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.All Trips / North America / Pacific Northwest / Washington
Rafting the Lower Spokane River
What’s more fun than going whitewater rafting 15 minutes from your front door on a beautiful summer day? Not much — at least for me. I’m lucky enough to live in Spokane, the heart of beautiful Inland Northwest, one of the great places in these United States. Spokane is centered on it’s river and while long stretches of the river are urbanized, there are still miles of wilderness especially in the downriver portion beyond Riverfront Park. The Spokane River drains lovely Lake Couer d’Alene in the Idaho Panhandle into the Columbia River (the flooded Lake Roosevelt part upriver from the …
Tagged Pacific Northwest, rafting, Spokane River, Washington
.All Trips / North America / Pacific Northwest / Washington
Walla, Walla: “So nice they named it twice!”
What’s a Walla Walla? It’s a Indian name meaning “many waters”. It’s also the name of a charming town in southeastern Washington; nestled close to the Columbia and Snake River valleys, and with a river of its own, the name is appropriate. This town of just over 30,000 offers visitors an interesting destination for a few day visit as it was witness to key events in the history of the American Northwest and is an important agricultural region, with wine production rising geometrically over the past decades.
A brief history of Walla Walla
Walla Walla and Cayuse Indians lived in the Walla Walla Valley when the Lewis and Clark Expedition arrived on their return journey from the …
Tagged Columbia River, Pacific Northwest, vineyard, Walla Walla, Washington
.All Trips / Idaho / North America / Pacific Northwest
Wallace, Idaho: Center of the Universe!?!
I’ve driven past the picturesque town of Wallace (population 784), nestled in the Idaho Panhandle’s Silver Valley at around 2700′, many times and had always been drawn to the historic buildings and beautiful setting. I remember telling my wife that someday we needed to exit and explore the town. We finally booked a room at the historic Jameson Inn in Wallace and were anxious to visit and explore this small but historic town.
Wallace was born during a mining boom and mining still is important to the economy. Silver was discovered near Wallace in 1884, bringing in hordes of prospectors and the expected secondary tide of merchants, saloon-keepers, bandits and brothels. By the …
.All Trips / North America / Pacific Northwest / Washington
Palouse Falls State Park
In a most improbable feat of natural engineering, a beautiful nearly 200′ waterfall was plopped in the middle of nowhere. At least many would call the rolling grasslands and eroded lava formations of the Palouse “nowhere”, though not your humble narrator because I find this is a great region to explore in the springtime. It’s climate is milder than eastern Washington’s so the snow melts earlier and grass and wildflowers have a head start. And summer’s heat is a distant memory so spring is definitely the best time to visit — when the weather is cool and the water on the Palouse River fills its channel and pours over …
Tagged mountains, Pacific Northwest, Palouse Falls, Washington, waterfall
.All Trips / Idaho / North America / Pacific Northwest
The Bald Eagles of Lake Couer d’Alene
I live in eastern Washington state, less than an hour’s drive from the Idaho Panhandle, an area I think is one of the prettiest in these United States. There are three huge natural lakes nearby in the Panhandle — Priest Lake, Lake Pend Oreille and Lake Couer d’Alene. All are great tourist destinations, especially in the summer when the weather is warm and dry, providing great recreational opportunities including boating, water-skiing, fishing and kayaking.
Every year between mid-November and mid-January there’s a migration of bald eagles to Lake Couer d’Alene from northern Idaho and the Canadian Rockies (numbering a record 250 eagles this …
.All Trips / Idaho / North America / Pacific Northwest
A Colorful Fall Hike to Blossom Lake
Blossom Lakes are located on the Idaho/ Montana divide, just off the Thompson Pass highway (between Murray, Idaho and Thompson Falls, Montana). There’s an Upper and Lower Blossom Lake and we’d heard this was a good place for a day hike (or short backpacking trip). So on a nice fall day four of us — friends Greg and Oscar; wife Sylvia and your humble correspondent — left Spokane for a pleasant drive through the beautiful landscape of the Idaho panhandle. The road leading to the trail head is paved, of good quality and not very busy, every corner yielding another beautiful vista. There’s a large parking area at the trail head located …
.All Trips / North America / Pacific Northwest / Washington
The North Cascades Highway
The North Cascades Highway (Washington SR-20) offers the northern most route across the Cascade range in Washington state, just south of the Canadian border. The eastern (and highest) part of the road is closed during winter because of heavy snowfall and the danger posed by avalanches from the thick snow-pack. Like most mountain pass roads, the date of its reopening varies from year to year, depending mostly on the weather and quantity of the snow, though usually it is open by early May.
The road follows a many thousand year old Indian trade route allowing passage from the central part of the state to the coast. About 150 years ago white settlers began using this route for access to the inland fur trade and for …
Tagged Cascades, mountains, Pacific Northwest, Washington
.All Trips / North America / Pacific Northwest / Washington
Steamboat Rock — Vistas and Wildflowers galore!
Like the black monolith sitting on the Serengeti plain in the film 2001:A Space Odyssey, the large basalt mass of Steamboat Rock is a distinct landmark in Central Washington state. Steamboat Rock State Park is a dozen miles southwest of the Columbia River’s massive Grand Coulee Dam. The Park is on a peninsula adjoining Banks Lake and is accessed by route 155. Steamboat Rock itself is a high wind-blown mesa above the lake, but the surrounding park is a popular recreational venue with campgrounds, a nice swimming beach, hiking trails, and boat launch providing access to the recreational fisheries of Banks Lake.
I have discussed …
