TOLO LAKE / COTTONWOOD BUTTE

Mike follows certain rules in life. One of the biggest is "Work before play." "Would you like to go to Grangeville today and do some geocaching? We could scrub the kitchen floor and cut the hollyhocks back, then have lunch in Grangeville . . . " I said okay.

I scrubbed the floor; he shook the rugs and put them back. I cut back the hollyhocks; he hauled the refuse to the burn pile. (To be fair, he also grubbed two or three of those hollyhocks out of the ground. It was fun writing it with that omission.) Then we headed out to Grangeville. Our first stop was at the replica mammoth display which provides some interesting interpretive information about the discovery of mammoth fossils at Tolo Lake in 1994. We then stopped at Asker's Harvest Foods where we picked up a few groceries. Then it was on to Subway to buy a sub and cookies for a picnic lunch at Tolo Lake.

Tolo Lake is the largest body of water on the Camas Prairie. A nice roadside stop has been constructed there with outhouse and picnic tables. We found a geocache and fulfilled the requirements for an "earth cache" (that's where you take a picture of yourself at the site and send it to the cache owner). We ate there and Nellie enjoyed poking around. AND –it's the regional mecca for bottlecaps. I picked up a dozen, including the coveted bright blue Twisted Tea cap.

Then we drove on to Cottonwood Butte. Our instructions were to walk the last ¾ mile beyond a certain gate. However, we lucked out – a man was going in to do some work and let us drive through provided we could be out within an hour. We were fine with that. I did wish we could have stayed longer and enjoyed the view on all sides. Here are a few photos from the summit. In my opinion it's too bad that the summit serves commercial use and is generally unavailable to the public.[The top photo is of Cottonwood Butte from a high point in June's field. Photo of Mike is at Tolo Lake near Grangeville. Botton photos are from Cottonwood Butte.] KW