it’s a big dam country — day 1

I’m out to prove that it’s a big dam country.

This morn­ing started out rainy in Duvall.

Made the first route call based on which dam I wanted to see. Grand Coulee, very cool, very beg, but I’ve Seen It.

So I chose a new (to me) dam whose name I liked. Priest Rapids Dam near Desert Aire, WA.

But first there was the pass to get over. Bleh. Heavy rain, mas­sive road spray and Washingtonian’s who can’t seen to fig­ure out that if the wipers have to be on dou­ble march maybe turn­ing on the headlights/tail lights would be a good idea. The rain turned to sprin­kles around Cle Elum and stopped around Ellensburg.

First dam of the day — Wana­pum Dam on the Colum­bia River north of Bev­erly WA. There’s nice inter­pre­tive cen­ter fea­tur­ing exhibits about the Wana­pum culture.

There’s also a pic­nic area and this odd rem­nant bit of a gen­er­a­tor(?) There is a ton of red/silver tat­tle tape on thin wires strung across the river just down stream of the dam. Have no idea what for…

Down 243 to Desert Aire. Ummm, what can I say. The Real­tor on the bill­board out­side of town would like to sell you a place in Palm Springs too bad he’s in Desert Aire. Had a pass­able ham and cheese on rye at the Sand­trap Lounge and started out for the next dam.

Unlike Wana­pum you can’t get past the first gate at Priest Rapids.

I got a bunch of shots from near the gate and then headed back up the hill to the highway.

Stopped at the top to catch a few more and got the fright of a life­time. Buzzed — low — by this.

(Click on it to see a much larger ver­sion — What Was That??)

He flew over going east, rolled up long the hill line and came back around. Buzzed me again. Headed to the hills and slid up and over and back down out of sight. Crim­iny. Maybe I shouldn’t be tak­ing unau­tho­rized dam pictures…

Trun­dled down 24/240 through Han­ford — that’s a des­o­late stretch of land. Scary signs too.

At Pasco I had to make a deci­sion. Start on a tour of Hwy 12 by head­ing down to Wal­lula. Take 124 east through Eureka and Prescott to hit 12 at Wait­es­burgh. (no point in that one) or head up the Pasco-Kahlotus road and try to find the Lower Mon­u­men­tal Dam on the Snake River. It’s a long lonely trip up that way… So that’s what I did.

Knew I’d made the right choice when I man­aged to get this shot by just stop­ping in the mid­dle of the damn road.

To get to the dam you make a right turn in the mid­dle of nowhere and fall off the edge of the earth into a canyon.

There are lots of these odd blocks of rock.

Whee. There’s a nice lit­tle park (and privy) near the river. Not much to the pho­tos though. The road across the dam is now closed and you can’t get to the down river side at all.

Arrived in Kahlo­tus and made a right turn onto 260. Made another right in the mid­dle of nowhere onto 261 and headed to Star­buck. Here I learned two things.

1– GPS don’t con­sider card­lock fuel sta­tions to be gas sta­tions and do not show them in their lists. Panic!!! The near­est gas is in Con­nell? 35 miles west(!)of here? Feh. Not to worry because:

2– Every lit­tle teeny burg int he west has a card­lock and they all take credit cards. And they only have 87 octane, off-road diesel, and on-road diesel. I did not have the nerve to ask the guy fill­ing the road grader with off-road diesel if that was legal.

Okay and a third thing 261 is one of the best unknown roads I have ever been on. Long gen­tle sweeps with awe­some views and some seri­ously wicked twisty bits that make your lunch ask for a ticket on another bus.

From Star­buck a left onto Hwy 12 and I’m headed into the last hour of the day. And the first cop. Me, I’m doing 62 in a 60 and nod politely as he goes by the other direc­tion. La, la, la. WTF he’s in my mir­ror with his blinky lights going. Crap — there’s no one out here but me. I pull over. He pulls over. Dude pops right out of the car so fast I’ve barely got the win­dow down.  “License, reg­is­tra­tion, insur­ance.” I’m com­pletely clue­less where this is going.  “Where’s your front plate?” Oh bother. I fum­ble some­thing about I never got one from the seller and yes sir I’ll look into it just as soon as I get home. Some more lec­tur­ing and then “I’ll just give you a warning.”

Catch and release.I guess.

Saw signs for two more dams that I’ll have to grab some other trip. The Lit­tle Goose Dam and the Lower Gran­ite Dam.

Did find this lit­tle odd­ity. The pil­lar is obvi­ously hol­low and the lit­tle vent fan on the top was mer­rily spin­ning in the breeze. What exactly it is sig­nal­ing and to whom I do not know…

Time to quit for the night… Besides it was start­ing to rain again.

Map here:
View Day 1 in a larger map