Photos from this trip can be found here.
Storms brought a ton of rain to the west over the weekend, so we once again sought refuge east of the Cascades. Since Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park was the last place in my desert hiking guide west of the Vantage that we haven’t visited, it was the logical choice.
I parked close to the end of the main road and we started going up what seemed to be an unmaintained road. The nice thing about hiking in open spaces is the ability to keeping going without the fear of getting lost. We hiked northerly and eventually got to a lookout area with a post and a USGS marker. This was our turnaround point.
It drizzled a little the whole time but that didn’t take away the lovely views along the Columbia River. We met one hiker and his two dogs on the way in, exchanged a few words and let the dogs make their acquaintances. The freeway and the cars across the canyon were visible from the lookout, The only noise we heard was that of the semi trucks that occasionally passed through.