark basalt mesa above our campsite towers into a blue sky streaked with clouds. Popular with climbers, rope anchor points mark favorable routes to the top. 

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A dark basalt mesa towers into a blue sky streaked with clouds. ​
We always start our year of backpacking and camping with a weekend in Eastern Washington. Ancient Lakes is a beautiful coulee just over the Columbia River. It never ceases to amaze me...

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Looking east over the grassy floor of the coulee towards distant wind farms and the Cascade Mountains. Trails criss cross the valley, picking their way between the sagebrush.
Three campers take a break on a boulder before heading out to find firewood. Sagebrush and basalt columns dominate the background.
A blue heeler dog wearing a colorful backpack stands in the foreground of a wide view across the coulee.
Two tents are set up in front of a cliff of columnar basalt. In the foreground is a blur of soft green sagebrush.
Two friends sit on a boulder, enjoying the strange columns of dark basalt characteristic of the ​region.
Striking yellow Arrowleaf Balsamroot blooms among the woody tangle of sagebrush limbs. Our campsite and its tents are in the background.
Clouds roll over Cliff Lake (foreground) and larger Dusty Lake, lending a softness to the harsh desert scene. Winds dance and twirl on the waters of both lakes.
Tents in a campsite appears as tiny pops of color below an enormous mesa.
​Ancient Lake far below. A waterfall sparkles in the distance, cascading over a cliff of basalt columns.
Two tents glow in the dark blue hour past sunset. The last colors of the sunset linger in the sky, and the valley below is dark.
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