The Columbia Plateau State Park Trail is a , corridor in eastern

Washington state Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first U.S. president—the state was formed from the western part of the Washington ...

maintained as part of the

Washington State Park system The Washington State Park System is a set of state parks owned by the state government of Washington, USA. They are managed by the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission. There are over 140 parks throughout the state, including 19 marin ...

. The rail trail runs along the abandoned right-of-way of the former

Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway The Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway (SP&S) was a railroad in the northwest United States. Incorporated in 1905, it was a joint venture by the Great Northern Railway and the Northern Pacific Railway to build a railroad along the north bank of ...

Route

Beginning at Cheney, Washington, the trail runs to the confluence of the

Snake Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more j ...

and Columbia rivers at Pasco, passing through five counties in the southeastern part of the state. The trail is mostly gravel, except for a 3.75 mile portion between the Cheney and Fish Lake trailheads. Recreational uses include hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding, in-line skating on paved portions, and wildlife viewing. The close proximity of the railroad to the paved portion makes this section of the trail a popular spot for railfanning.

Access points

Proceeding from the northeast toward the southwest, major access points include: * Fishlake trailhead – Milepost 365 * Cheney Trailhead – Milepost 361.25 * Amber Lake Trailhead – Milestone 349.25 * Martin Road Trailhead – Milestone 342 *

Lamont Lamont or LaMont may refer to: People *Lamont (name), people with the surname or given name ''Lamont'' or ''LaMont'' * Clan Lamont, a Scottish clan Places Canada *Lamont, Alberta, a town in Canada * Lamont County, a municipal district in Albert ...

Trailhead * John Wayne Pioneer Trail intersection (no trailhead) * Benge Trailhead * Washtucna Trailhead (Trail Administrative Area in downtown Washtucna) * Kahlotus Trailhead & Visitor Center * Snake River Junction Trailhead *

Ice Harbor Dam Ice Harbor Lock and Dam is a hydroelectric, concrete gravity run-of-the-river dam in the northwest United States. On the lower Snake River in southeastern Washington, it bridges Walla Walla and Franklin counties. Located northeast of Bur ...

Trailhead * Sacajawea State Park Pasco

History

The rail bed was constructed by the

Company in the early 1900s. That line's successor, the Burlington Northern Company, abandoned the line in 1987, paving the way for the state to acquire 130 miles of right-of-way, from milepost 235.0 near East Pasco to milepost 365.0 near South Cheney, in 1991. State Park management began in 1992. Standing remnants of the trail's railroad past include the historic Burr Canyon Trestle built in 1908.

Natural features

Wildlife

The northern portion of the trail passes through a habitat of primarily

ponderosa pine ''Pinus ponderosa'', commonly known as the ponderosa pine, bull pine, blackjack pine, western yellow-pine, or filipinus pine is a very large pine tree species of variable habitat native to mountainous regions of western North America. It is the ...

/grassland mixed with exposed

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90 ...

cliffs and areas of meadow and shrub-steppe. It bisects the

Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge The Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge is located six miles (10 km) south of Cheney, Washington, on the eastern edge of the Columbia Basin in Spokane County in northeastern Washington. Turnbull NWR encompasses more than of the Channeled Sca ...

, an area of northeastern Washington on the eastern edge of the Columbia River Basin which encompasses approximately of the

channeled scablands The Channeled Scablands are a relatively barren and soil-free region of interconnected relict and dry flood channels, coulees and cataracts eroded into Palouse loess and the typically flat-lying basalt flows that remain after cataclysmic floods ...

. The numerous erosion-created potholes have formed over 130 marshes, wetlands and lakes which attract a wide range of waterfowl; more than 200 different kinds of birds have been recorded in this area. Other wildlife inhabiting the reserve include elk, mule deer, white-tailed deer, coyotes, badgers, porcupines, muskrats, and beavers.

Geology

As it crosses the

Columbia River Plateau The Columbia Plateau is a geologic and geographic region that lies across parts of the U.S. states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. It is a wide flood basalt plateau between the Cascade Range and the Rocky Mountains, cut through by the Columbi ...

, the trail passes through the unique geological erosion features of the channeled scablands created by the cataclysmic

Missoula Floods The Missoula floods (also known as the Spokane floods or the Bretz floods or Bretz's floods) were cataclysmic glacial lake outburst floods that swept periodically across eastern Washington and down the Columbia River Gorge at the end of the las ...

that swept periodically across this portion of eastern Washington as well as other parts of the Columbia River Plateau during the

Pleistocene epoch The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...

. The trail follows one of the many paths taken by the Missoula Floods as they cut through the

Columbia River Basalt The Columbia River Basalt Group is the youngest, smallest and one of the best-preserved continental large igneous province, flood basalt province on Earth, covering over mainly eastern Oregon and Washington (state), Washington, western Idaho, a ...

. Notable geologic features which the trail passes include the Cow Creek scabland, the point at which the

Palouse River The Palouse River is a tributary of the Snake River in Washington and Idaho, in the northwest United States. It flows for U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed May 3, 2011 southw ...

departs its former course (captured by ice-age flood erosion), Washtucna Coulee (the abandoned course of the Palouse River scoured wide by the floods), Devil's Canyon (a dry, straight, former flood channel which descends to the Snake River), giant current-created ripples formed by the flood currents in the low lands along the Snake River, and the Walker Bar, created by the outflow of the floods.

References

External links

Columbia Plateau Trail State Park
Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission
Columbia Plateau Trail State Park North Map
Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission
Columbia Plateau Trail State Park South Map
Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission {{authority control Protected areas of Adams County, Washington Protected areas of Franklin County, Washington Protected areas of Lincoln County, Washington Protected areas of Spokane County, Washington Protected areas of Whitman County, Washington State parks of Washington (state) Hiking trails in Washington (state) Rail trails in Washington (state) 1991 establishments in Washington (state) Protected areas established in 1991