Would Columbus ever found the Americas if he'd been using the new iPhone 5 map app?

It's Columbus Day today and we want you to celebrate by doing some exploring this week! Here are five places around the Tri-Cities that are very cool but people who've lived here their entire lives have sometimes never been.

1) Bateman Island

Most people have been here but I'm always surprised by how often I have to explain how to get here. Apparently hundreds of Tri-Cities residents have heard of it, but never been. If you are one of those, go this week. It's at the dead end of Columbia Center Blvd.

2) Zintel Canyon

This is a super cool nature trail that starts near 10th and Vancouver Street in Kennewick. It's a beautiful piece of wild in the middle of town.

3) Badger Mountain Trail

If you're in Richland this is one of your favorite hikes, but I bet there are hundreds of Pasco and Kennewick residents who have never been. Take Shockley Road off Keene Road all the way to the top and it dead ends at the trail head.

4) Franklin County Courthouse

1016 North 4th Avenue in Pasco. Built in 1912, this is one of the oldest and most beautiful buildings in the Tri-Cities!

5) Horn Rapids County Park

From Benton County's website: "Horn Rapids has been owned by Benton County since the 1960s and is the premiere natural area of the park system.  Protected by over four miles of Yakima River frontage on one side and the public lands of the Hanford Reach National Monument, Rattlesnake Mountain Shooting Facility, and Rattlesnake Slope Wildlife Area on the other, Horn Rapids Park offers over 800 acres of transitional river-to-upland shrub-steppe habitat.  The park has a campground, horse camp, model airplane facility, boat launch, tree collection, and miles of multi-use trails.  Horn Rapids Park is renowned as a sanctuary for both quantity and variety of dragonflies and birds, and listing by the Audubon Society as a designated 'Important Bird Area' is pending."


View Horn Rapids Park in a larger map

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