Geocaching in Vantage, WA

 After breakfast, we headed out for another day of geocaching.  This time we headed East to Vantage, WA. and beyond.  We crossed the Columbia River on the freeway bridge and then found caches along the old Vantage highway.  The scenery was very "canyon" and beautiful.  There were some caches that we simple could not do because they were on difficult terrain.  We finished up this side of the river by replacing a very old cache that had a busted container.

 We ate our lunch and headed back to Vantage on the West side of the river.  There we paid a long visit to the Ginko Rock Shop where we handled and oogled lots of petrified wood.  Petrified wood is the WA State Gem and there is an abundance of it here.  Vantage is home to the Ginko Petrified Forest State Park.  The Park was closed but we have seen it before.  We purchased some stones and petted the old cat that lay on the counter.  Then we headed West on the old highway to find a string of geocaches on the way back toward camp.

After finding all the caches along the old highway, we made a fast stop at a Mom & Pop grocery to buy some bread.  I paid a visit to the local gun shop in Kittitas, WA where nobody wears a mask.  They had lots of cool guns but almost no ammo.  I bought a magazine loading helper that helps you when loading my high cap mags.

Back to camp....supper.  Afterward we headed out to find two more caches that were 14 miles away.  Way out in farm country.  Turns out that these two caches were the best two of the day.  One featured an out of place old phone booth with the cache inside.  It was also home to a nest of swallows.  The other cache was an ammo can.  You had to walk a plank bridge across an irrigation canal to get it.  We made it back to camp before sundown.