A nephew’s adventures in state parks, part 1: Sun Lakes-Dry Falls State Park

By Holly Sproul (Parks Forms Manager & Web Specialist) & Nephew Evan (Age 9) 

For my family, campouts have typically centered around boating and fishing. This summer, my sister and I took my 9-year-old nephew Evan to state parks in different areas of Washington. Here is our just-over-a-week campout experience with Evan’s insight and tips – and some tips from the adults as well.  

Sun Lakes-Dry Falls State Park 

We knew we wanted to visit the Coulee Area for lots of sun, swimming and to meet a few friends, so we decided to start at Sun Lakes-Dry Falls State Park. When we arrived at the campground, a light breeze started, but that certainly wasn’t the end of it. We strapped our tent down as best we could, but the winds picked up. This required additional tie-down traps to ensure our home for the next week would be okay. Evan actually said he enjoyed the wind – he tried to do trust falls into it. 

Dry Falls Visitor Center 

On our first full day, we enjoyed views of the 400-foot Dry Falls chasm from the gazebo and overlook pier at the Dry Falls Visitor Center.  

“It was actually really hard to do with my fear of heights,” Evan said.  

There is a tall fence surrounding the pier for safety, which helped convince Evan he wouldn’t fall. But still, he had one important takeaway: “I would not do cartwheels out there.”  

At the bottom of the falls are a few water pools. Evan said he would maybe want to try fishing.  

“If there were fish in the more shallow end, maybe I would be good at fishing.” 

The visitor center received a thumbs up and his favorite part was the taxidermy animals. Inside, we learned about regional history and geology from various types of visual aids. A large window provides extra height to view the falls and canyon.  

“The view from inside was really nice, you can basically see almost everything that’s there,” Evan said. “The falls were definitely smaller. I thought it was at least 3-4x as big.” 

Evan’s rating: 8 or 9 

Lake Lenore Caves 

“The views were really incredible actually. It’d be like if you’re skydiving and somehow the world pauses at a specific height.” 

After the Visitor Center, we went south to hike up to the Lake Lenore Caves. Before our hike, we took a sandwich break. While eating, we noticed a rock formation across the valley that looked like a T-Rex.  

Evan explains “if you’re able to see it, it’s pretty cool. You will be able to see a cave with a bunch of stalactites and stalagmites. There’s an uphill that looks like a tail in a way, and there are two indents in the wall.” 

After lunch, we headed up the trail to the caves.  

Evan said, “The upwards hike can hurt your legs, but the hike if I had to rate that, in general, I would rate it like a 5. It’s kind of medium. I think a 5 or 6-year-old kid could walk it.”  

The cliffside trail starts as asphalt that leads to stairs and is packed dirt until closer to the caves.  

Near the cave entrance, Evan explained the unstable rocks are “kind of rough. Grandpa wouldn’t do that good, he’d do fine except if he tripped.”  

Evan rated the caves as, “definitely like a 5. Really, really nice shady spot. Should be called a cove if anything. The views were really incredible actually. It’d be like if you’re skydiving and somehow the world pauses at a specific height.” 

Evan’s rating: “Definitely entertaining, I would say that. It was kinda hard to go up and back ¾ mile each way.” 

Adult tips 

If you have kiddos that don’t always stay close or are extra adventurous, or heights make you extra nervous, I wish you the best of luck while visiting the Lake Lenore Caves.  

Although Evan is a good listener, the trail is right at the cliff edge. We issued numerous warnings to “watch where you’re walking” and “slow down” throughout the hike, which made for a tad bit of stress, but the view from the cave and burning little man’s energy sure did help.  

At the top of the stairs on the Lake Lenore Caves trail, turn right for the larger of the caves. Going to the left will take you to smaller caves, and the trail is more precarious. We accidentally went down this left side for a short way when we missed the turn to the stairs on the way back, which tested all three of us. 

Swimming area at the campground 

We spent much of the following day at the day-use swim area with friends. If the kiddos get tired of swimming, there is a playground in a large grassy area, although they never tried it out.  

The designated swim area was very large and of varying depths. For those that are still earning their water legs like Evan is, make sure to have a floaty or lifejacket as it does get very deep. 

Be aware: Seagulls enjoy this area as well. We had to protect our chips like they were the new age gold.  

Enjoy part 2 of this blog series here, where Holly and Evan visit Fort Worden Historical State Park.