Home from Coulee.

We’re home from our Coulee Corridor trip. We had a great time. My sister, Caryl, went with us, and my sister, Jean, came down from Twisp to stay with us. Four adults made for a pretty full motor home. As kids, we were used to being packed one on top of the other, so we do pretty well in small spaces. I think it may be a little harder on T, but he’s a good sport when it comes to ‘family’.

This is Steamboat Rock State Park, where we stayed. Can you see our motor home over there in the trees?

And this is our site at the park, and our view. Lovely, isn’t it?

This little guy came to visit us every day. I felt sorry for him – as he only has one ‘foot’ – so I kept feeding him, even though you aren’t supposed to. However, the camp host told me that she was feeding him, too! When we’d watch him fly off, it didn’t appear that he had any trouble with balance. I do wonder what happened to him.

Steamboat Rock is on Banks Lake, which is a 31 mile long reservoir, filled by the Bureau of Reclamation in the 1950s to provide irrigation water to the Columbia Basin.  We love the beauty and history of the Grand Coulee area.

The Grand Coulee Dam dwarfs the Great Pyramids of Egypt and generates more power than a million locamotives. It is an engineering wonder, and also the country’s largest hydroelectric project. You can tour the dam, watch the laser light show at night, and even go inside to see the largest hydro-electric units in the nation. They have a great visitor’s center with all the area information you could want.

Here we are standing in front of the Dry Falls at the Interpretive Center. Dry Falls is truely awesome.

Ten to fifteen million years ago, volcanic eruptions began to occur and many layers of lava flowed over the basin forming the Columbia Plateau. Approximately two million years ago, the Ice Ages began. During the last Ice Age, approximately 10,000 years ago, an ice dam holding the waters of Lake Missoula (Montana) broke and massive floods swept from Montana to the ocean. The water and ice, moving at speeds of up to 65 miles an hour had a rate of flow that was 10 times the combined flow of all the rivers in the world! Doesn’t that blow your mind? The floods carved out more than 50 cubic miles of earth, creating new landforms, and carrying most of it far out into the Pacific Ocean. This forever changed the face of the Northwest (Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon). Scientists estimate the flood waters were 400 feet at this point where it eroded the canyon. However, with the massive amount of water moving, it would have hardly looked like the water dipped at all, as it went over the falls. Dry Falls is 3.5 miles wide. In comparison, Niagara Falls is one mile wide with a 165 foot drop. It’s mind-boggling.

This is Northrup Canyon – there are so many beautiful roads in the area.

We also spent a little time at the casino – where we donated some funds – and spent a lot of time just visiting. And Caryl turned me onto my newest obsession:

I never had any interest in trying Sudoku, but Caryl had a book and started showing me what she was doing. I watched her for awhile, then when she put her book down, I ripped a page out of it and did the puzzles on each side. And I was hooked. We had to go to town so I could buy my OWN book, and I’ve hardly put it down since. It is WAY addictive. Bought one yesterday to keep in the car.

And now I have to get outside and get my yard and gardens cleaned back up – so I can catch up on my blogs!