Leaving the Grand Coulee Dam behind, we drove along Banks Lake, formerly a dry coulee formed by the MegaFlood during the Pleistocene era. The lake is now a 27 mile long reservoir and part of the Columbia Basin Project, a major water resource project to provide irrigation water to the arid lands of central Washington. Water is typically pumped into Banks Lake from May to September during the … [Read more...]
Gehrke Windmill Garden in Electric City, Washington
Emil Gehrke once made numerous decorative windmills and whirly from scrap. Apparently, Mr. Gehrke offered his collection of windmills to the city for placement in a park. The city declined vehmently, as they'd being trying to get him to remove them from his own backyard. However, after his death, some good local folks got together, and donated a parcel of land for Mr. Gehrke's collection. … [Read more...]
Grand Coulee Dam
The first stop on our Washington / Oregon / California road trip was the Grand Coulee Dam where we stayed overnight in Electric City, Washington, specifically to see the laser light show. Arriving in Coulee City at around 4PM, we were able to check out the Visitor's Center and still catch one of the last dam tours (that sounds bad, doesn't it?) that day. … [Read more...]
Road Trip: Washington, Oregon & Northern California
We took a road trip between August 23rd and September 2nd that took us down through Washington, Oregon and northern California that included visits to or hikes at the following places and points of interest listed below. The pictures are up on Flickr and linked to from this page. As I write about individual places, I'll link to the new posts from this one. … [Read more...]
Penticton Air Quality Almost as Bad as Beijing
OK, perhaps saying the air quality in Penticton is almost as bad as Beijing is a bit of an exaggeration, but when the smoke rolled in yesterday from a forest fire near Omak, Washington (the picture to the left shows the leading edge of the thick layer of smoke)- the air quality and visibility in Penticton took a huge nosedive. Earlier in the week, skies were a little hazy due to smoke from forest … [Read more...]