December 1, 2015. The trails throughout the Sage Hills and the Horse Lake area have closed for the winter and will not reopen until April 1, 2016. Local walkers can still use the trails around Saddle Rock, Dry Gulch, and Castle Rock. Read why the trails close each winter.

The ice ages of the Pleistocene Epoch 2.6 million to 11,000 years ago had a dramatic role in shaping surface and the topography of North Central Washington. On this ride near Brewster, you’ll see topography shaped by ice that was once thousands of feet deep.... 

The cliff-lined coulees and desert landscape around Frenchman Coulee (near Vantage) gives visitors lots of distractions. Between the Spaghetti Western setting, the geology sculpted by the Ice Age Floods, the rock climbing activity, and the sand dunes, there's no shortage of things to see on this short outing.

“It's like Hiking 2.0,” says Conservation Northwest's Wildlife Monitoring Coordinator, Alison Huyett. When she explains wildlife monitoring, it sounds more like a mythic journey than science. Maybe it's both.