We now have a plan for travel in Washington. It's amazing how things fall into place over a glass of wine ...!
We discover a State full of contrasts; almost complete opposites. When I think of Washington it is the Pacific Northwest, Puget Sound, Seattle, dense forests and soaring mountains that come to mind. We enter the state from the east and find ourselves quickly in arid, rural, scrublike country for mile after mile. It feels remote ... it is full of surprises.
For example, central and southeast Washington have wineries, producing quality grapes; the hottest wine growing area outside the Napa Valley. Yakima, Walla Walla and Ellensburg. We will stop at Ellensburg for coffee. It is the most centrally located city in the state; a much drier climate than Seattle, many residents commute over Snoqualmie Pass on I-90 to work in Seattle and the Puget Sound region.
Although a small town, it holds the state's largest rodeo each Labour Day ... and has a town centre with more coffee bars per head than anywhere else in the world (allegedly). Sounds like me!But I am getting ahead of myself a bit as we are still at Diamond Lake just west of the Idaho state line, north east of Spokane with the whole state to explore!
Spokane is Washington's largest inland city and the second largest population centre.Trivia- it hosts the annual Bloomsday on the first Sunday in May - the world's largest mass participation running event.
On the west side of town we quickly run into extensive wheatfields and a rural landscape.
We had planned to stay at an RV park near the Grand Coulee Dam. We do a drive by; it looks a little tired - even rough - so we 'ride on'.
Before we leave the area we drive up to a lookout over the Grand Coulee Dam. It is amazing! Its purpose is for hydroelectric power, flood regulation and irrigation. Opened in 1942 after 8 years of construction during the Great Depression, it impounds the Columbia River and creates the Roosevelt Lake and Banks Lake - both recreational destinations.
It is the largest hydroelectric plant in the US and one of the largest concrete structures in the world.
Trevor remembers the words of a song written by Woody Guthrie about the Grand Coulee Dam and later sung by Lonnie Donegan - 'Grand Coulee Dam' - referred to by the Kingston Trio as well.
It is amazing how much the music that we know has popped up in places we visit.
We drive another 50 miles to Soap Lake RV Resort.
We pass the Dry Falls, the skeleton of one of the greatest waterfalls that ever existed! Dry Falls is part of the aftermath of ice age floods. It is a 3.5 miles wide scalloped precipice with a drop of 400 feet. By way of comparison Niagara Falls is 1 mile wide with a drop of only 165 feet. So the Dry Falls is 10 times the size of Niagara Falls!
The geological model goes like this - catastrophic flooding channeled water at 65 miles per hour through the Upper Grand Coulee and over the 400 ft rock face at the end of the last ice age. It is estimated the flow of the falls was 10 times the current flow of all the rivers in the world combined. So there you have it!
We spend some time at the overlook to the Dry Falls. It is an awesome sight! There is an interesting visitors centre with tons of information and exhibits to do with the area and the geological history of this land.
We also have icecreams - Huckleberry - I really like these berries!
We spend 2 nights at Soap Lake RV Resort. Soap Lake - not really for swimming. Soap Lake's water and mud are legendary for their healing properties - a mineral springs lake where people come for the benefits of the water and the mud!! which thickly layers the bottom of the lake.
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| Soap Lake |
I referred to Ellensburg earlier in this post. We drive through town and stop at D&M Coffee Co for a sublime coffee. I buy a cap:
' ... because life is too short to drink bad coffee!'
( I will get to Boeing in the next post! )
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