Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Road trip up the Columbia Gorge to S.Central Washington.

Our roadtrip to Kittitas, Wa. Over Labor Day weekend we went up and visited my cousin and his wife in central Washington. most of these pics are taken out the truck window. So sorry for the blurs at times.
I wanted to take some pics that show how the land changes, as you drive up the Columbia Gorge. On this trip you go from lush fir and maple and alder to oak and pine and sagebrush, and eventually grasslands with rolling hills. All within a two hour drive.
Here we are at the start of our drive, in the West end of the Gorge.
 Fir trees and sunny skies! The weather was beautiful.
 Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River.
 Above Bonneville Dam, the poor tree, will half a tree!! LOL The wind blows something fierce in the Gorge. It basically is a giant wind tunnel!
 For here it is really dry right now. News weather man says we havnt had any measurable rain in almost 67 days. That will change soon!!
 Ahhhh! train right next to the highway!
 We drove up the Washington side, you can also drive up the Oregon side. The Oregon side has a 4 lane highway all the way up, Washington has a very scenic two lane highway.
 Looking down river, still real green and pretty. Lots of trees.
 We pass the mouth of the Wind River, the Salmon are running so all along the highway here there are trucks and trailers, they launch their boats then go park up along the road and walk all the way back to where the launch is.

You can see some of the boats on the lake here.

There are 5 tunnels along this side of the river, along with a train tunnel too. #1

 #2
 You can start to see the land changing about an hour up river, from our home town.
 This is Wind surfer, sail boarder heaven!! The wind almost never stops, so an endless supply of wind that they love! This is a small pull out that they jam with cars.
 There are some wind surfers out there, the sun was making pics difficult. Still lots of trees though!! LOL
 Mt. Hood across the river, this is from the North side of the Mtn.
 She is very beautiful.
 Ah there is a wind surfer!

 I wonder where these folks were headed! Not Hawaii! LOL
 The scenery is starting to change! Rocky and short scrub pine and oak.
 Turning into flat plateaus.  I think this rock across the river looks like a ship. The lines in the picture are wires to keep the rocks off of the railroad tracks.
More to come! We arent halfway yet! I took a lot of pictures and totally played the tourist!! LOL

More road trip and the Kittitas county fair. We didnt go to the Ellensburg rodeo, which runs in conjunction with the fair. I did get to see a surprise minor celebrity, riding slack, before the rodeo.

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