Wednesday (2)

A little way up Lenore Lake and on the opposite side, we saw a sign that indicated a great place to see some old cliff caves (Lake Lenore Caves).  It seems that we have a thing for “caves”, it must be the primal side of us coming out.  A dirt road led us off the highway and soon we had to switch into 4 wheel drive.  It wasn’t a long drive but with the rocks and ruts it wasn’t for those cars that are a little “soft”…  After finding a place to park, we headed up the side of the cliff.  The path up wasn’t too rough, but with the thought of a rattle snake under each and every bush we took our time.  I guarantee you, we will be taking our walking sticks with us next time for protection of those little critters.  About half way up we came to our first cave.  This one was large enough that it could have been used by a large group, say 15 to 20 at a time.  You could see were they had built their fires.  The smoke stained rocks on the top of the cave indicated that.  It was a perfect place to lookout over the valley and lake below.  I would guess we saw 7 or 8 caves and we were at a level above the floor of the valley at about 175-200 feet

30 May ‘07

Wednesday (1)

Soap Lake was only one site we had heard raves about and Dry Falls was the other.  When we decided to come to Soap Lake we were constantly told that we must see the spectacular Dry Falls State Park.  Dry Falls is only about 20 miles up the road, and with the forecast of a sunny day and reaching into the high 80’s, we were underway early.  Our route took us north up WA-17 which ends just past Dry Falls State Park Visitors Center.  Our first surprise was coming along side Lenore Lake.  Just as we have approached Lenore Lake we are traveling at the base of a canyon, with the lake on one side and the walls of the canyon on both sides.  These canyon walls will be with us for at least the next 40 + miles.  There was no wind today so all the lakes that we saw this afternoon were just like reflection ponds…mountains, hills, rocks, trees and even us were reflected in the waters. 

Wednesday (5 and 6)

Noon and its lunch time.  We have just pulled into Steamboat Rock State Park, on the shores of Bank Lake.  Steamboat Rock has long been a point of reference for the nomadic Indian tribes, pioneers traveling west, and travelers today.  For us it was a wonderful spot for lunch.  We have been wonderfully surprised at finding places like this on our drive today.  We can’t believe we have lived here in this state for most of our lives and have never taken the time to explore this drive up WA 17 and WA 155.  Shame on us…  Well as long as we are this far up, why don’t we drive a little further and see Grand Coulee Dam one more time, so we did. 

Wednesday (3)

After the hike up to the caves we were back on the road just long enough to see this incredible waterfall out of the corner of our eye as we passed.  We both gasped long enough to make a quick “U-Turn” and head back.  Again we encountered a 4 wheel drive path.  This one took us back through some high brush and rougher pathway.  Finally coming to a spot we couldn’t go any further, we carefully stepped out of the car and headed out again through some “snake infested” brush (at least that’s what we thought and that’s also why we will be taking our sticks).  After climbing over our last rise we found our waterfall.  What we saw from the road was OK, but what we saw from the bottom of the falls….WOW !!!  There wasn’t a ton of water falling, but what was…it fell with such grace and style it captured your heart.  The fall was about 100+ feet and ended up falling into this pool that was about 40 feet in diameter.  Right in back of the pool was a huge cave that gave all this a perfect “10”.  It really was worth every minute it took to get back to it and enjoy the sounds and sights of this that Mother Nature created. 

Wednesday (4) 

FINALLY…Dry Falls State Park….

Can you imagine seeing a site of glacial ice reaching over 10,000 feet high?  Now imagine having a river blocked off and forming a huge lake.  Imagine having this lake “lift” this ice, breaking it and moving it all down “stream” at a speed over 60 miles an hour.  This ice and water mass is now over 2,000 feet high and moving from what is now Montana and heading toward the Pacific Ocean.  All this happened about 18,000 years ago and it happened several times at this same area.  One of the outcomes of this “movement” was the creation of what were the largest and widest waterfalls in the world.  It is 2 ½ times higher and 5 times wider than Niagara Falls.   Overall it was 400 feet high and 3 ½ miles wide.  Today there is no water flowing over the falls, but the water that sits below is but a small reminder of the beauty and wonder that must have been. 

Wednesday (7)

This has been a full day, but then again we haven’t pushed ourselves too hard to see all this either.  Fortunately it is all taken and enjoyed in just over 90 miles round trip, and that includes our next and last stop for the day, Summer Falls State Park.  These spectacular falls are created by water from Banks Lake that ends up flowing over basalt rock and into the upper end of Billy Clapp Lake.  Again, we were duly impressed and saddened at the same time.  Impressed with the absolute beauty and saddened by the tragedy of 1979 when twin boys and a teenaged boy friend lost their lives by getting too close to the falls and were caught up in a whirlpool and were killed.

29 May ‘07

Tuesday

We arrived here at the Great Soap Lake in eastern Washington state this afternoon.  We have 7 days here and plan to enjoy each and every one of them.  First, we have heard so much about Soap Lake that we already felt quite at home here moments after arriving.  We chose a pitch down by the edge of the water, but we had to sacrifice not having a hook up for our gray and black waters.  If we think about how much water we use and use their wonderfully clean toilet and shower area, we will make 7 days without having to dump the tanks without a problem.  Another reason we wanted to be down on the front row was, we need a clear shot towards our satellite so that we can use our new (used) internet satellite system.  Prior to getting our system, we talked with a lot of RV’rs who have used them for some time, just to get their input on the usability of this kind of system.  There are basically two to chose from…the first is one that is set up on a tripod and physically aimed at the quarter sized satellite somewhere out there in the Southeastern sky.  The second is one that is installed on the top of the RV and has all it takes to do the sighting automatically.  We chose the first type for 3 reasons....it was by far less expensive to purchase at the get go and second, if we get into a campsite that has a lot of trees around it we can move the tripod dish to just about any position in the campground that we need to move to get our signal (“just about…”).  We also had been told that it would normally take an “experienced” user, 20 to 30 minutes to get it all set up and on-line…for us, I think it was better than 2 hours for the first time.  We WILL get better. 

