Icicle Gorge and Brats and Brews in Leavenworth

Thursday, June 19, 2014

Thursday morning we packed up and drove further up the Icicle Creek Valley to Icicle Gorge. The Forest Service has laid out a fairly flat four mile loop hike, with bridges across the creek at both ends to complete the loop. It was sunny and in the 70's as we set out to enjoy the trail. It was a lovely hike with a pretty gorge, and afterwords we drove back out of the mountain valley to Leavenworth.

Ida Creek Camp

Chipmunks everywhere you looked at the camp

 

Ponderosa, Hemlock, and Redcedar forest

The gorge gets narrower where the basalt bedrock is harder

Fungus

The gorge opens in a broad basin where four or five streams join in one combined delta

Braided channels and islands where the basin lets the creek spread out

Upland meadow

Upstream from the basin, Icicle Creek cuts another narrow gorge through resistant basalt

This guy rode back into Leavonworth with us

Apparently, this was the first really nice day after a cold, wet, delayed spring, and the Bavarian themed town was very busy. We found the Munchen Haus and lined up for the “Big Bob” bratwurst and local brews from the Icicle Brewery. Sitting outside in the German styled beer garden, with lots of Asian speaking tourists, we saluted our fathers, with their German ancestry, both named Bob, with the “Big Bob” wursts loaded with specialty mustard, and cider kraut! Then we walked to the local bike shop, Das Rad Haus, so Greg could replace the bike tubes he punctured on his ride through the punctureweed and goatheads at the Deschutes River back in Oregon. A last stop was to indulge our sweet tooths at the Danish bakery, and then we we left “cutesy” behind and drove back down the road to the Columbia River again.

The Icicle Brewery was two blocks away

Some of us like LOTS of cider kraut with our Brat

The Bavarian theme extends everywhere

Starbucks

Despite the decor, the bike shop was still staffed by laid back bike dudes

Our next destination was Grand Coulee Dam. Leaving the river and heading east, we again encountered flat arid, farmland, and grassland. Just before reaching the city park campground in Coulee City on Banks Lake we descended into the Moses Coulee, across the bottom between the dramatic cliffs and up the other side. Coulees are natural channels for water to flow through, like a canyon, but mostly dry and fairly wide. A short way up the road we encountered the Grand Coulee and the Dry Falls. We stopped at an overlook to get a view of the Dry Falls before descending into Coulee City.

Climbing up out of Moses Coulee, an impressive glacial flood canyon, but a fraction of the size of Grand Coulee

Back up on top of the Columbia Flood Basalts

At that point we made a plan for the next morning to take a short detour south to the Dry Falls visitor center to learn more about an amazing geological feature that neither of us had ever heard about. For now we crossed the dam to Coulee City and found a site in the city park on a peninsula jutting out into Banks Lake that partially fills the Grand Coulee.

Coulee City Park campsite

Looking up Banks Lake toward Grand Coulee

The goose flotilla was never far away

Dozens of cliff swallows kept the mosquitoes away at sunset