Cats and Trails and Garden Tales
Musings on cats, travel, gardens and life
Reflections on the Cedar River
Last week we took a walk on the Cedar River Trail. It had rained the night before and heavy clouds remained overhead.
But the river was still and placid,
reflecting the loveliness nearby.
For Sunday Still’s, Stillness.
~ Susanne
A Drive to Black Diamond and the Green River Gorge
Bob and I have been unloading some things by consigning them for sale at a collectible store in Black Diamond. So once a month we make the drive to the old coal town to collect money from our sales, hopefully greater than what we spend while there. 🙂 Hey – it’s all for fun.
Regardless, the drive’s the thing. We head down the Maple Valley Highway and if the weather is decent we stop by Nolte State Park for a walk around Deep Lake. But even if we don’t have time for that we always swing by the Green River Gorge and walk out on the one-lane bridge and peer over the side.
After oohing and ahhing over the views – which are incredible this time of year – and promising ourselves that someday we’ll hike to the bottom, we move on to Black Diamond which looks like this in case you wondered. Well at least that’s what the museum next to the collectible store looks like. I have yet to visit as it’s only open a few days a week and somehow we’re always there on the wrong day.
Next time, we tell ourselves. When we do, I will share it with you.
~ Susanne
A Trip Through Grand Coulee Country
You’ve no doubt heard of the Dam – the largest hydropower producer in the United States and one of the largest concrete structures in the world.
But there’s more to Grand Coulee than the Dam.
“Appropriate as the word grand is for the dam, the name Grand Coulee actually refers to a unique geological feature created thousands of years ago when Ice Age glaciers blocked the ancient riverbed of the Columbia River. When water eventually traveled under the ice dam, great floods scoured out hundreds of miles of deep gulches, or coulees, in the Columbia River Basin. One of these, the Grand Coulee, is four miles wide and bordered on three sides by steep cliffs.” For more on the Dam see the National Parks website.
We visited Grand Coulee last week – dramatic, arid, vast and empty – starting from Wenatchee Confluence State Park where we were camped next to the Columbia River.
We headed northeast toward Grand Coulee Country where there were roads with slow moving tractors,
and lonesome farms,
and fields growing wheat and electricity.
We passed through small towns including Waterville,
and Douglas, where we found a fire truck for sale.
There was a stop at Dry Falls, where a giant waterfall once flowed during the last Ice Age
which I told you about previously – here.
From Dry Falls we headed to Banks Lake, a 31-mile long reservoir filled in the 1950s to provide irrigation water to the Columbia Basin.
We passed by Steamboat Rock, which you can hike to the top of, but we did not.
Instead we continued our drive around the lake
through scablands with sagebrush and canyons
until we approached Grand Coulee Dam from behind, where the Columbia River was backed up waiting to become hydroelectric power.
We stopped to admire its awesome size and watch the movie at the Visitor Center.
Then we continued on our way south through the heart of Grand Coulee
and west again to where we’d started, arriving back to our campsite in Wenatchee as the sun was about to set.
It was everything we wanted in a road trip – amazing geography, deserted roads, and small towns, all under blue skies and brilliant sunshine.
We vowed to return.
~ Susanne
Why I Don’t Take Selfies
Because I want to look like this.
Not like this.
(Sorry Benji.)
~ Susanne and Benji
My Little Backyard Chickadees
In the heat of the day I turned on the stream and sat under the shade of the Douglas Firs.
It wasn’t long before I heard the chickadees calling to one another, flying overhead, finally daring to stop by the precious flowing water.
We were all refreshed.
~ Susanne
One Old Fire Truck for Sale
On our recent travels through Eastern Washington we passed through the tiny town of Douglas and found this old fire truck for sale.
We stopped to inspect it,
but decided against the purchase.
Shared with Cees’ Fun Foto Challenge – One.
~ Susanne
Scenes From the Oregon Coast – Harbor Seals at Coquille Point and Port Orford
I didn’t mean to leave you high and dry in the middle of the Oregon Coast so I’m back to finish up our journey, finally with some sunshine, if only temporary!
I left you last time at Face Rock, pondering when the gray skies would clear over Bandon.
And lo and behold, we woke to blue skies the next morning – and retuned for a proper beach walk at Coquille Point.
Coquille Point
All I can say is – what a difference a day makes!
We took the stairs down and had the beach to ourselves,
and watched the waves roll in.
Even the birds seemed happier in the sunshine perched on their rocky islands.
We soaked in the sights and sounds and went for a close-up look at their larger cliff dwellings
Bob saw them first and called me over to see the seals resting on their share of the rocky islands.
What’s not to like about that? We drank it all in as long as we could then continued our journey south on 101.
Port Orford
Next up was Port Orford, the oldest town on the Oregon Coast.
We stopped by the Visitors Center hoping to catch a glimpse of migrating whales at the Overlook but saw none.
We did however see the only open-water port on the Oregon Coast and one of of six “dolly” ports in the world, where boats are lifted into and out of the water daily.
Our last stop in Oregon was Brookings where we had the best fish and chips in town. Yes, there was more rugged coast along the way but I have no more pictures to show you as you have probably noticed by now the clouds and rain had returned with a vengeance. It’s okay. Before the day was out we would be walking midst the tallest trees on earth and they mostly shielded us from the rain. Here’s that if you missed it!
And that concludes this trip down the Oregon Coast. Hope you enjoyed. it. 🙂
~ Susanne
Dry Falls, the Largest on Earth
This week we camped east of the mountains and enjoyed a landscape completely opposite to our Seattle area scenery. We drove through Grand Coulee, formed over millions of years by eruptions of lava which solidified and was later dug away by ice age floods.
During the last Ice Age an ice dam holding the waters of Lake Missoula broke and massive floods swept through the region forming two giant waterfalls on its way. When the climate warmed, the ice and water retreated leaving the skeleton of Dry Falls.
We stopped to enjoy the former waterfall, once the largest on earth.
‘In the heart of the Grand Coulee lies one of the natural wonders of North America—the Dry Falls cataract. This 3.5-mile-wide chasm of basalt, with a drop of 400 feet, was left high and dry thousands of years ago as the last of several Ice Age floods swept through the Grand Coulee.” Washington State Parks.
Shared with Travel with Intent’s, Weekly Photo Challenge, “Size.”
~ Susanne
Dancing Sky!
We woke this morning to cirrus clouds filling the sky!
We’re in Wenatchee on our first camping trip of the year where the scenery is grand and the clouds only tease.
More pictures to come. 😊
-Susanne
Cats and Trails and Garden Tales 