Whitestone Rock - Eastern WA
November 8, 2008 |
Directions: On Highway 2, between Creston and Wilber, take Sherman [Creek?] Road north towards Lake Roosevelt. The road hits a stop sign shortly - veer right at the sign but not hard right. Follow the road until it 'Y's again where the left fork has a "Dead End" sign - that's the one you want. The road will wind down through the canyon towards the lake, eventually arriving near some homes. Follow the road till it comes to a hairpin turn. 100 feet beyond this turn are signs that tell you to keep right. If you see the signs, you've just passed the parking spot. Back up a few feet and park at the hairpin, which happens to be the boundary for the rnational recreation area (according to the map - no boundary signs were visible though). From the parking spot, we walked up the road a dozen feet then headed south through a small saddle. From there, follow game trails and bushwhack your way a few miles south to the summit. The first large formation you see is not Whitestone. Whitestone is behind that one, slightly taller and better looking. A direct line keeps you within the boundary (according to my map). I placed the NWHikers.Net Travelling Summit Register at the south end of the summit under a small cairn. On the way back, we went too high to the west and found an old abandoned road that was much easier going but it turned out to be on private property and required us to hop a fence to get down to the truck. It is also possible to approach with a boat and in fact, Whitestone has a huge presence in the water as viewed from the river - worth seeing. I doubt this summit sees many visitors and being at a lower elevation, it should stay snow-free for a bit longer. Be careful on scramble up - it's got a few slick spots.
A Legend: "Long ago a skunk, a coyote and a rattlesnake each had a farm on top of the Whitestone. These were the days before the skunk was as odorous as he is now, but was esteemed a good fellow and pleasant companion by the other animals. As in some other small communities, jealousies, dissentions and intrigues arose in this one. The result was that the coyoe and the rattlesnake took a mean advantage of the skunk one night when he was asleep, and threw him off the rock into the river far below. He was not drowned, however, but floated on and on, far away to the south and west, until he came to the mouth of the river, where lived a great medicine-man and magician. To him, the skunk applied and was endowed with a gift warranted to give immunity from the conquest over all his enemies. Back he journeyed along the river to his old home, where he arrived much to the surprise of the coyote and the ratlesnake, and commenced to make it so unpleasant for them with his pungent perfumery endowment, the gift of the magicain, that they soon left him in undiputed possession of his rocky home, which he has maintained ever since."
Our Trip: We've fished below the sheer cliffs of Whitestone many times. The granite pillar shoots straight up from the deep water of Lake Roosevelt and would be a difficult climb from the east. I did some research and found a picture that showed the relatively easy west side and decided to give it a shot. I also found out that the Whitestone Winery blocks access from the south. Because I didn't really feel like the long boat ride, we decided to head in from the north side, staying within the boundaries of the recreation area.
As far as directions went, we were spot-on. The rain was falling steadily as we headed through the brush. I stopped shortly and put on the hardshells before getting soaked to the core. The entire approach was off-trail through scrub brush and around and through cliffbands. We maintained a line due south and eventually spotted our destination. The rock looked steep from a distance but we picked a line up the NW ridge that turned out to be not so bad. The rock was about as slick as I've seen due to rain and lichen but there were only a few sections that were kinda dicey.
We reached the summit in fairly short time. The views in all directions were phenominal even with the overcast sky. I placed the NWHikers.Net travelling summit register then we ate lunch before sliding down. Along the way, we explored a cave that we spotted on the way up.
We went a little too far west coming out and wound up on private property. The going was much easier due to an old road but I didn''t like being there. We didn''t realize our error untill it was too late though and by this time we had to resort to fence hopping to gain the main road back to the truck.
An excellent late season adventure. |
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