Washington State visit 2024

July 9^th, 2024

GAS: In WA we paid $3.66 average

After a quick border crossing into Washington State using our NEXUS cards, we made our way to the city of Bellingham to get cheap gas and do a bit of shopping for new glasses for Doug at Costco. As they have a 7-10 day wait time we can’t order them here but we bought the frames we liked and we will have them done in Reno as we should be there nearly two weeks.

Doug had an appointment for a polishing of his prosthetic eye at 2:30 in Bellevue (just outside Seattle) and we did arrive a bit early so he had to wait a bit. The cleaning does not take long and after a brief exam (he was told all continued to look good; it’s been over ten years for this eye), we were on our way.

We drove eastward to Ellensburg and the sun kept shining and it reached over 38 C / 100F today. The scenery changed from the lush green mountains we saw north of Seattle to fields – many dry but several with fruit trees and some rolling hills. Luckily, our hotel in Ellensburg had good AC and we both slept well.

Wednesday morning we were up early as we had two stops we wanted to make today and our mapping apps seemed to indicate it might be slow going.

Our first stop was Dry Falls Overlook at Sun Lakes State Park. To get there we found out we were on a National Scenic Byway and we could see why! We had read there was a lot of construction on this road and although there was evidence of machinery, we had no stoppages.

There’s a series of lakes with lots of buttes and gorges and steps for a very long way that make up the state park.

Dry Falls is a 5.6 k / 3.5 mi scalloped precipice with four major alcoves, in central Washington scablands. This cataract complex is on the opposite side of the Upper Grand Coulee from the Columbia River, and at the head of the Lower Grand Coulee, northern end of Lenore Canyon. According to the current geological model, catastrophic flooding channeled water at 105 kmph / 65 mph through the Upper Grand Coulee and over this 120 m / 400’ rock face at the end of the last glaciation. It is estimated that the falls were five times the width of Niagara Falls, with ten times the flow of all the current rivers in the world combined.

Nearly twenty thousand years ago, as glaciers moved south through North America, an ice sheet dammed the Clark Fork River near Sandpoint, Idaho. Consequently, a significant portion of western Montana flooded, forming the gigantic Lake Missoula. About the same time, Glacial Lake Columbia was formed on the ice-dammed Columbia River behind the Okanogan lobe of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet. Lake Columbia’s overflow – the diverted Columbia River – drained first through Moses Coulee and as the ice dam grew, later through the Grand Coulee.

Eventually, water in Lake Missoula rose high enough to float the ice dam until it gave way, and a portion of this cataclysmic flood spilled into Glacial Lake Columbia, and then down the Grand Coulee. This sudden flood put parts of Idaho, Washington and Oregon under hundreds of feet of water in just a few days. These extraordinary floods greatly enlarged the Grand Coulee and Dry Falls in a short period. The large plunge pools at the base of Dry Falls were created by these floods.

Once the ice sheet that obstructed the Columbia melted, the river returned to its normal course, leaving the Grand Coulee and the falls dry.

This was very interesting and Doug really enjoyed learning all the geology involved. The visitor’s centre was not open as yet (we arrived around 8 and it opens at 10) but the fellow who works there was outside and did give Doug some maps before we left.

The landscape continues to be quite dry, lots of yellow grass, few trees and it’s hot!

We stopped at Lenore Lake for some views:

We backtracked along the byway for a bit after leaving and as Doug reviewed all the maps, we found another stop to make at the Drumheller Channels in the Columbia National Wildlife Area.

It was near Moses Lake and here we topped up the tank at $3.69 a gallon which was a bargain because just nearby everything was $4.79!

This National Natural Landmark is an extensively eroded landscape, located in south central Washington State characterized by hundreds of isolated, steep-sided hills (buttes) surrounded by a braided network of numerous channels, all but one of which are currently dry. It is a classic example of the tremendous erosive powers of extremely large floods such as those that reformed the Columbia Plateau volcanic terrain during the late Pleistocene and glacial Missoula Floods.

There is really just a pullout with a view point at it where you can see the channels for miles. You can see pockets of water, hundreds of buttes and lots of gaps where water once flowed.

Next we made our way southeast to Palouse Falls State Park – something we’ve wanted to see for years but were never in this area. The drive to get there continued to be scenic and the weather was mostly sunny (some thin clouds) and it was getting warmer and warmer then hotter and hotter.

We got parked after a 3.5 km / 2.2 mi gravel road. There was a required $10 park entry fee which we paid with cash in an envelope (we’d not paid at the earlier site since the visitor’s centre wasn’t open) as the pay machine was not operating. We took a walk along the edge of the gorge and got some nice shots of the falls and the rock formations. The falls are 61m / 200′ tall.

There were a few picnic tables in the shade so we nabbed one and had our breakfast before leaving.

Then it was on to the nearby city of Kennewick where Doug had booked us another hotel for the night. When we arrived at the Comfort Suites a little early, our king room wasn’t ready but they upgraded us to a two queen bed suite. This room was very nice and we had a great experience at this hotel from the AC to the beds to the hot water to the Wi-Fi to the hot breakfast.

When we parked at the hotel, Doug could see something hanging loose under the car near the muffler and decided that this plastic plate should be hung better so he went over to Walmart to see what he could find to fix it and did what he could.

Today we passed through one tunnel. The drive had a few mountain passes and at some points we were at 1250 m / 4100’ and another was at 1555 m / 5100’.

Sunset that night:

Thursday morning we were up around our normal time, exercised, showered, etc. and then went down to take advantage of the included hot breakfast before hitting the road. We are only going a 370 km / 230 mi today so there’s no rush and Doug has already booked a hotel.

We began to see more hills, more trees and got through some passes; once up to 1280 m / 4200’.

Just before we got on the I84, we saw an LED sign that said it was closed at a certain exit for a long way. Doug looked it up and apparently there was a truck of apples that spilled its load but after further investigation as we continued to make our way in that direction (looking for alternate routes but not very successfully – there are not a lot of roads in this area), we learned it was now cleaned up. We crossed the state line into Idaho and got gas at $3.63; in Oregon it was in the high $3.80’s.

Before arriving in Ontario, Oregon, we realized the Civic could probably use an alignment so while we continued to head to Ontario, Doug booked an appointment. He dropped Fran at the hotel, we got settled, Fran walked over to the local Walmart to return the parts didn’t use yesterday and he went for the appointment at 2:30. (Turns out the bolts on the back end were seized so they could only align the front end.)

Friday, we had a plan in mind to get a few things done before checking into the resort we’d book for a week in Reno so we left early. It seemed to get smokier and smokier but we saw no fires. The highway took us into Idaho and then back into Oregon before reaching the Nevada state line.

It’s still quite hot here; 41C / 106 F but it’s either super smoggy or there’s smoke it the air as there’s quite a haze.