The Palouse

Have you ever heard of the Palouse?  Neither had I until about six years ago when my friend Noreen and I visited western Idaho.  I remember admiring the rolling, golden hills, but I was totally blown away when I saw photographs of those same hills when they were a vivid green.  I thought it would be amazing to see the Palouse in the spring when the hills were green, and I kept that idea filed away in the back of my mind.  It seemed that the timing might be right for a visit to the Palouse on this trip, and for the last month or so I had been hoping that our path might take us there.  That’s exactly where we ended up today.


Along the Palouse Scenic Byway

The Palouse, which is noted for its unique topography, is located in rural, southeastern Washington, although a similar landscape also spills over to western Idaho and northeastern Oregon.  Rolling hills rise and fall in rapid succession, and resemble green dunes.  In fact, the hills are silt dunes blown in as glacial ice melted during the Ice Age.  The hills are planted primarily with wheat, and that’s what gives the landscape its apple-green color.  Lentils are also grown in the rich soil that is found here.  The hills are a patchwork quilt of varying shades of green this time of year.  Round roof barns added even more character to the region.

Rolling Hills

Picturesque Barns and Farms

Unique Topography

Fields of Wheat

We also visited Palouse Falls, another site created during the Ice Age floods.  Here a waterfall appears to emerge from the rock and cascades almost 200 feet into a round, basalt plunge pool.  A state park provides spectacular viewpoints. 

Palouse Falls

Tim at Palouse Falls

Palouse River Below the Falls

We happened upon the Dahmen Barn in Uniontown with its iconic wheel fence.  This former dairy barn is now an artisan center designed to showcase the work of local artists and to bring fine and folk art to the public.  The wheel fence was begun in the 1950s as a folk art project and is still evolving.  The fence is now comprised of more than 1,000 wheels.  We visited the artist’s studios and couldn’t help but leave with a few small items.

Dahmen Barn

Wheel Fence

We arrived in Clarkston and checked into a campground on the Snake River.  We snagged a waterfront site that had just become available on the Memorial Day weekend.  Unfortunately it started to rain so we couldn’t enjoy the setting as much as we would have liked.

Looking Down at Clarkston and Lewiston from Lewiston Hill

Am I a Senior Citizen Now?

Happy Birthday to me!  How fun to celebrate my birthday while we’re on this trip.  I guess I’m officially a senior citizen now since I’m eligible to collect Social Security.  Wow!  What a thought!

We’ve officially made the turn eastward on our journey towards home.  We crossed the Snake River in southern Washington near its confluence with the Columbia River and followed a portion of the Lewis and Clark Trail.  I had one thing in mind when we stopped to tour the Whitman Mission National Historic Site.  I wanted to purchase my Senior Pass, formerly called the Golden Age Pass.  This pass is one of the special benefits of turning this magical age.  For the measly sum of $10.00, I will have unlimited access to all national parks for the rest of my life, plus discounts on camping fees at parks and other federal campgrounds.  Imagine my disappointment when I found out that Whitman Mission is a no-fee park so they do not sell the pass.  What a bummer.

The Whitman Mission National Historic Site preserves the site of a mission founded among the Cayuse Indians in 1836 by Marcus and Narcissa Whitman.  The mission was known as Waiilatpu, meaning “place of the people of the rye grass” was also an important station on the Oregon Trail.  The mission operated until its violent end in 1847.  That year a measles epidemic decimated the Cayuse, and Dr. Whitman’s medicine failed to help them.  A band of Cayuse attacked the mission and killed Whitman, his wife and several others.  The tragedy ended Protestant missions in the Oregon country and led Congress to create the Oregon Territory, the first formal territorial government west of the Rockies.

Whitman Mission from Above

The Oregon Trail Ran through the Mission

Whitman Memorial

The Great Grave Where the Victims Were Buried

We walked the trail which winds its way through the mission site and climbed the hill to the Whitman Memorial where we rewarded with expansive views of the surrounding countryside.

For quite some time I had heard wonderful things about Walla Walla, one of the Washington State’s best-known wine tourism regions.  Therefore, the city was on my list of places to check out, and we headed that way.  We drove through the downtown area and around Whitman College and were impressed with what we saw – a lively downtown with restored historic buildings and a beautiful campus.  Our plan was to stop, walk around, have lunch and do a little wine tasting.  Surprisingly, we never could find a place to park the RV.  We’re not that big, but there seemed to be no legal place for us.  We were so frustrated that we left town without stopping.

