Smoky Eastern Washington With Jason & Spencer Jack At Grand Coulee Dam & Sun Lakes

Incoming email this morning from my Favorite Nephew Jason and Spencer Jack.

Subject line in email---

HOT and SMOKY in EW

Looking at the four photos, included in the email, it was quickly apparent that EW was not Entertainment Weekly, but was Eastern Washington.

For those who have never been to the Pacific Northwest, and Washington, Eastern Washington is totally different in multiple ways from Western Washington.

The Cascade Mountain range separates the two sides of the state. Western Washington is green, unless there is a drought, whilst Eastern Washington is mostly brown, except where there are orchards and vineyards and irrigated gardens and other crop lands.

Western Washington is solidly progressively liberal democratic, whilst Eastern Washington is like Texas, politically, but, fortunately the bulk of the population is in Western Washington, so right wing nut jobs are kept at a minimum, political office and other-wise.

The text which accompanied these photos said---

FUD- thought you’d enjoy these photos taken today. Been meaning to get you a few pics of Mt Baker without snow. Will do that sometime in the near future.

Took me a second or two to realize Spencer Jack is standing in front of Grand Coulee Dam, in both the above photos. 

I don't know if water from the Lake Roosevelt reservoir ever pours over Grand Coulee's spillway anymore, since the third powerhouse was added. Back when water did go over the spillway, during the summer tourist season a light show would accompany music as the lights lit up the water spilling over the dam.

When Grand Coulee's dam began to back up water something unexpected happened. Water seeped deep into the earth, causing new lakes to form in locations like the Lower Grand Coulee. The Lower Grand Coulee begins at Dry Falls, at one time the biggest waterfall in the world. 

A short distance from Dry Falls one finds Sun Lakes State Park. Sun Lakes was one of my favorite summer go to locations when I was an in state Washingtonian. It took me a second or two to realize the next two photos were taken at Sun Lakes State Park.

 Apparently Eastern Washington lakes and reservoirs are not having the water shortage problem which is happening on the west side of the mountains. At least that is what I am assuming, seeing Spencer Jack standing in water by a couple picnic tables.

I do not understand why we are not seeing a lot of people in the water. This looks like the swimming area in Sun Lakes State Park. There should be a floating dock, with a lot of people on the dock and jumping off it. 

Maybe the wildfires and all the smoke are keeping people away. I read this morning that the North Cascades Highway is back open, after being closed for weeks due to fires, which are still burning. Driving the North Cascades Highway is the most direct route to Sun Lakes from Mount Vernon.

Go to Sun Lakes State Park and you will see Sun Lakes like I remember it, with a lot of people, including me, laying under the sun. At the opposite end of Lower Grand Coulee, where the Coulee ends, you find Soap Lake, which was a favorite go to location when I was a kid.

My mom liked to go to Soap Lake because it was one of her favorite childhood memories, with her grandma and grandpa taking mom camping there. When mom was a kid, camping at Soap Lake, there was a nudist colony on the opposite side of the lake, which was long gone by the time I was a kid.

People would go into the lake and cover themselves with mud, thinking it had some sorta special healing powers. Swimming in Soap Lake in a swimming suit was a bit problematic, because the "soap" in the lake was abrasive and soon could cause a sore spot where swimsuit material was rubbing. 

Okay, enough about Sun Lakes and Soap Lake. It's making me homesick...

UPDATE: Jason called after reading the above to tell me that in reality Sun Lakes State Park was packed, and that a new campground loop has been added. Jason called from Ellensburg, where he and Spencer had spent the night. Ellensburg is home to Central Washington State University, a school both Jason and I attended. Prior to overnighting in Ellensburg the previous night was spent in Leavenworth, my favorite of Washington's tourist towns.

A Happy Thanksgiving From A Pair Of Poodles Has Me Homesick For Washington

Ruby, Theo & David With Kristin
Getting Ready To Ski

This morning I saw that Tacoma's best known Adventure Poodles, Blue & Max, had written their annual Happy Thanksgiving blogging.

Apparently, on or about Thanksgiving, Blue & Max sent my nephews, David and Theo and niece, Ruby, up somewhere in the Cascade Mountains with their secondary caretakers, Michele & Kristin, for some fun in the snow.

It looks like the snow location may be the Snoqualmie Pass summit zone. There are several ski areas in this location. The Snoqualmie Pass summit zone is a fairly short distance east of Seattle and Tacoma, on Interstate 90.

Among the things I miss about Washington, that I don't have in Texas, is the extremely varied topography within very short distances.

In my current location the topography is pretty much the same in any direction for 100s of miles. There are no snow covered mountains in this parched part of the planet.

Where I lived in Washington, in the Skagit Valley town of Mount Vernon, I could drive about 10 miles to the east and be up in the mountains. Or go 10 miles to the west and be on a Puget Sound beach. Or in the tourist town of La Conner.

In Washington I could get up on a Saturday morning in November and choose to go cross country skiing, or go have a weenie roast picnic on a beach, or hop a ferry 20 miles from my abode, in Anacortes, and head out to the San Juan Islands, which is in the rain shadow of the Olympic Mountains, and thus is a reliable escape from rain, if you feel in need of escaping the gray dripping.

View From My Bedroom Window Of My
Van & Car Covered By Snow

The Puget Sound lowlands do not get a lot of snow. Some winters pass with no snow. There was one snow storm in the 1990s that was the deepest snow I ever saw in the Puget Sound lowland zone. I was pretty much trapped in my house for a week. I could not drive anywhere, but I could cross country ski to the grocery store.

When the thaw finally came I had all sorts of problems. Water was backing up on the flat roofs. Two drain pipes broke off. It was a mess.

Go here to visit me in Washington. Scroll down and you will come to more photos of the most snow I ever saw piled up in my location in Mount Vernon.

In Western Washington when you want a really major change of scenery you can drive one of the passes over the Cascade Mountains to a starkly different type of topography than the evergreen western side of the mountains. East of the mountains the hills have no trees growing on them, except for the 1000s of acres of fruit orchards.

In Eastern Washington you have a climate much more like Texas. Very HOT in the summer.

There is a big river than runs through Eastern Washington, called the Columbia, with several big dams, like Grand Coulee. Because of the big river and the reservoirs behind the dams, much of the desert of Eastern Washington has been turned into land upon which all sorts of things grow. One of the side benefits of Grand Coulee Dam was the appearance of lakes in various coulees (Washington Indian-speak for canyons), like Sun Lake. Sun Lake State Park was one of my favorite places to go in summer in my younger years.

Dry Falls, by Sun Lake, is the location of what at one point in time was the biggest waterfall the world has ever known. The melting of the last Ice Age and its massive flooding is what made the coulees of Eastern Washington.

Can you tell I'm feeling a bit homesick for Washington? It has been over 3 years since I've been back. That is the longest I've been away from Washington in my long life. I'm thinking I will likely be going to Arizona and Washington soon.