Day Five
It was Wednesday and time to leave the Palouse and head back west by way of Rainier again. We got up early and went looking for an old covered railroad bridge our innkeeper told us about. She said that ‘all the photographer’s go there’! We followed some sketchy directions we found on the web and I realized I had driven past it the day before. The light was not where I wanted it to be but I thought I’d share the photo with you all the same. We headed back into town for brunch and to collect our stuff at the hotel. Colfax is a town with an old time feel that I liked very much. Many of the old store fronts, painted and neon signs have been preserved.
In the afternoon Mt. Rainier welcomed us back into the park, visible and brilliant. This time we explored a different road leading to a place called Sunrise. Here Rainier is ‘in your face’ close and because photographing the mountain from this side is a morning shot I turned to another ridge and some wildflower meadows which were in full bloom. Since you cannot walk in the meadows (with good reason) I found the photography here a little limiting. At an overlook near the Sunrise Visitor Center there was a small glacial lake that gleamed turquoise in the afternoon light. We were tired from our travels and made the plan to come back to Sunrise early the next day!
Day Four
On our second full day in the Palouse I let Brent sleep in … his choice really. I got up at 4-something, turned on the coffee maker … already set up with Starbuck’s French Roast brought from home. It’s not that I could have been without coffee anywhere in Washington State. There are coffee shops and sheds converted into drive-thrus everywhere. In Colfax, the one across from our mom & pop hotel had a neon sign that simply read, ‘Caffeine’. They all had unique names, like ‘Bada Bean’ for example. So I downed my first cup of coffee, threw on the clothes I had laid out the night before and headed out into the dark … to Steptoe Butte, for the second morning. A bit scary, the road to the top winds around and around, getting very close to the edge and with no guard-rail. I made it without going over the edge though. It was windy and I was thankful for the extra layers. There were a few linear clouds present which at least made it a bit different than the day before. Here I zoomed out to the max and got a layered shot before the sun made an appearance.
After spending some time on the butte, I wandered around on my own. I had never heard so much quiet or felt as alone as I did that morning. I traveled well-maintained dirt roads and barely saw anyone else along the way. I could stop in the middle of the road, set up my tripod and no one bothered me.
In the Palouse it is all about the wheat as I am sure you have figured out by now. It is the perfect place for it. They get a lot of rain in the spring and almost no rain in the summer providing ideal conditions. We learned that winter wheat is planted in August after the harvest. This is why some of the fields have been plowed. The seeds winter over and sprout in the spring when the rains come. The winter wheat is the darker and thicker looking wheat. Summer wheat is the lighter, more slender variety. They also grow a few other grains as well as lentils which are green in the field at this time of the year.
In the afternoon we went to Palouse Falls State Park a few hours away. The area was dry and Grand Canyon-like. The beautiful falls plunged 200 ft. into a pool before emptying into the Palouse River. Unfortunately I mistakenly over-wrote the card that contained these images. It was middle of the day light but I was hoping to be able to do something with them. Oh well … now I’ll have to come back!
Day Three
Up before sunrise we drove to Steptoe Butte State Park & National Landmark which is the highest point in the area at 3,612 feet. It rises about 1,000 feet above the surrounding countryside which is on an elevated plateau. Sunrise was at 5:36 am and we arrived early, in time for the deep orange glow. It was something like I had imagined since first wanting to come here years ago. What surprised me was that the land seemed to possess a spiritual energy that is hard to describe unless you are there to hear the silence. Unique and welcoming, I instantly fell in love with the place. More about the Palouse in my next post.
Day Two
The next day it was on to the Palouse by way of Mount Rainier National Park, east of Seattle. If it were a clear day we would have been able to see the mountain as we approached but some light rain and clouds kept it concealed until later. We figured the Palouse to be about a 5+ hour drive from our hotel north of Seattle so we headed out early in order to enjoy the mountain scenery on the way. There were a lot of overlooks and short hikes to waterfalls and other natural features once inside the park’s boundaries. On the western side of the park and mountain the forest towered with giant trees. The club moss that hung from the branches reminded me of Christmas trees decorated with tinsel. Mt. Rainier was not visible at first because of the clouds but as they say in the mountains, ‘if you don’t like the weather, wait 1o minutes’. Soon the mountain peaks began to reveal themselves and we were amazed by the grandeur of Rainier, a massive volcano with an elevation of 14,411 feet. It is the highest mountain in the Cascade Range and has 26 major glaciers being the most heavily glaciated mountain in the lower 48. Peaked by 2 volcanic craters scientists know it will erupt again however it is not active at this time. After a few stops and some food it was getting late so we pressed on to make the Palouse before night. East of the Cascade Range we found a drier environment and we drove through an area resembling the arid west along our way. The golden landscape of the Palouse greeted us just before sunset and I was excited to see what the next day would bring.
Day One
Back from an 11 day trip to Washington State, the task of processing my photos seemed daunting until deciding to just take it ‘one day at a time’. With a stop-over in Chicago, my husband Brent and I arrived in Seattle just before sunset on a Thursday. The air was cool and clear and we could see Mount Rainier, snow-covered and prominent in the distance. As so often happens in this part of the country we awoke to clouds and some light drizzle the next morning. The area has an average of 120 inches of rain per year, compared to South Jersey’s 40 inches of rain. Our first morning stop was to a park where we could (sort of) see the Space Needle and the north end of downtown Seattle. After that we headed to a brighter part of town where an old gas plant has been converted into a park. I had been introduced to the park on a CreativeLive webinar and it was fun to be there in person. Brent is a sailor so we stopped in at the Wooden Boat Center where I focused on a collection of colorful dinghies. Being a ‘piney’ Brent had enough of the city by noon so we decided to get out of town by way of a ferry to Whidbey Island, one of the larger islands on the Puget Sound. We made a quick stop at a garden but with so much ahead, I won’t bore you with flower pictures. The island was rural with farmland and a lot of opportunity for fishing and boating along its coast. We stopped at the beach and watched some fishermen catching salmon … of course! We walked along the driftwood covered shore amazed by both the quantity and size of the driftwood before heading to Deception Pass State Park. At the park we took in views of the Puget Sound and its rocky shores. We took a walk across the Deception Pass Bridge as the sun began to make an appearance before it was time to head back to our hotel on the other side of the sound. The next day we headed to Mount Rainier National Park and then on to the Palouse, to be highlighted in my upcoming posts.
