Day trip to Coulee City and points along the way

Kade Pruett takes in the view along the Lake Lenore Cave trail. Highway 17 is in the foreground with Lake Lenore in the background.

by Dennis L. Clay<br> Special to Herald
| July 8, 2010 1:00 PM

Day trips and camping trips were a big part of my youth. On a

Saturday morning it was not unusual for Dad to say, “Let’s go for a

drive.”

Day trips and camping trips were a big part of my youth. On a Saturday morning it was not unusual for Dad to say, “Let’s go for a drive.”

The words would put in motion a number of activities. Mom would get the cooler and either make sandwiches or pack the sandwich-making items. My sister, Denise, and I would gather whatever it was we wanted to do during the drive, such as play a game or play with a toy. If we were going to be near a body of water, I always made sure my fishing gear was included.

Sun Lakes State Park was a frequent destination. The park has a large lawn allowing Mom and Dad to keep an eye on us, even if we were 200 yards away from their position at a picnic table.

Sometimes we would drive all the way to Grand Coulee Dam to visit friends. There were many places to stop and eat lunch and we stopped at most of them over the years. Below the dam and just before turning right to cross the bridge is Douglas Park. This spot allows a fantastic view of the dam. Although it is tiny compared to Sun Lakes State Park, it allowed us kids to stretch our legs during the lunch break.

My most recent trip to Park Lake in the heart of Sun Lakes State Park involved a volunteer project. A group of volunteers and Fish and Wildlife personnel stopped there to band geese. We then traveled north to the south end of Banks Lake and banded a gaggle of geese at the Coulee City Park.

After the banding was completed and we were waiting to find out if we needed to go to Steamboat Rock State Park to band more geese, we noticed two men working on a net near our location. They were fish and Wildlife people working on a study to check the stomach contents of fish. Look for a report about this study in a future column.

They would put out five gill nets in the evening and pull them in the morning. Each fish was measured, weighed and cut open. The stomach was preserved in alcohol after being placed in a plastic pouch. The contents of the stomach would be determined later at a laboratory in Ellensburg. It was obvious crawfish was a steady diet of most fish species.

I asked when they were going to pull the net again and they said in three days, which was a Friday. I asked if they needed help and they said yes. I was with Kade Pruett, who was working to complete his 20 hours of volunteer time as part of the master hunter program.

Next I called Tracy Loveless at Fish and Wildlife headquarters, seeking approval of this project. He said yes.

It was around 1 p.m. and it was determined we would not head north for more banding. Melanie Bise and her son were riding with Kade and I as a carpooling measure. We decided to stop at Dry Falls and go through the museum.

If you have never stopped to learn about the falls and admire the view, you should. The new park ranger, Maurya Broadsword, had been on duty only a couple of days. When I asked if she had been to the cave yet, she said she didn’t know there was a cave.

We walked to the beginning of the trail and it was blocked off. I thought the trail was dangerous the few times I visited the cave, so it must have been closed for that reason. Maurya said she would take a canoe and cross Dry Falls Lake to visit the cave.

We weren’t ready to finish our afternoon day trip, so we drove to the head of Rocky Ford Creek. The hatchery there and one about a mile downstream are privately owned and not accessible to the public. We stopped at the bridge and found several large rainbow trout holding in various parts of the current. A few anglers were trying to entice them to hit flies of various sizes and colors.

On Friday, Kade and I headed back to the park near Coulee City. A short time later the Fish and Wildlife Biologists Joe Graves and Stephanie Marghein pulled into shore with five gill nets. Also joining us were volunteers Rosann and Bill Green of Ephrata. Kade, Rosann, Bill and I began taking fish from the nets as Joe and Stephanie measured, weighed and collected stomach samples.

I brought my Honda 2000i generator and an electric fillet knife. When the nets were empty, we filleted the walleye and bass. The meat was placed in bags and donated to the Soap Lake Food Bank.

The following Tuesday we repeated the scene with Biologist Gabe Stotz taking Stephanie’s place. This time we had two electric fillet knives, so the job completed in half the time.

As we approached the Lake Lenore Caves, I asked Kade if he had ever seen them? He said no. We stopped.

They are worth visiting at least once. We met up with three different groups along the trail. All were from the west side of the Cascade Mountains. This demonstrates, once again, the lure of eastern Washington, with numerous points of interest, as a tourist destination.

Pack a lunch, get the family in the car and head north for a day trip through the Grand Coulee.