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 big, 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 in the 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: