Just south of Potholes Reservoir is the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge, an area of lava flow cliffs, lakes, ponds, grasslands, and canyons.   It is part of the channeled scablands, scoured by the release of an ice age lake, an eroded and complex terrain.   We drove into the middle of the Refuge to hike the Frog Lake – Mesa Loop – Crab Creek trail, then the Goose Lake Plateau route s on a spring day.

Long lines of basalt columns line the trail which follows the east-west gullies.

Rocky mesas stand above the grasslands all the way to the Goose Lakes.

After hiking 8.7 km in the morning, then an additional 9 km on the Goose Lake track, we turned around at a viewpoint over the lakes area, satisfied with a good day of hiking in the Refuge.

More information:

• Frog Lake hike (includes trailhead directions)
• Columbia National Wildlife Refuge
• Chukar Lake Hike