Get update alerts
Locations
- .All Trips
- Art
- Car Culture
- Central America/Caribbean
- Food
- Food Tour
- Pic of the Week
- Sl;ovenia
.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 …
.All Trips / North America / Pacific Northwest / Washington
Dry Falls – Home of The World’s Largest Waterfall!
Imagine a waterfall with a precipice over three and a half miles long and a drop of over 400 feet! (By comparison, Niagara Falls is about 1/10th as wide). Imagine millions of gallons of water pouring over it each second, draining the flooded plains of central Washington State. When you gaze at the geologic skeleton of this event, try to envision what it was like here 10-15,000 years ago as snow and ice from the last great Ice Age began melting and shaping the landscape.
I’ve always had a general interest in science and find the geology of Dry Falls State Park to be fascinating. To understand what you now see in this park a short review …
.All Trips / North America / Pacific Northwest / Washington
A springtime hike on the Yakima Rim Skyline Trail
After a rather long winter in Spokane, I was ready for a pleasant hike. While in my heart I’d rather head up to the mountains for a stroll in an alpine meadow, there’s way too much snow up there in April. Fortunately in Washington state we have some good springtime hiking options, mostly in the central state in the deserts around the Columbia River. In the summer these places tend to be too hot and in winter they, too, can be covered in snow. Spring and fall are the best time to try these trails.
I’d read about the Yakima Rim Skyline Trail years ago in Harvey Manning‘s classic book, the …
.All Trips / North America / Pacific Northwest / Washington
Wild Horses Monument & Gingko Petrified Forest
The Columbia River is one of the most interesting and beautiful geographic features of the Inland Northwest, from its headwaters in British Columbia to the dramatic Gorge just east of Portland. When you look at the river remember, as I do, that this was a major portion of the road Lewis and Clark took to the Pacific under President Jefferson’s sponsorship. While it lacks the dramatic forest of the coast, the Columbia River Gorge in Central Washington is still an impressive place to visit — or at least to stop on your journey east from Seattle. There are two locations on either bank that I’d driven by on I-90 dozens of times, traveling between the coast and my home in Spokane. I’d seen signs …