Walla Walla Looked Like a Great Town

Interesting Downtown

Public Art

We drove on to Waitsfield, another quaint and up-and-coming town.  Waitsfield was much friendlier to us, and this is where we stopped for lunch.  I even found a bottle of Walla Walla wine at a market in town to take with us.  I’ll just do my own wine tasting at the campground.

Downtown Waitsfield

Recent Rehabilitations of Downtown Buildings

Our drive through southeastern Washington was beautiful, particularly its fertile, rolling hills planted with wheat and other crops.  The various shades of green painted a wonderful picture on the hillsides.

Beautiful Rolling Hills

It's So Green Here

How Many Shades of Green Can There Be?

We found a nice campground for the first part of the Memorial Day weekend, and our plan is to stay here for two nights.  Unfortunately, we are out of cell phone range, and although the campground has wi-fi, my computer is not picking it up.  I’ll just have to wait to post our adventures from the last few days.

Another Seaplane Adventure

After visiting North Cascades National Park earlier in the week, we had decided that a visit to Lake Chelan National Recreation Area, which abuts the park, should be on our list.  Lake Chelan extends approximately fifty miles into the heart of the Cascade Mountain Range and is the third deepest lake in the nation.   The only way to get to the national recreation area is by boat or seaplane, or on foot or horseback.  No roads reach the remote community of Stehekin, located on the northern shore of Lake Chelan.  The boat ride would have taken all day, so we decided to take a seaplane.  A flight on Chelan Seaplanes is a fabulous way to get to Stehekin.  It’s much quicker, provides stunning views and is simply more fun.

It was slightly overcast as we took off from the town of Chelan.  I had volunteered to sit in the co-pilot’s seat and had a marvelous view for the entire journey.  Sweeping views of the lake unfolded in front of us.  We admired the deep blue color of the glacier-carved lake and saw just how steep the mountains are that rise from the lakeshore. 

Into the Wild Blue Yonder

The Snow-Capped Cascade Range Rises in the Distance

A Bird's Eye View

The Northern End of Lake Chelan

Stepping Off the Seaplane

 We arrived at Stehekin Landing and ran into several National Park rangers who were readying the visitor center for the upcoming season opening.  They were so informative and helpful in explaining where we could go, since most of the facilities were not yet open.  We were able to tour the 1921 schoolhouse, Rainbow Falls and the Buckner Orchard before returning for our flight back to Chelan.  Although we only got a taste of what the area has to offer, we thoroughly enjoyed our brief visit.  I was feeling generous and let Tim have the co-pilot’s seat on the return flight.

1921 Schoolhouse

Rainbow Falls

Buckner Orchard

Ready for the Return Flight

Reflections in the Gorgeous Blue Waters

No Roads Extend to Stehekin

After landing in Chelan, we traveled south through the Columbia River Valley and saw even more dams.  We stopped in Wenatchee, the self-proclaimed Apple Capital of the World.  I can’t believe how many orchards we’ve seen in the last few days.  Apparently, the semi-arid flatlands and canyons combine with hot and rich water to make the perfect fruit growing conditions.  I kept thinking how beautiful this area must be in the spring when all of the trees are blooming.

Orchards Against a Colorful Hillside

Colorful Floral Displays Abound

We crossed the Columbia River once again and made our way through the Columbia Basin.  The Columbia Basin Irrigation Project provides the water for over seventy-five types of farm crops, and Grant County provides much of the food for the country.  The town of Quincy regularly promotes its agricultural industry by sponsoring tours of farms, orchards and packing plants.  My favorite, however, was the program to place small signs beside the highway identifying the crops or trees.  How many times have I wondered what’s growing in the fields?  I think this is a brilliant idea, and I’d love to see other agricultural regions copy this idea.

Timothy Hay Is Planted in this Field
(I Didn't Know Tim Had His Own Hay!)

As the highway returned to the Columbia River, we were treated to sweeping views of the majestic and wild Columbia River Gorge.  Farther south we entered the Hanford Reach National Monument, the only free-flowing, non-tidal stretch of the Columbia River unaffected by the river’s vast dam system.  Hanford Reach was designated in 2000 and is another wild section of the state.  Sweeping vistas and towering bluffs characterize the area.

