Spencer Jack Waving & Water Sliding At Washington's Lake Chelan

That would be Spencer Jack waving at you.

Last weekend Spencer drove his dad over to Eastern Washington to Lake Chelan.

Which would make that Lake Chelan behind Spencer.

Lake Chelan is the largest natural lake in Washington. It is a narrow, 50.5 mile long lake. A very long, very deep lake, with crystal clear water which I remember as being extremely cold, even in summer.

For some unfathomable reason Washington is known as the Evergreen State, when the fact of the matter is a large area of the state is not green, such as that which you see above.

Because Lake Chelan is a not a polluted body of water one can eat the fish you catch there. Native to the lake are fish like various versions of trout, various versions of suckers, mountain whitefish and  a couple other swimmers I am not remembering. Six types of fish not natural to the lake have been added, with those being Rainbow trout,  Kokanee, Yellowstone cutthroat trout, Brook trout, Chinook salmon and Lake Trout.

The official Lake Chelan website gives one a good idea why this location is such a big tourist attraction. A blurb from that website...

"Only in Lake Chelan will you find four seasons of wine, sun, stunning natural beauty and adventures that you can tune to your own tastes."

Below are two videos of Spencer Jack water sliding whilst at Lake Chelan....

Incoming Spencer Jack Washington Wildfire Report On Way To Lake Chelan

Earlier this afternoon Tootsie Tonasket shared photos of a wildfire burning near her Eastern Washington town.

A few minutes ago incoming email  from Spencer Jack and his dad, with the photo you see here of a big wildfire on the shores of Lake Chelan. Also in Eastern Washington.

The other side of the mountains, as in Western Washington, with those mountains being the Cascades, is also burning.

Elsie Hotpepper will soon be heading to the sizzling Pacific Northwest, the Oregon part of the territory. I have read of no wildfires burning in Oregon so far.

Having a Hotpepper in the state may change that.

The message in the email from Spencer Jack and his dad said.....

Spencer Jack and I are en route to check out the burning part of our state.

We thought we'd be staying in Lake Chelan tonight, however, decided to stay in this Bavarian themed town we found along the way.

We will report back as necessary once we get to the front lines of the wild fires.

The Bavarian themed town Spencer Jack found on the way to Lake Chelan is Leavenworth. Leavenworth is the biggest, and  best, of the Washington themed tourist towns. Ironically, the last time I was in Leavenworth, a Saturday in August of 2001, wildfires were burning in the mountains above Leavenworth, with firefighters using Leavenworth as a staging area.

I have not been on Lake Chelan since way back in the last century. I believe the year was 1997 or 98. Not long before the exile to Texas, that I do remember. A floating group of eight took the Lady of the Lake from Manson at the south end of the lake, to Stehekin at the north end, to stay in the National Park Lodge in North Cascades National Park.

This was a bear filled four days. We were barely off the boat  before we had our first of dozens of bear encounters. I documented this Stehekin Lake Chelan excursion years ago in a web tale in three parts, beginning with the float up the lake and the bears, followed by hiking, and then our dining adventures, some accessed through a bear infested abandoned apple orchard.

I don't know if it is a good idea to turn viewing a wildfire into a tourist attraction. Wildfires can turn dangerous real  fast. I'm sure Spencer Jack and his dad will be careful....

Today Spencer Jack Was Not Wading In The Largest Natural Lake In Texas

No, on the left, that is not Spencer Jack at some tropical paradise, or wading into the largest natural lake in the State of Texas.

What you are looking at is Spencer Jack wading into the largest natural lake in the State of Washington.

I have read repeatedly that there are no natural lakes in Texas. This strikes me as bizarre, but after having this repeated so many times I've come to accept it as reality.

There are no natural lakes in Texas.

I do not know how many natural lakes there are in Washington.

Dozens?

Hundreds?

Do the lakes which popped out of the desert, like Sun Lakes and Soap Lake, after Grand Coulee Dam blocked up the Columbia River, count as natural lakes?

That largest natural lake in Washington, which Spencer Jack is wading in above, is Lake Chelan, in Eastern Washington.

Eastern Washington is on the east side of the Cascade Mountains.

Eastern Washington is the HOT side of Washington in summer. In winter Eastern Washington can get quite cold. Eastern Washington is a lot like North Texas, though way more scenic, with way more fruit orchards.

The picture of Spencer Jack wading in Lake Chelan showed up a few minutes ago in my email inbox, sent by Spencer Jack's dad, my favorite nephew, Jason, with the text in the email saying "Spencer Jack wading in crystal clear Lake Chelan."

There is a lot of crystal clear water, both of the fresh and sea variety, in Washington.

I have also seen crystal clear water in Texas, though, apparently, not in natural lakes.

Aquarena Springs in San Marcos, Texas comes to mind as a time when I was quite surprised to see crystal clear water in Texas, what with my Texas experience up til then being seeing works of water like the polluted Trinity River and murky reservoirs.

Lake Chelan is 55 miles long. At its deepest point Lake Chelan is 1,420 feet deep, making it the third deepest lake in America and the 26th deepest in the world.

Lake Chelan is long and narrow, averaging only a mile wide.

The Fall before I moved to Texas I had myself a mighty fine time floating on Lake Chelan via the Lady of the Lake, to the town at the north end of the lake, Stehekin, where I had multiple bear encounters among other good things, all documented here.....