When I visited, my group opted to hike the trail clockwise, but the loop can be completed in either direction. This is a landscape shaped by the Missoula floods, with hike highlights 15,000 years in the making. The trail is well marked and there are well-spaced benches along the way, inviting hikers to linger along the route. By hiking clockwise we found a dramatic vantage point allowing us to look down on Rock Rose Crater from above.  

Since the hike is short, bring some additional supplies to help you savor the journey. This is an ideal place for photography and bird watching, or even plein air painting. Books on geology and the Missoula floods can also be useful to have along on the hike to help interpret geologic features visible along the trail. We found spring wildflowers including arrowleaf balsamroot and phlox. On my group’s visit, we also packed a picnic lunch to enjoy at Odessa’s Reiman Park after we had completed the hike.  

There is one warning I must pass along about this hike: It is a spring hotbed for ticks. I had already applied my annual clothing treatment of Permethrin prior to my mid-April visit, which I found worked well for myself. My hiking companion didn’t have any tick treatment on and discovered several ticks along the course of the hike. My poor dog, who was wearing a Permethrin-treated bandana but had not yet received his spring and summer tick treatment, ultimately brought several hitchhikers home. While dogs are permitted on this hike, due to the prevalence of ticks, it might be better to leave them at home.

Hike Stats

Round-trip distance: 1.5 miles 

Rating: Easy 

Elevation gain: 175 feet 

Map: Lakeview Recreation Area on the BLM Website (map)

Getting there: From Odessa, Wash., take Highway 21 north. Travel 6.6 miles to a small parking area with a trailhead kiosk located on the east side of the highway. 

Find more Hike of the Month ideas in the OTO archives.

Holly Weiler is a crew leader for Washington Trails Association and writes the Hike of the Month for each issue. She looks forward to enjoying spring wildflowers. 

Editor’s Note: Fishtrap Recreation Area remains open year-round even during stay-at-home orders because of its open accessibility (no gates). It has limited facilities and those remained locked and unusable during the Washington State “Stay Healthy, Stay Home” public health proclamation.

This article was originally published as “Odessa Craters: Eastern Washington’s Channeled Scablands” for the Hike of the Month column in the April 2020 issue.

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The Telford property spans both sides of Highway 2 and has three distinct trailheads providing recreational access. Two trailheads are located on the north side of Highway 2, and the hike described here utilizes the southernmost trailhead. There are adjacent properties managed by the Department of Natural Resources and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, offering hikers miles of routes to wander among the spring wildflowers and sagebrush. The area is open to hunting in season, along with hiking and dispersed camping. Check hunting seasons before a visit here and wear high visibility clothing.

Spring is the ideal time to visit this area. Access to trailheads at higher elevations can yield marginal conditions or may still be snowbound. In the low-lying shrub-steppe landscape around Telford, access is generally good by March, and hikers will likely be able to spot some of the first wildflowers of the season. The nearby seasonal wetlands are wonderful places to linger and watch waterfowl. Be sure to pack binoculars and a camera for a hike here.

For this hike, exit the parking area through the green gate near the parking area. Be sure to close all gates after passing through, as the area is used as rangeland. The trailhead kiosk is generally stocked with maps, although it can be a good idea to visit the BLM office in Spokane first to ensure map availability. The BLM map provides an excellent overview for the area, but the addition of a USGS topographical map is advised, as the area does not have a marked trail system. The landscape is open and relatively flat, making it an ideal place to practice route-finding skills. The landscape varies from thick stands of sagebrush to open rocky outcroppings covered in bright green lichen. Generally choose the high rocky ground for the best footing, as low areas are frequently marshy in the spring. 

Travel north through the open landscape until intersecting an old farm road. Along the way pass numerous wetlands with groves of aspen and hawthorn. Then follow the farm road slightly east to reach an old abandoned homestead near a marked spring, complete with derelict vehicles and old farm equipment from an earlier era. Take only photographs as you enjoy imagining what life must have been like when this was still a remote working farm. Retrace the route south to return to the parking area, or extend the hike by following the fence lines along the perimeter of this large property. 

Round-trip distance: Approximately 4.5 miles        

Rating: Easy to moderate, although route finding-skills are necessary

Elevation gain: 300 feet

Permit Requirement: None. Discover Pass required for nearby WDFW access areas if extending this hike.

Map:  USGS Telford

Getting There: Turn south on Telford Road on Highway 2 between Davenport and Creston, just west of the Telford Rest Area. Continue on Telford Road South for just over 5 miles to a BLM parking area with a large kiosk on the east side of the road.

Support Local Trails: Join the Washington Trails Association as we resume trailwork at Fishtrap Recreation Area on March 24 and 27.

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If a road trip to the desert southwest is out of the question, look closer to home. The channeled scablands, the flood-scoured sagebrush steppe of central Washington, offers quick-fix hits of snow-free pedaling.

First things first: singletrack is in short supply, and gnarly descents nearly nonexistent. But riders will find winding double-track ranch roads and widescreen views straight out of a western, all in a sprawling sagebrush expanse pitted with pothole ponds and dotted with old barns.

Even better, the trails can be ridden nearly year round. In some spots, annual precipitation is measured in the single digits, and the snow that falls doesn’t linger. For skiers, that might save a stretch of snow-free weather during peak season; for the snow-averse, it might save their sanity.

The 13-mile Odessa-Lake Creek Trail is the longest dedicated non-motorized trail in the channeled scablands. This trail navigates a maze of basalt buttes and broad mesas, carved by long coulees—a result of the Lake Missoula Floods some 15,000 to 30,000 years ago. On the western horizon the fluted basalt buttes known as Odessa Towers make an impressive landmark. To the southwest is 136-mile-long Crab Creek, which winds through the heart of the channeled scablands. And all around is the surprising hum of winter life in the sagebrush steppe, where raptors perch on pioneer fence posts, coyotes trot on the skyline, and rodents move underfoot.

Two trailheads access the Odessa-Lake Creek Trail. From the southern trailhead on the edge of tiny Odessa, signed singletrack dips over and around hunks of pockmarked basalt. The northern trailhead departs on old roadbed from the back forty of the old Lakeview Ranch, now a BLM property.

Either side of Lake Creek Coulee, at the halfway point of the ride, offers stretches of steep, sketchy singletrack. Riders will also find the best views here: a dramatic juxtaposition between the panoramic coulees and canyons before you and the sprawling wheat fields on the horizon. It’s a viewpoint unique to long trails in the Evergreen State. And it might just be enough to take your mind off the snow (or lack thereof). //

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