Sweeping Vista of the Columbia River Gorge

Adjacent to the Monument is the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, a stark reminder of our history.  Plutonium reactors, now mothballed, were once instrumental in the government’s Manhattan Project.  In fact, the plutonium produced here was used in the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki during World War II.  Hanford is now one of the country’s most notorious superfund sites, and it will take years to clean up the land and water.

A Dam Day

No, the title is not a typo.  We really did have a Dam Day.  I think that’s an appropriate description for visiting three dams in one day.  This was another of those days where we had no expectations for what we might see, but were blown away by both the dams and the stunning scenery.  It turns out that central Washington has a lot to offer.

After spending two nights in the quaint town of Winthrop so we could catch up on a few things, we discovered that we still had a day to “kill.”  We had set our sights on a seaplane adventure in Chelan, and there were no departures until Thursday.  We looked at a map and decided to drive to the Grand Coulee Dam in central Washington.  That seemed to be good choice for a day trip.

The drive through the Methow Valley was absolutely beautiful.  The road followed the Methow River and was lined with fruit orchards and vineyards.  We caught glimpses of Wild West heritage that towns like Winthrop are known for.  As we turned eastward and crossed the beautiful Columbia River, the landscape abruptly changed, and the arid, desert region of the state came into view.  The hills, however, were still green from the winter moisture.

Methow Valley

Cherries, or Apples?

Crossing the Columbia River

Looking Back toward the Cascade Range

We stopped at the viewpoint for Chief Joseph Dam on the Columbia River.  I knew nothing about this dam and was surprised to learn that it is the second-largest hydropower producer in the United States, second only to Grand Coulee Dam.  The dam was an impressive sight, and was even more so when water was released from the spillway.

Chief Joseph Dam

We soon arrived at the viewpoint for the Grand Coulee Dam and could not get over the magnitude of this structure.  The size was overwhelming, and we were lucky enough to see it from afar, as well as up close.  We learned that the Grand Coulee Dam was the largest concrete structure in the world until just recently.  The Three Gorges Dam in China now holds that record.  The construction of the Grand Coulee Dam was begun during the Great Depression to harness the waters of the Columbia River to bring irrigation, power, flood control and recreation to this arid region

Grand Coulee Dam from Afar

Lake Roosevelt Was Created by Grand Coulee Dam

Grand Coulee Dam Up Close

The dam has been expanded over the years, and I later found out that the Bureau of Reclamation hired Marcel Breuer, one of the leading architects of the twentieth century, to design the third powerplant.  Breuer also designed the Visitor Center, a wonderful modernist structure that is said to resemble a generator rotor.  How amazing that an architect of his stature was hired by the Bureau of Reclamation.

Grand Coulee Dam Visitor Center

We made our way south along the Coulee Corridor Scenic Byway and were astounded to find ourselves in a marvelous canyon alongside Banks Lake.  I later learned that canyons in this part of Washington are called coulees, and this one is the upper Grand Coulee.  I had never questioned how the dam got its name.

The Grand Coulee is a geologic marvel.  It is a huge, fifty mile-long canyon that was carved at the end of the last Ice Age by massive floods.  Ice dams repeatedly formed and collapsed, sending walls of water 1,000 feet high down the ancient bed of the Columbia River.  Banks Lake now fills the canyon of the upper Grand Coulee.  Steep walls and wondrous rock formations add to the scenic beauty.  One of the most impressive was Steamboat Rock, a massive butte that rises 1,000 feet above Banks Lake and was a landmark to both Indians and settlers.

Coulee Corridor Scenic Byway

Steamboat Rock

A Great Drive

We crossed over Dry Falls Dam as we left the Coulee Corridor, one more dam on the Columbia River.  It really was a Dam Day.

When we left Winthrop this morning, I was totally unprepared for what lay before us.  The scenery was spectacular, and the dams were engineering feats.  When we settled into our campsite this afternoon, I wanted to learn a little bit about what we had just seen.  I spent much of the evening researching the area and learned about coulees, dam engineering and architects.  There is just so much to see and so much to learn, and I know we are only scratching the surface on this trip.  It would be wonderful to have more time to learn about what we are seeing before and during our visits.  I sometimes feel we are not always getting the full picture about some of the areas we visit.  Then again, sometimes ignorance is bliss, and it can be fun to simply enjoy the scenery.