Bennington Lake — Saturday, Mar. 21, 2026

It was a sunny afternoon for this hike just outside Walla Walla. The landscape here is both pretty and kind of weird. The Bureau of Reclamation and the Army Corps of Engineers created Bennington Lake many decades ago as a way to hold water from Mill Creek during spring flooding. Mill Creek is channelized for miles, running through the city in giant culverts. The city would flood, so they created a diversion canal to the lake to hold the runoff, and then made a return canal to take it back to the creek.

We started our walk at the trailhead that Google Maps points to, along Reservoir Road. There is a map at the trailhead, but it doesn’t show this trail, which is a tad confusing.

A paved path runs along the return canal and curves alongside the road to the two parking lots at Bennington Lake. It’s a mix of agricultural land and hill country. The lake sits behind a giant dam. There is a hiking trail that encircles it, but we didn’t take that on this day.

It was an enjoyable walk, though a bit manufactured for my tastes. It did get me thinking about Walla Walla’s very controlled relationship with water.