Burn off holiday calories with a high-desert hike in Eastern Washington

It's part of Washington, yet it often seems a world away.

The remote high-desert country of Eastern Washington stands in marked contrast to the crowded urban sprawl of Puget Sound country. The dry lands east of the Cascades and west of the Rockies present a unique landscape that, despite its differences with the rest of the Evergreen State, helps make Washington the natural wonder that it is.

Yet residents of Western Washington typically overlook the east side when seeking a wildland adventure. That's their loss.

The country sprawling on either side of the rolling Columbia River is Washington's desert country. Yet the popular desert image of stark, barren strands of blowing sand doesn't work as a definition for this desert. There is nothing barren or lifeless about it. It's a dry landscape, but rich in life — both plant and animal. Sun-loving desert plants complement the already colorful earth. The black and russet rocks and soils are painted each spring and summer with vibrant blues, purples, yellows, oranges, whites and reds as wildflowers burst into bloom. The deep gullies, high ridges and long rolling plateaus echo with the calls of coyotes, the screams of raptors, and the "thump, thump, thump" of deer, elk and bighorn sheep bounding across the landscape. Desert, yes, but a rich and beautiful desert.

What's more, the broad flatlands offer wonderful wintertime fun for snow-weary hikers. The desert country of Eastern Washington seldom sees snow of any significance, and what light dustings it does receive merely enhance the stark beauty of the landscape without hindering the hiking opportunities.

Here are a few of the best bets for winter enjoyment:

Near Ellensburg and Yakima

Black Canyon: This aptly-named canyon is stunning. Black talus slopes fall away from steep cliffs of columnar basalt. The canyon floor is blanketed with fragrant wild plants, including the ever-present sagebrush, buckwheat and balsamroot, and with many brilliant wildflowers come spring. And birders, take note: This rich and varied vegetation provides food and shelter for an array of birds. In addition to the ever-present raptors that soar above virtually all desert country, Black Canyon boasts populations of mourning doves and western kingbirds. You'll also find grouse, Hungarian partridge and chukar. Several species of swallows dart through the canyon, and you might even find a few hummingbirds flitting by. Black Canyon offers more than 7 miles (round-trip) of hiking as it climbs up Umtanum Ridge.

Ginkgo Petrified Forest: One of the largest petrified forests on the planet sits in the center of Washington state. These great ancient trees (ginkgos are one of the oldest species of trees in the world) were mineralized into rock during the great lava flows that swept the inland northwest. In addition to petrified ginkgos, the "rock forest" includes mineralized Douglas fir, spruce, walnut and elm. The 3 miles of established interpretive trail in Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park wind through many magnificent examples of these "wooden rocks." Be sure to pick up a copy of the informational material and trail guide from the visitor center before setting out.

Or if you prefer to go it alone, skip the visitor center and get on the old settlers' road to find a steep side canyon leading to the canyon rim. Climb steeply along a well-trod footpath/game trail and in less than a mile you'll top out on the highlands above the Columbia River. Peer down onto the Ginkgo Petrified Forest from here — the views are outstanding. You may continue to explore along the rim before heading back down the way you came.

Near Wenatchee and Ephrata

Swakane Canyon: It's all about the sheep — bighorn sheep, that is.

Washington boasts several herds of bighorns. There is a good population in Umtanum Canyon above the Yakima River. There are several herds in the Tucannon River Canyon on the edge of the Blue Mountains. And there's a strong population in Swakane Canyon, and another farther north on Chelan Butte.

Swakane Canyon offers more than 6 miles of trail hiking and several more miles of cross-country rambling in the wildlife-rich Swakane Wildlife Area. Though you'll be following an old road, this canyon seems to have been carved just for hikers. Enjoy views up and down the foliage-rich canyon; watch the antics of countless animals (aloft and on the ground) and scramble periodically to a viewpoint on the canyon wall to peer east to the broad basalt-lined Columbia River Canyon. Watch for golden eagles that have been seen nesting on the high cliffs.

Billy Clapp Lake: Though the lake is manmade, its beauty is entirely natural. A host of animals make use of the wealth of water, and native plants also thrive in the irrigated basin. You'll find an easy 5 miles of hiking here, and as you get started, you'll immediately enjoy stunning views across the basalt cliff-lined lake.

The trail climbs to a low viewpoint then drops down through a beautiful canyon lined with incredibly colorful lichen-covered basalt rocks and cliffs. After this short (0.2 mile or so) section of rolling terrain, the trail flattens out for the next mile until you reach a bay on the lakeshore.

All along this stretch there are numerous side-paths leading down to wonderful overlooks of the lake — and some to hidden inlets with (wintertime) sandy beaches. Continue to explore, keeping one eye on the ground for coyotes, rabbits and foxes and the other eye on the sky to watch for hawks, falcons, kites, ducks, geese, swallows, terns and other birdlife.

The Far East

Juniper Dunes: Deep in the heart of the dry desert country of the lower Columbia Basin sits the Juniper Dunes Wilderness Area, the only Bureau of Land Management wilderness in the state. Covering just 7,140 acres, this is also the only Washington wilderness area to be completely enclosed by barbed wire — put there not to keep the animals in, but to keep motorcycles and off-road vehicles out.

The only trail in this wilderness is an old jeep track that slices across the southern end of the small desert preserve, but no trails are needed here. To experience the wonders of this place, simply disappear into the sand dunes and juniper groves.

There are six large groves of the desert juniper trees, the largest remaining concentration of this species this far north. Scattered across the rolling hills between the well-spaced groves are individual trees — some of them could truly be classified as old-growth specimens, broad and fragrant and hundreds of years old.

There is a wonderful array of plant life on these low hills, which are indeed sand dunes, but not in the Sahara sense of the word. There are a few barren mounds of shifting sand, but most dunes are carpeted with sage brush, wild rye grass, Indian ricegrass, an assortment of desert flowers like phlox, larkspur and blue-eyed Marys, and a few small species of cactus including prickly pear and Simpson's hedgehog cactus. Look for the complex web of animal tracks that criss-crosses the sands.

Palouse Falls: Its size and splendor makes Palouse Falls one of the most scenic and impressive waterfalls in all of Washington, but its location adds even more magic and wonder to its image. Nestled in a deep coulee, the Palouse River creeps mostly unseen through the scablands north of the Snake River.

Not until you are right on top of it do you see the river, and the same holds true of the falls. A broad, broken plateau of black basalt stretches out to the horizon as you approach the entrance to Palouse Falls State Park, when suddenly, BOOM, there it is: the thundering Palouse Falls pounding down 198 feet into a circular bowl carved out of the cinder-black rock. Winter and spring are the prime times to see the falls — in the dead of winter, the jagged cliffs around the falls are lined with shimmering bands of ice, while in spring, the run-off from snowmelt in the high country makes the falls a spectacle.

A wonderful trail through stands of massive sagebrush (some 8 feet tall) leads to the head of the falls. Use extreme care when the route is slick with water, snow or ice.