May 26th 2007

Saturday

Well… I’m Lena, and I have very bad typing, spelling, and journaling skills.  I’m Joel and Louise’s granddaughter, and I’m here, so here’s my journal entry….

            Yesterday after an extremely long day of school and drill team I went home and was loaded into the “coach” and whisked off.  I got to ride shot gun, and it was quite the experience.  The windshield is huge, and you can see every little bug coming at you right before they splat on the windshield.  I counted 28 bugs on my half of the windshield.  We also got to see plenty of natures other wild life like deer and elk.  The scenery was calming and green.   Traffic wasn’t bad either, grandpa said that all the cars were behind us and that’s why we couldn’t see any traffic. We got to Entiat at about 9:00.  It’s interesting…   There’s a pretty lake right out in front of us.  It’s idyllic.  We sat around and watched TV then went to bed.
            This morning I woke up to the usual whenever I stay with them, the lovely aroma of coffee.   After getting showered, shampooed, and shining we headed off to Wenatchee to watch Lou play softball.  She’s incredible.  Both of her games were so fun to watch.  They won one and lost one, but the one they lost was really cool because they come back during the last inning making the score 6-8.  It was cool all the same.  Then we went and bought some knee pads because drill team has turned my lovely knees a purple blue color.   After that we returned to the “coach” and went kayaking.  That was also fun and very chill.  My arms got a nice little work out too.  We sat around and listened to this really cool radio show, some guy from Minnesota, he had poetry on there and it was cool.  Then, Aunty Mikleane, Uncle Rick, and Drew came over for a lovely dinner.  We had grilled chicken and peppers, corn on the cob, and bread.  Dessert was good too, ice cream cake is the best.  Then we sat around and talked for awhile and Grandpa told me to write this.   Sorry its not too good.  I think now I’m going to sit down and read my book, and think about all the cool things I could have written that I spaced on. 

Happy Reading!

Lena – The Middle Granddaughter   

21 May ‘07

Monday

Again we were back on Hwy CA139 and heading into Oregon.  As we passed though Klamath Falls we stopped at Safeway to refuel our refrigerator and pantry.  After having lunch at Arby’s we headed for our next campground at the base of Crater Lake.  We are staying at a state campground again tonight that is one of the best we have seen so far.  After pulling into our site and getting ready to drop the “jacks” and put our slides out, we found out that we had the same problem we had in Carson City…our hydraulic system is on the fritz once again.  We are not “Happy Campers”…  What the HELLO is going on here ???  I have no idea as to the problem is and I’m beginning to think that those that are supposed to are reading the same book.  Not wanting to ruin the rest of the day, we drove the “toad” up to see Crater Lake before it got too late.  This campground is about 30 minutes away from the summit, so fortunately we had plenty of time to enjoy the natural beauty of this unbelievable lake.  I’m sure you’ve heard the story of Crater Lake, but just in case…  7,700 years ago Mount Mazama erupted and with such force, the top of the mountain collapsed into itself.  Over the next thousands of years and without rivers or streams available, it filled with rainfall and melting snow to form one of the cleanest and purest of lakes in the world.  It is also the deepest lake in the US and 5th deepest in the world.  The widest point from rim to rim is just over 5 miles and has one large and 3 smaller islands that sit in the pure dark blue waters that make up Crater Lake.  One of these “islands” (Wizard Island) is a cone that was developed after the original eruption.  Another incredible day traveling the roads of our beautiful country

20 May ‘07

Sunday

Talk about being “wiped out”…  After today I can write a book about it.  Like I told you yesterday we are at Lava Beds National Monument and what do they have here, lots of lava “tubes”, cinder cones, shield volcanoes, stratovolcanoes, and spatter cones.  Yesterday afternoon we did see a number of spatter cones, cinder cones and chimneys before taking our hike up to see the fire lookout and taking in the Petroglyph Interpretive area.  Well today we set out to explore as many lava tubes as we could.  There have been over 500 caves discovered so far and every year the total climbs even higher.  The tubes are the result of very hot fluid lava “issuing” from a cracks or fissures.  As the lava flowed it began to cool and solidify on the sides and eventually on the top.  The confining crust insulated the molten lava as it continued to flow.  When the eruption ceased, the remaining lava drained away leaving the “lava tubes”.  Somewhere along the way a portion of the tube would fall in and leave some kind of entry into the interior of the tube.  The entry into these caves ran from walking into a huge cavern to those that you had to get down on all four and squeeze in.  I could lead you around the block with the thought that we had what it takes to “squeeze into a very dark hole in the earth”, but we opted out on those.  We did however visit and explore 9 different lava tubes today after borrowing 2 flashlights from the visitor center.  We duck-walked, slid on our butt, stooped, and walked on some very rough floors.  Fortunately we bought ourselves hardhats that kept us from loosing our scalps as we came in contact with the tops of these tubes.  As you can imagine, with the coal black interiors of these caves, it was so dark that if you were to shut off your flashlight you couldn’t see your hand in front of you face.  A couple of these tubes were open at both ends, although you couldn’t see one from the other.  Another seemed to be large enough to hold a 747 inside of if while another was so small it was like walking into a huge mouth that didn’t have a throat.  The longest cave we walked through was over 2900 feet and the shortest…just 300.  Now back to being “wiped out”.  We climbed over and under so many rocks, walked on uneven ground, and stooped so much that I thought I had a new way of walking straight.  We came home T-I-R-E-D.