Wanapum State Park & Wineries

We took our last trailer trip of the season out to eastern Washington for a long weekend and stayed at Wanapum State Park. The trailer section was pretty small but our site was right on the water and absolutely beautiful:

Nice area to walk around but no hikes from the campground. You have to drive out to do any real hiking. Which we did. In fact the main reason we went on this trip was to hike at the Ginkgo Petrified Forest. Now, when I heard “Ginkgo Petrified Forest” I can tell you this was not what I had in mind:

Um, where’s the forest? As far as the eye can see nothing but dead grass. It was hot, ugly, and a huge disappointment. We walked through the Trees of Stone Interpretive trails and saw what the must consider to be the “petrified forest” part. Cages with small chunks of petrified wood inside, like this one:

I mean…..really?! I learned a lesson I already knew – do more research before going somewhere!

After the disappointing “hike” we drowned our sorrows in some delicious wine and stunning views at Cave B Estate Winery:

They have ample outdoor seating are dog-friendly, though seeing all that wide open space made them a little nutty. It was tough keeping them calm.

We’ve actually come to Cave B a few times, it’s one of our favorite places in eastern Washington. You can stay overnight there in one of the many options, but we’ve never done that.

We also spent some time at Burke Vineyard, another dog-friendly winery and vineyard. This one is smaller and family-owned, the owners were there to chat with us and were very nice. We sat outside but they had indoor seating as well. I didn’t get any photos there but you can look it up. It was very quiet and nice, a bit off the main road.