Thursday, August 12, 2010

Finally, The Columbia!

But first, a small detour to Palouse Falls. This waterfall is a complete surprise out in the middle of very dry country. At 186' high, it's slightly taller than Niagara Falls.


Created by the great Glacial Lake Missoula flood, Palouse Falls is the only major waterfall left along the glacial flood path of 15,000 years ago which reshaped the entire region.


The WINs are staying at Hood Park in the Tri-Cities area of Washington. (The Tri-Cities are Pasco, Kennewick and Richland.) The Park is right along the Snake River, where Lewis and Clark passed on October 16, 1805.


Of course, we had to go to the Sacajawea Museum in Sacajawea State Park, right at the confluence of the Snake River and the Columbia River.


The park host was thrilled to have so many visitors, and gave us a personal tour.


This is the spot where Lewis and Clark and company camped at the confluence. They stayed for two nights getting ready for the final part of their journey down the Columbia River to the ocean. They mentioned there being a great abundance of salmon -


But the only critter we saw was this little snake.


The Tri-Cities area has many parks and bike trails along the rivers. In Howard Amon Park, two dead silver maple trees were turned into works of art with a chainsaw.


They were very detailed. This one is a "History Pole," covering the period from 1805 (Lewis and Clark) to about 1939.

10 comments:

  1. I have read quite a bit about the the expedition, and I see we have to make sure we visit at least some of the places you have been.

    Enjoy the rest of the trip!

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  2. We got a windshield tour of the Columbia River Gorge 2 years ago taking our son & his family out to Astoria 2 years ago to his new Coast Guard duty station. We look forward to spending a lot of time here in the future.

    The waterfall pictures are beautiful!

    We're leaving Astoria Sat night (14th) and taking a red-eye back to VA. We have now missed you on both coasts, but we're not giving up. We'll meet one of these days. :c)

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  3. Five and a half years of living in Richland and did not even come close to getting to every neat place out there. The hike to upstream of Palouse Falls was a very interesting hike several times. There is a lot of free boondocking along the Columbia on both sides of the river.

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  4. I loved this post and that is so interesting about the falls. I absolutely loved the carvings on the trees, I think that is great that they did something like that with a dead tree, in a way it is still living :o) happy trails girl!

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  5. That waterfall is breath taking..you made some excellent photos of it too!! I like the carving, great idea--

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  6. That is a stunning picture of the falls. The surrounding arid country is so obvious compared to all that water falling, and it's an amazing contrast.

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  7. That Palouse Falls is out of this world! How do you find these places?

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  8. Great shots. I see we are missing more fun!!!

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  9. Your pictures of Palouse Falls are beautiful.

    We were in that area about 2 1/2 years ago, but had to travel through to quickly to take the time to look around. We travelled on the Oregon side of the Columbia and look forward to heading back that way again with a lot more time on our hands. The area is very scenic.

    Kevin and Ruth
    www.travelwithkevinandruth.com

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  10. Wow! Beautiful .. Putting on my list of places to go .. thanks for sharing. You always know how to find the cool stuff. :-)

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