This will probably be one of the longer posts I ever make.
A little while ago, I made a trip back to Central Washington with my parents; mostly up north. Using a weekend and a couple days’ vacation, we covered a lot of ground but wound up utterly exhausted afterwards.
I also got a fairly nice couple of shots of a bee tending to the planters.
After these, it was up to Washington Pass. There’s still snow up there at this time of year, adding another perspective to Liberty Bell and its surroundings.
For yet another perspective, try a telephoto onto the peaks. Here, I’m using a Canon 200mm f/2L. I also managed to get a great shot of a chipmunk on the overlook with this kit.
I didn’t take many notable pictures until the following day, but from here or route took us through several places of note. 20 took us through Winthrop and Twisp; then we detoured onto Washington Highway 153 to go to Alta Lake, Pateros, and Brewster. Brewster is home to Camperos, a Mexican restaraunt where their bad days are better than most Americanized Mexican restaraunts’ good days. From there, we went up Old US 97 to Okanogan and Omak.
After spending the night in Omak, we went over Washington Highway 155 to Grand Coulee Dam via Disautel Pass. I wasn’t expecting it, but this was the highlight of the trip. The historic lower bridge was conducive to the same shots Dwelley is, but in completely different terrain. There were also turkeys and a dog roaming around the residential parts of town.
From here we went to Steamboat Rock. The heat limited how far we ventured beyond the day use area, but Banks Lake is still afforded great views from being int he middle of it.
Further south of here is Dry Falls. In some ways it looks alien,
but with color it is still quite the sight.
After a lunch break in Ephrata, our plan was to spend time around Potholes State Park and then go to Time Out Pizza in Othello. Unfortunately heat again limited how far we went around Potholes and we didn’t see too much. Further, Time Out was closed that day except for the Quincy location.
These detours took us to Quincy, where I drove backroads on the way out. My mother says this was one of the highlights of the trip for her, but since I was driving I didn’t get any pictures. (It’s not too different from Highway 28, but with a lot less traffic to distract.) One notable place we drove by was a very large dairy farm a ways west of town.
On the way to Moses Lake to spend the night, we went to Blue Heron Park. We did actually go a distance here as it was starting to cool down, but due to crowding the best pictures came from the fishing pier.
The next day we went to Ellensburg; more specifically the Central Washington University campus. Quite a bit of construction is going on and I did get a few shots of buildings, yet compared to what I got with a point-and-shoot when I attended about 10 years ago I’m getting worse. The newer buildings not being designed anywhere near as intricately isn’t helping. As such, the “keepers” I got from this visit were in the gardens and grounds.
Lunch was at the Red Horse a little ways west of the campus. From there, we had a lot of unplanned time free; so we ventured up to Daroga State Park (a ways north of East Wenatchee and Orondo along 97). Heat was intense, but we did see reason to keep venturing further out while we were here. I often lose sight of how this simple park offers a great place to see this stretch of the Columbia.
After some more back-and-forthing (including a dinner at Baren Haus), it was time for the sunset hike the whole trip was planned around: The Jacobson Preserve in Wenatchee. I used to live just down the hill from it, and in fact had a heartwarming cach-up talk with one of my former neighbors when we were there. From here there is a broad vista of all of “both” Wenatchees, but the moon was the star of the show on this hike.
One thing I didn’t expect to see here were a few lizards. They are well camouflaged, but you can hear bushes rustle when they try to move off the path.
After spending the night in Cashmere, we went back to Leavenworth for a morning walk before the heat became too much. During this, I took what I believe to be the best pictures of this trip: A blackbird by a drainage ditch got up really close to me.
Other animals were about here, too!
On our way back to my apartment west of the mountains, we stopped at Lake Wenatchee. It was mildly crowded, but I did manage to get a few shots in.
After this and me driving a ways (though all three of us took turns), I became so completely exhausted I had to stop driving at Gold Bar. As my mother drove, I alternated between sleep and delirium the rest of the way home.
Joe R. Stead 