Beautiful Oregon

We crossed from eastern WA into eastern OR and got on I-84 heading west!  We were travelling along the Colombia River.  Initially it was rolling farmland with vast golden fields of grain spreading to the horizon on both sides of the Colombia.  However, as we moved westward the fields changed into steep walls along each side of the mighty Colombia!  We were in the awesome Colombia River Gorge!  It was magnificent and on our first day it was very windy and the water was violently responding with large waves crashing into the rocky sides of the gorge.  I-84 and the railroad ran along the southern side of the gorge intertwined with each other.  Sometimes the railroad was to our left and sometimes between the Interstate and the Colombia.  But, the river, with the steep gorge walls framing it, was always magnificent.  East of Hood River OR we found a state park wedged between I-84 and the railroad in the gorge.  The entrance to the state park was actually from a small rest area on I-84!

A bend in the river

View from part of the 1920's highway

As we explored the area we found that parts of a highway built in the 1920 to attract tourist to the area still existed in some parts of the gorge.  It had been a highway full of beautiful vistas along the steep gorge walls.  Today small parts of it are open to vehicular traffic and some other parts are for hiking and biking only and some of it was incorporated into the current road system! 

The beautiful Columbia River

 Wind surfing was obviously a very popular sport on the many windy days in the Colombia Gorge.  We saw many wind surfers out and the higher the wind the more surfers!

Windsurfers!

More windsurfers!

After several days enjoying the gorge we moved to a state park that was about 35 miles west of Portland, near Beaverton.  Stub Stewart State Park was the newest state park in the OR system and was well designed and located in the countryside about 20 miles south of the Columbia.  Portland OR is a port city on the Columbia and we saw impressive harbor facilities on the Columbia in Portland. 

Stub Stewart State Park has beautiful trails thru magnificent forests with trees that seem to reach into the blue sky above.  For hiking through the beautiful forest you are rewarded with some beautiful views looking out over seemingly endless beautiful verdant forests!

Beautiful view of forests reaching to forever!

Trees that grew into the clouds!

Always at home no matter where we are!

Dry Falls and the Grand Cooley

Some years ago in my USAF life I spent several short stays at Fairchild AFB in Spokane WA!  During one of those trips I had some time off and myself and coworker drove west.  I remembered two significant things from that day trip – Grand Cooley Dam  and a magnificent 1,000 ft. deep gorge that was very wide! Since we have been out west I have been looking for that gorge.  My coworker, Lenore, who we spent last Thanksgiving with doesn't remember the gorge!  BJ is beginning to think I am crazy – so what's new! 

At any rate while at Fairchild AFB on this trip BJ and I took a day trip out to Grand Coulee Dam and I kept asking around and finally found Dry Falls!  It was just as magnificent and they had expanded the roadside pull-off from just a spot for 3 or 4 cars max to a small State park with a visitors center and educational displays around the edge of the parking lot looking down into the gorge.  And, the geological history behind this gorge is really interesting.

Dry Falls across the center of the pic. Imagine a wall of water  3 times as high as Nigrara Falls and 3 miles wide rushing over it at 65+ mph!

The first picture is from the parking lot looking across the 900 ft. gorge to the Dry Falls.  During the last several thousand years of the last glaciation of the North American continent a large ice dam would form periodically across a valley near Missoula MT.  This ice damn was a thousand feet high and Lake Missoula formed behind it.  The lake had half as much water as in Lake Michigan!  Eventually the water eroded the ice dam and when it gave way the water rushed toward the Pacific scouring the land as it went.  Another smaller, but still large dam on the Upper Columbia River Basin sometimes was also a factor that increased the water flow. 

The gorges formed by these massive floods are called Coulees and Grand Coulee is the largest of them all.  Thus the name of the dam built across the Grand Coulee.  Debris included boulders as big as houses and anything else in its path!  Including soil.  When it got to the mouth of the Columbia River, mountains on each side of the mouth forced water to back up in the valleys behind the mountains! When the flow slowed, a lot of the sediment dropped out.  In the case of the Willamette Valley running north-south from Portland to Eugene the deposited soil created a rich, fertile valley that today is a cornucopia of produce!

Banks Lake, the irrigation reservoir

Back to Dry Falls! When the water from Lake Missoula reached what we call Dry Falls it was moving along at 60+ mph and was about 3 miles wide and nearly 1,000 feet high.  Geologist today estimate that flow had more water then all the rivers of the world today!  Dry Falls was originally 20 miles downstream from where it is today.  They estimate it took Lake Missoula about 2 weeks to drain.  That is a lot of water quickly moving across the land! The force of the water over the hundreds of time this happened carved the rock under the falls and when it collapsed the new edge was further back upstream! 

