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Hike 5/2-4 Hiking Eastern Washington Overnighter
Driving toward Steamboat Rock, our first hiking stop on day one.


All sides of Steamboat Rock are steep, so the trail must go up a rocky section to reach the top.


Nearing the top of Steamboat Rock, the basalt cliffs stand out


Some lovely flowers up there, including these bitterroots


Steamboat Rock is nearly surrounded by Banks Lake, seen here 700 feet below


Looking over the edge from the top


Watch your step--what goes up, must come down.


Second stop on day one was to witness the geologic wonder known as Dry Falls


Nice visitor center there tells all about the ice age floods that shaped the region


Dry Falls Lake sits below the cliffs where floodwaters once surged


A view from Dry Falls Overlook


Starting out day two with a hike at White Bluffs in the Hanford Reach National Monument.


Hanford Reach is a 50-mile free-flowing stretch of the Columbia River, which this trail overlooks.


Views were stellar, and the vegetation featured lots of unusual plants in the sandy soil


Windy weather with threatening clouds, not atypical for spring around there.


The grasslands appear to flow with the wind


White Bluffs features some extensive sand dunes, a rarity in Washington.


Walking over the top of a huge dune


Having a look around the sandy landscape


That's Mount Rainier in the far distance to the west, with the Columbia River in the foreground.


On to our next stop on day two, Palouse Falls State Park. Here's the terrain upstream of the falls.


The canyon downstream from the falls. Lots of basalt cliffs.


The falls is easily the largest in eastern Washington at 180 feet high


Peering down into the canyon from above


Lots of marmots hang out at Palouse Falls. Rangers are trying to get people to stop feeding them.


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