In the Grand Coulee corridor in Central Washington State is a series of dry rocky coulees and pothole lakes.   The channeled scablands were scoured by the released floodwaters of Lake Missoula during successive ice ages.  This area is barren and rocky, but the State has funnelled water down this corridor from the Roosevelt Reservoir, supplying a chain of lakes, including Lake Lenore.   We hiked up to the basalt cliffs on the east side of the lake.

A number of shallow caves can be explored above the lake.   None of the lakes are deep and all of them are rocky.   We could scramble into each one of them.

First Nations people used the caves as shelter or a place to store food.

Snakes are abundant in this area, and we needed to show caution ( we encountered quite a few rattlesnakes on other nearby trails),  but so were a few wildflowers along the rocky trail.

The trail climbs onto a ledge above the parking area and goes both north and south.   The best caves are to the south and with some rocky scrambling 7-8 caves can be explored before returning to the vehicle.

The Lake Lenore Caves trail offers travelers a short and interesting hike (1.5 to 2 miles) on the way south along Highway 17 (from the Okanagan to Tri-Cities).