Milt Reynolds: Thinking Out Loud

Badger Mountain I hiked to the top of Badger Mountain last week. Latitude: 46.233468 Longitude: -119.318352 Only about 10 minutes from West Richland, Washington, the hill rises to an altitude of about 1,565 feet above sea level and provides a wonderful vista of all the Tri-City region . The Columbia River winds a sweeping ribbon north, past Handford. Vineyards give a frilly edge to the west side, just starting to turn a light green with the coming of our spring weather. About halfway up the hill an engraved granite rock perches on the edge of the trail. It marks the highest level reached by prehistoric floods, creating an ancient, long-gone lake, now called Lake Lewis . The lake slowly ebbed away, the melting chunks of ice leaving behind huge boulders knows as "erratics". These erratic boulders can be seen on mountain slopes in the area. Cheerful yellow flowers brighten the slopes with a few surprises. I've never seen blooming sagebrush befo...