I've known about these basalt columns for some time now but didn't know exactly where they were. Thanks to Google Earth, after several minutes of panning the map and zooming in on potential sites, from Vantage to Potholes Coulee, I finally spotted them on the computer screen, and it appeared they were on the cliff to the South West of Dusty Lake. I loaded the coordinates onto my GPS, then waited for a nice sunny Spring day to hike there and hide a cache. We found a good parking spot and headed cross country to the site. Straight distance between the parking coordinates and the cache is just under 2 miles. Actual hiking distance round trip is more likely close to 5 miles. My Fitbit watch logged 13,000 steps which equates to approximately 6.5 miles round trip, but we did a lot of wandering and exploring. On the way back to the truck we spotted some mountain bikers heading back to the road. They were riding on a nice single track trail, so we headed over to it and followed it all the way back and ended up only 0.1 miles from where we parked the truck. So you can do like we did going in and go cross country, or you can hike on the trail and connect with an old jeep road, which leads to an old homestead (NOTE: Homestead cache nearby). Then from the old homestead it's pretty much cross country to this cache.<p>
Basalt lava flowed over this area millions of years ago. These basalt columns formed when the lava cooled and crystallized into basalt rock. When lava cools, it shrinks. This created vertical polygons, usually five-sided, and separated from their neighbors by cracks. Over time the basalt here eroded due to freeze - thaw, wind, etc, and left these interesting shapes. (see photos).<p>
Please leave the hide and the area as you found it. There is a spoiler photo attached below if you need it.<p>
Enjoy your hike, the adventure, the wonderful views of the river, the coulees, other lava formations, and Dusty Lake to the East.<p>
The Navigatorz
