Peshastin Pinacles State Park
The Peshastin Pinacles are large towers of sandstone, which I had never climbed on before, so I decided to give it a try. We found a shady spot to park, but a sign informed us about a "discover pass". It's very aptly named, because you only "discover" you need one to be there after you've already arrived. It's not cheap either @ $10/day and they kick you out around 6pm. Well, we didn't want to drive back into town, so we decided to stuff cash into the provided envelopes. We didn't have enough US dollars, so we decided to give them 10 in Canadian and a US dollar bill for their trouble. Just then the ranger pulled in to check passes. He told us that you couldn't buy one from him, they didn't accept our credit cards, and their bank wouldn't cash in Canadian currency, but he let us do it anyway. I asked if we could just park outside the gate (since we had just arrived), to which he replied "well it too late for that, so go put your money in the box". There is a $30/yr option as well, but since we didn't know exactly where we were going, we didn't get it. There isn't even an option to "upgrade". Plus there's about 5 different kind of passes you need depending if you want to go to National parks, State parks, Forest districts, day use, overnight use etc..
Ah well, I hope the money goes to good use.
At any rate, we set out to climb on this amazing rock. Amazing to look at anyway. It was like moon rock or swiss cheese with all kinds of holes. Not amazing for climbing because it was so crumbly, and made me a little nervous. Someone told us there used to be one more tower in the park, but it fell over.
The holes were also home to all manner of critters ... marmots that crap all over the place, bats, swallows, and wasps/hornets which promptly stung me in the hand.
I decided I had my fill of sandstone for a very long time, so we headed out, but not before another ranger came by. He was advised by the other ranger to "check on the white van that was parked off the road". I asked him if there was a nearby place we could take a dip and cool off. He told us there were spots along the #2 where you we could access to the Wenatchee river between Cashmere and Monitor, but to be careful the water "moves". He checked the cash box, and satisfied that we paid, drove off.
Here I am under the bridge in Monitor. The water wasn't very fast. Youngsters drifted by in various inflatables.
[continued ...]
