Saddling up in the Grand Coulee

Good news for those getting hammered by the energy crisis. I recently figured out how to drive to the Grand Canyon on less than a tank of gas.

At least that's where the Grand Coulee Dam Area Chamber told me I was. The chamber promotes the area as "Washington's Grand Canyon."

"I can see why they say that," said Joyce Bodeau of nearby Almira as she gazed up at the 700-foot high rock walls of the Northrup Canyon as we rode along on horses. "It feels like the Grand Canyon."

OK, maybe nobody is really going to confuse the Grand Coulee (52 miles long and as deep as 900 feet) with the Grand Canyon (277 miles long and up to a mile deep), but it's a natural marvel in its own right. And like the Grand Canyon, one of the best ways to explore the Grand Coulee is on horseback.

Kathy McKay figured this out about seven years ago and since then has been guiding as many as 1,000 riders per summer.

Despite my lack of equine knowledge - when one of her wranglers asked if I wanted to ride a quarter horse, I said I'd prefer one that was full size - McKay agreed to take me on a couple of her favorite rides.

First we explored Sun Lakes-Dry Falls State Park in the lower coulee. The next morning, we rode through the Northrup Canyon in the upper coulee.

The rides couldn't have been much different. At Sun Lakes, the ride started on a road with people on personal watercraft and fisherman nearby on Park Lake.

Northrup Canyon was more like a trip back in time with hardly any sign of modern technology.

"It makes you think of the pioneer days," Bodeau said.

I wasn't McKay's only inexperienced client.

As we saddled up at Sun Lakes, Steve Heidenreich, of Woodinville, confessed to the group that not only did he not know how to ride horse but he was a little intimidated by Leo, the 1,000-pound horse he was riding.

However, McKay quickly put Heidenreich at ease.

"She's good at doing that, because she's a great teacher," said Bodeau, McKay's neighbor. "Complete strangers have no problem trusting her."

McKay says about 95 percent of her clients are people camping in the area who often show up wearing shorts and flip-flops - hardly cowboy attire.

She takes her 4-year-old son Stephen and 7-year-old daughter Alexis along for rides several times each week. She's taken blind clients and once took a woman with multiple sclerosis who needed to stop regularly to adjust her saddle in order to alleviate pain.

"It's something anybody can do," McKay said. "We haven't said no to anybody yet."

In fact, the horses are so calm and well-trained that I quickly learned I had to do very little.

My horse, Wyatt, stayed in line with the others while I spent most of the ride taking pictures while my reins were looped over the saddle horn.

Even on the second day, when we were startled on two occasions - once by a low-flying jet and then by a rattlesnake - Wyatt and the other horses did little more than tense up.

"Wyatt was born to be a dude horse," McKay said.

On our first ride, two of McKay's young wranglers were training horses to become dude horses, which is cowboy speak for a gentle horse that can be handled by an inexperienced rider.

While we rode our tame steeds, wranglers Lisa Mason, a 21-year-old student from the University of Montana-Western, and Andie Pogue, a recent Rogers High graduate, worked to break in the new horses.

McKay says it usually takes about 10 rides with the dude horses to train the new mounts.

McKay says she's never had a rider injured or a horse take off when it's been startled.

"We hear as many as six rattlesnakes per trip," McKay said.

Usually it's the riders who get nervous when they hear the rattling and see the grass move, she said.

"Then, after a couple of snakes, they're saying, 'I want to see a snake,'" McKay said.

As we rode up a hill at Sun Lakes to the coulee's upper rock outcroppings, we were struck by the sight of the lakes below.

"The views were amazing," said Heidenreich, who'd taken a break from camping to ride with his son Steven, daughter Rachel and Daniella Stirbys, also of Woodinville. "I've been wanting to come up here, I'm glad we got the chance to do it."

The coulee was carved by ice age floods, and at one point the area we were riding was at the bottom of a waterfall that was 10 times the size of Niagra Falls. Today, the waterfalls are gone.

As fascinating as the history of the area was, Northrup Canyon, carved by the same floods, was more interesting.

Even the litter near the trailhead was cool.

Thousands of rusty cans lay in between the bushes. McKay explained that the cans were dumped there in the '30s and '40s after their contents were used to feed the thousands of men who built Grand Coulee Dam.

The canyon is named for the Northrup family, the canyon's original homesteaders. The family gave the land to the state, which made it a part of Steamboat Rock State Park.

The Northrups' original home remains deep inside the canyon.

When our party of eight reached the home, most of us hopped off our horses to let them graze while we explored.

Ariel Hard, a student at The Evergreen State College, relaxed on a giant rock while Stephen and Alexis scoured the tall grass with the horses looking for dragonflies and stinkbugs.

Soon their interest in the bugs gave way to their curiosity about the dilapidated log cabin that was more than 100 years old. The kids went inside to explore under a partially collapsed roof before their interest once again turned to the bugs.

The abandoned homestead, which also included some newer buildings and the remnants of a pig farm, was nestled between the canyon's rock walls and proved to be the highlight of the trip.

"I've been on a lot of trail rides on the west side," Hard said. "It's not like this. You just ride in a wooded area. This is one of the best trail rides I've been on."

For Bodeau, who hadn't been on a trail ride in about two decades, even though she's McKay's neighbor, riding Northrup Canyon was spectacular. She said she can't wait to ride again.

"A lot of people on the west side who never get outside the city would really love this," said Bodeau, a graduate of Pacific Lutheran University. "It's such an amazing experience. I can see how this could be addicting."

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IF YOU GO:

Double Diamond Horseback Riding

Where: Northrup Canyon and Sun Lakes-Dry Falls State Park.

Cost: $45 for a two-hour ride. $95 for a four-hour "extreme" ride on rugged terrain. Pony rides in the corrals are $15.

Requirements: Double Diamond owner and ride leader Kathy McKay says she can accommodate riders of all skill and fitness levels. "I'd say 95 percent of my customers have little or no riding experience," McKay said. While most riders wear long pants, she says many customers show up wearing flip-flops and shorts. She supplies water for riders and recommends they bring sun screen and bug spray.

More info: http://www.doublediamondhorses.com

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Information from: The News Tribune, http://www.thenewstribune.com