Joani & David's Travels: July 2013

Wednesday, July 31, 2013, McNary Dam on the Columbia River, Hermiston, OR

Less than a half mile from the campground (Pioneer RV, Hermiston, OR) was a nice little park by the river with a one-mile walking track. Every so often they had an exercise station for working some muscle group. This one wore me out in less than a minute, so I skipped the rest of them. Sam and I did two laps around the park, so we still got a good workout.

We drove by McNary Dam. This backs up the Columbia River to create Lake Wallula. I thought it was interesting that there was a large sign saying "Visitors Welcome," so we stopped. I thought we would see the power generators, but the only thing they showed us was the ladder system that lets fish swim upstream. It seemed to be extremely complex (and likely very costly), but I think the salmon are worth it.

Mystery solved! It's Russian Olive and apparently, it's a nuisance.

Next, we visited Hat Rock State Park. I guess the picture makes it clear how the park got its name. This rock along the Columbia River was mentioned in Lewis & Clark's journal as they made their way to the Pacific Ocean in 1805.

Have they seen Devils Tower?

We happened upon a lot of wildlife, considering it was mid-day and pretty warm. We probably would have seen more if we sat quietly for a while.

These were babies. The momma new to take off at the first sight of us.

More babies. You would think it was spring.

This fellow (New World Quail) was after some tail.

There was a small neighborhood named Hat Rock next to the park. The only way into the neighborhood was through the park. I don't know how big of a problem they have with speeders, but I think we might have been going 21 mph.

Tuesday, July 30, 2013, Hike Along the Columbia River, Hermiston, OR

Hermiston, OR, is only a few miles from the Columbia River, so that seemed like a good place for our first hike. We started at McNary Beach. It is very close to McNary Dam which created Lake Wallula. At first, it seemed a bit bleak, but as we walked it grew on us and we were able to see the beauty in the area. The trail was named the "Lewis & Clark Trail," but I didn't get the feeling their travels covered this exact trail. We only hiked about halfway to Hat Rock SP (Sam lets us know when he's had enough, it was pretty warm.)

We didn't make it all the way to Hat Rock State Park.

Maybe we'll drive there tomorrow.

The first thing we noticed was the rock walls on each side of the lake. It looked like huge flat rocks were dug in to form canyon walls. The north facing walls were covered with lichens giving them a strange coloring.

It doesn't show up well, but these rocks look like they have been splashed with paint.

Lichen is natures Grumbacher (or do you prefer Winsor & Newton?)

Looking across the Columbia River (picture is very zoomed) we could just barely see the little engine that could.

The high desert is colorful in its own way (sans flowers).

(Micro shot)

I heard some cracking and turned just in time to see a large deer who was frightened by our presence. He headed towards the fence, which was at least five feet high, where I thought he would be stopped. Instead, he jumped over it with what I can only describe as an easy floating hop. He seemed to hang in the air as he folded up his legs and sailed over the fence. Clearly, the fence was meant for me, not the wildlife.

This fellow was huge.

Can you see the sun halo?

The high desert has some very rich and, maybe, unusual color.

Does anyone know what kind of tree this is?

We have seen them since South Dakota. Dusty gray, no more than 20 feet high, a bit scrubby, and now we see a tiny half-inch fruit of some kind.

Pelicans in Oregon! Who knew? He was huge.

I kept seeing colorful rocks and found myself picking up several. When my pocket starting getting heavy, I realized it was crazy to keep them, so I thought a little arrangement along the side of the road might be fitting. I know you can't see it, but there really was something unique about each of these rocks.

Can you see the Cliff Swallow nests? I didn't, until I zoomed in.

Monday, July 29, 2013, Move to Hermiston, OR

Moving day - we left Boise, ID, and headed north and west. Today's trip took us 248.5 miles (3,382.3 trip/62,863.4 total) to Hermiston, OR. This is the first time either of us has been in Oregon, so we probably should not have been surprised by the number of ranges we crossed. It seemed like we did a lot of climbing uphill (at 45 mph) and flying downhill (at 70 mph). We crossed into the Pacific time zone and we saw a big sign that marked where we crossed the 45th parallel (halfway between the equator and the north pole). We may have been this far north before in Billings and Bozeman, but Montana didn't think it was worth noting.

We saw a lot of haze we thought could be smog, but we found out later it was smoke from fires they have had in the area. The smoke gave us some very pretty sunset colors.

Looking ahead, we have decided to travel into Washington to explore Seattle for a few days, then down to Olympia for a week and then up to Port Angeles by Olympic National Park for a week. Then we will head south along the coast back to Oregon with stops in Astoria, Portland, Eugene and finally, Grant's Pass and Crater Lake before we start exploring California. Please let us know about any must-see places along the way!

Sunday, July 28, 2013, Another Section of the Greenbelt, Boise, ID

After our usual Hardee's breakfast, (sausage, egg and cheese biscuits), we visited another section of the Boise, Idaho, greenbelt. We walked toward downtown and saw some new stuff and made it back to some familiar stuff - all good!

Fallen Firefighters Memorial along the greenbelt.

A bodybuilding stop along the greenbelt in Ann Morrison Park. So cool!!

He's keeping an eye on Sam.

Ann Frank Memorial (again)

At Julia Davis Park they were having the 19th annual "Goddess Fest" which was supposed to celebrate the divine feminine. I'm not sure exactly what that meant, but there was a lot of incense burning.