Exploring the east side
This week we took a three day field trip to the east side of the cascades. After just three hours in the vans, we found ourselves in a landscape as strange and different as the places we explored in Southern California. This was not the moist cool green Washington we knew, yet it was still Washington. Over the three days we explored three different landscapes, each more wondrous and full of life than the last. Our first stop was Potholes State Park, near Moses Lake. There we split into interest groups and focused on either tracking, trailing, or birding. What at first seemed like a fairly desolate desert landscape proved to be full of life. On the bird walk we got to see 34 different species of birds, including a Magpie entering its nest from below, a pair of Golden Eagles perched in a nearby tree, a Dunlin foraging along the shore of a pond, and White Pelicans soaring above. The tracking groups could also confirm the diversity of life there through a plethora of tracks and the successful trailing of a porcupine to its perch in a tree.
That night we camped on a hill overlooking the Columbia river, one of our first fully dry camping experiences all year. Exchanging stories by the fire under a sky full of stars and no rain seemed too good to be true, but it got better. We found to our delight that we were camped under a Great Horned Owl nest. Throughout the night we were blessed with parent owl hoots and fuzzy white owlet begging calls.
The second day we explored Crab Creek Wildlife Area, near the Saddle Mountains. Sagebrush desert and salt flats intermingled with wetland cattails and Russian Olive trees along the creek created a unique landscape. There we went on general naturalist wanders where we integrated many different elements of our curriculum, including recognizing and harvesting wild edibles, tracking and trailing, bird language, and even some scouting/stalking. Some common animal sign found include beaver, porcupine, kangaroo rat, grouse, and shrike. Wild edibles found and tasted include Nodding Onion, Arrow-leaved Balsamroot, Mariposa Lily bulb, Fern-Leaved Lomatium, and even wild asparagus! The birds seen and heard are too numerous to name, and the sun continued to shine on us.
That night we traveled to our third destination, Umtanum Creek recreation site, on the Yakima river. This higher elevation creekside habitat was still arid but much more lush than the previous two locations. Towering Ponderosa Pines, Willows, and Aspen trees welcomed us to the foothills. Incredibly, on another dry starry night, we found that we were again camped under an owl, this time a Western Screech Owl. Soft whistled hoots lulled us to sleep.
The next morning brought us another day of exploration where more new plants were discovered, more new birds seen and heard, and more tracks found and followed. Following our passions along the river or up steep ridges, we found ourselves further inspired and filled with the exhilaration of new adventures. We returned home that afternoon and managed to bring a little of that east side sunshine with us, not only shining down from the sky but showing on our sunburned faces and glowing out from within.