I probably shouldn’t even post this because we want to keep it special but if you are looking for a location to enjoy the sun without the crowds then you will want to keep reading.
My sister and her family are awesome and open their house up to us for a long weekend every summer. They live in Eastern Washington on the Potholes Reservoir. They are one of the closest properties to the water. We got up Thursday morning and packed up the car, using a great purchase of a rooftop cargo bag, filled it with our kayaks and floats so we had lots of room in the trunk for everything else. We headed out around 10 and after a quick stop at Starbucks (act surprised) we were on our way. Leaving mid week we had no traffic heading over the I-90 pass and we had time to stop at our favorite lunch spot, Twin Pines, to grab a great burger, let Fennie out to run around and stretch our legs. Our next stop is also one we never miss, the Thorp Fruit Stand, we grabbed some local watermelon, rainier and bing cherries, peaches and apricots. Last stop was to shop for our groceries for the weekend before arriving at the house around 5pm. It was about 98° so the first thing we did was make a drink…passionfruit juice, rum, club soda and lime…yummy. After we cooled off we played some cards, made dinner and relaxed.
Friday we did a leisurely wake up and packed up the boat for the day. We launched into Potholes and found a lovely spot on a quiet beach. We had brought lunch and dinner so there was only relaxing in the sun on our floats and swimming. Nothing tastes as good after a day of being lazy than a hotdog grilled on the beach. After about 6 or 7 hours of drinks, food and sun later we headed home.
Fennie woke me up early Saturday so enjoyed the cool of the morning with a cup of cold brew, did some yoga and got our kayaks ready. My brother in law dropped us off a few miles up the Lind Coulee River and we put our kayaks and paddleboard in and spent the next two hours leisurely traveling down the twists and turns. If you are a bird watcher then this is a must see location. We saw bald eagles, heron, egrets, kingfishers, pelicans, magpies, terns and more…we also saw a little beaver in its dam. And all this before noon!
After getting picked up again by my brother in law we headed home for lunch and then started to head towards the South side of Potholes to the boat launch…we had just started going across the dam when a tire on the boat trailer seemed to explode. There was no where to pull off so we drove slowly to the first turn off. I have to say that my brother in law is amazing…the tire was in pieces and the metal of the rim had been bent into the tire. Being a city girl I assumed that this would take a few hours at least…so we walked down to the beach to get out of the heat and waited to hear that it was fixed…less than 45 minutes later the metal was bent back into shape and a new tire was on and we were ready to go. Today we decided to make the boat the beach and found a spot to anchor in the middle of the lake. By now we were all pretty hot after waiting for the tire change so we jumped off the boat to cool off. We attached our floats to the boat and floated all afternoon and well into the evening. It was over 100° so no need to head in early. We saw a parasailing boat, lots of jet skis but really this lake is so quiet with only a few speed boats and pontoon boats. There are a few launch spots along the lake including Mardon Resort and Potholes State Park. You can also rent boats and jet skis if you do not have your own.
If you are looking for a secret spot to go boating, camping, fishing, kayaking or paddleboarding then I highly recommend a weekend in Moses Lake and Potholes Reservoir.
Happy Travels!