This is our first play log! And I hope there will be many more to come!

This is our first time to Dusty Lake, our first time hiking in the desert in WA really.

We left Seattle Saturday late afternoon and headed east and ended up camping around Frenchman Coulee. Apparently it is a popular rock climbing area. It was a perfect camping spot surrounded by rock pillars. The moon rose over the rock pillars right when we arrived around 10:30PM. We pulled out the camera but it took us about 30mins to figure out the right set up: ISO 1600, F5.6 and shutter speed 1”.

Unlike most of the hikes we’ve done recently, the hike to Dusty Lake was very flat. Lots of wild flowers and song birds on the way. We got to the lake in about 1 hr, Matt fished for a while and we set up tent at a great spot between the ridge and the lake.

Sunset was short but gorgeous.

We had a little fire going near our camping spot. Mostly we only had dry sage wood, and sage wood fire stinks BAD! It reminded me of a phrase our friends Geoff and Genevieve’s kids would say: “poop-poop-pee-pee pizza”, and extra smoky.

We hiked over the ridge on Monday, got a great view of the Ancient Lakes and the waterfall and found a different trail back.

Animal Report:

Bull Snake – We ran into a decent sized bull snake going across the trail right at the beginning of the hike.

Desert Bunny – Tiniest bunny ever. Dark grey. Casually hopping pass our hangout rock. Matt was very tempted to catch it.

Painted Turtle – They were having a group sun tan session on a rock in Dusty Lake, sliding into water to cool off occasionally.

Tiger Trout – Matt lost two flies on this 20″ big trout but no luck in getting it to bite.

Rainbow Trout- Matt caught a rainbow trout on an olive leech. 15″.

Bird Report:

Great Egret – Spotted flying over Dusty Lake

Great Blue Heron – We saw it flying over us and landed on a cliff over one of the wet lands in the cannon.

Western Meadowlark – He was standing on the top of the rock and singing pretty songs, completely ignoring us when we walk right by him.

There were also lots of red-wing blackbirds, swallows and crows.

Flower Report:

Blazing-star

Sagebrush mariposa lily

Hooker’s onion