This morning we awoke at Crow Butte, a beautiful little island in the Lake Umatilla reach of the Columbia River. To the north of Crow Butte is an old oxbow, and to the south is the main stem of the mighty Columbia. This island was originally set aside as a park by the Army Corp of Engineers in the early ‘70s as part of the McNary Dam project and was later transferred to the Washington State Parks Department. Its value has lain in the fact that its ecology was representative of the original short-grass prairie system, much of which has since been allocated to agriculture and some of which is now being used to grow some of the world’s finest wine grapes.
We went on hikes to explore this unique ecosystem of grass-scrubland to find evidence of a few of the animals that make their home here. We also had an opportunity to drop our kayaks for a morning of paddling before we jumped back on National Geographic Sea Bird to travel through Horse Heaven Hills along the Northwest Discovery Water Trail that follows the path of Lewis and Clark’s Corp of Discovery.
Photos by Jeff Campbell and Doug Kenk-Crispin
