Tom Lowell and myself got our vans out for an overnighter to central Washington last weekend. Here are some photos:

http://www.pbase.com/railbat/trinidadvanx2_trip

Brian

Beautiful!! I have to make time to get out there!

Did the Tacoma have any issues with the water crossings?

It made it across OK. Kind of looked for a second there about midstream that it was about to float the rearend... The water was knee deep, and was just below the running boards on the van.

Yes, some Funshine and the time to enjoy it would be quite regenerative.

Brian -is the route you took overcrowded in the late spring/ early Summer? Excuse my local ignorance but where did you go (if its not giving anything away)?

Here's the northern entrance to the creek canyon:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=waterville+wa&jsv=107&ie=UTF8&
ll=47.493893,-119.905386&spn=0.015194,0.043087&t=h&z=15

It's a straight shot south off of Hwy 2 on Slack Canyon Road, also known as Road H SW. The turnoff is maybe 8 miles east of Waterville.

This is the south access to the canyon, near Palisades, WA:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=waterville+wa&jsv=107&ie=UTF8&
ll=47.452469,-119.878864&spn=0.030412,0.086174&t=k&z=14

I don't know how crowded it would be any time really, as this was the first time I was there. We saw 5 or 6 vehicles in the area on a Sunday afternoon. It's BLM land so camping is OK.

Not really any solid info. It looked like there were several unoffical camp spots along the canyon. The guide sign said camping is allowed with a 14 day limit.

Not to mention that Deniro might show up and slap you around too....particularly if you like to talk about your life as a young boy.

It would be worth it to hear his cool Chinook accent.  Do think anybody in Concrete read the book before they agreed to let them make the less than flattering film there?

Nice post Brian.  And nice avatar, I'm honored.

Revisited Brian and Tom's trek- literally
Brian's original image here- http://www.pbase.com/railbat/image/95794364
Mine today. Nice day playing hooky from work

Cool photo. Hope you had a great trip. Nice time of year to be out there.

Brian

Thanks, Brian- and thanks for the details back in April.

The area is a lot like the New Mexico high desert I grew up on, and I hope to do it again when there is snow on the ground to create a different challenge. There are a lot of areas to explore- I want to get some BLM maps to see what is private vs. public in this area and further east/north.