Grand Coulee dam

Several miles south of Dry Falls at Coulee City a dam has been built that backs the water up into a reservoir that reaches north nearly to Grand Coulee damn.  However, this is an irrigations reservoir only and can be replenished by pumping water up to it from the reservoir behind the Grand Coulee dam if necessary.  Interestingly, the pumps can become generators if the reservoir becomes too full, water can be drained  from it thru the pumps which will generate electricity as water is moved from this reservoir (Banks Lake) to the much larger reservoir behind Grand Coulee dam.  

This was the addition that doubled its elec generation capacity, added in 70's

Us waiting for the light show!

In the evening they had a laser light show at 10 PM.  They projected multicolored line drawings on the white water flow of the dam and gave you the history of the Columbia River Basin from ancient times to today.  We had seen/read most of the history in the Visitors Center and other displays so it was not that interesting to us, but if Reagan and Addison were with us that would be different!

Always at home no matter where we are!

Canyonland National Park

Canyonlands National Park is about 30 miles north of Moab UT and is an entirely different, but no less dramatic and beautiful landscape then Arches NP!  When the sea drained it was flat level plain for as far as the eye cold see.  But there were 3 distinct layers under that level landscape! As the area weathered over the millennia 3 different and distinct levels formed that are very evident today.  The top part is the hardest rocks and is the level we were on.  About 1000 ft. below is was the next level that is a vast plain with deep gouges in it.  Those gouges were worn in by water and flowing across the land and at the bottom of theme is streams and also the Colorado River in the biggest and deepest gouge/gorge!

An overview looking down on the next level with the gorges carved in it!

The Colorado River winding thru the bottom of the landscape!

Another view showing the levels!

The winding road up to the top level!

These two buttes were named over a  100 years ago the Monitor and the Merrimack!

 Always at home no matter where we are!      

Arches National Park in Moab UT

We spent 3 beautiful days in Moab UT after the beautiful drive through Monument Valley!   Moab is home to two national parks (Arches & Canyonlands) and one equally beautiful state park (Dead Horse).  Individually and collectively they are all magnificent, beautiful examples of the western terrain.  They also are a tribute to early pioneers who insured they were preserved for us to all enjoy.  Let's hope our descendants can say the same for us 100 years from now!

The road to Moab from Monument Valley is just more dazzling sights, one after the other.  Once in Moab we had a little confusion as to where our campground was.  Due to some phone number confusion we were talking to one RV park getting directions to it and looking for another completely different park.  Eventually we got it all worked out and got parked in a nice park on the south side of town.

The next day we headed out to Arches National Park which is immediately north of town, just over the Colorado River.  It had a 15+ mile loop road that took you to many beautiful geologically beautiful sights!  This whole area was the once the bottom of a huge salt water sea.  As the sea drained and subsequent weather events occurred the land was worn and washed away with the harder, more durable parts remaining and softer materials being wash away and Arches continues to be affected by the weather. 

One of many arches!

And another!

A dual arch!

A favorite gathering place!

There were many other impressive structures in Arches NP besides the arches.   

Balanced for the ages!

Another balancing act!

A spire!

My sister's dogs, Chloe & TD were always good travelling companions !

And could be an attraction themselves!

Three wise man formation

And a baby arch that will grow up in a dozen centuries or so to a big arch!

Always at home no matter where we are!

Monument Valley

I have heard of Monument Valley before in NE AZ and SE UT, but no matter what you have heard or seen about it visiting it in person makes all other info pale in comparison.  We were headed to Moab UT about 100 miles past Monument Valley and just happened to take the road through the valley.  It was a narrow two lane road with narrow to no shoulders; at some places the only thing between the road and abyss below was a 6-8 inch thick concrete wall!  Don't know how good it would have been in stopping an RV from taking the plunge!

Most of Monument Valley is Navaho Indian Reservation and there is a visitor center shortly after you enter the valley, but we did not stop because we were not expecting much!  WOW – talk about a major mistake!  As we drove through the valley we were greeted by one monumental natural structure after another.  Many times we were looking a multiple ones on the landscape, all just visually spectacular. 

One of many spires!

A plateau

A basalt wall raising suddenly from the desert floor!

Another massive uplift in the middle of the desert!

This was named Mexican Hat and was near a town of same name!

Remember as you look at these that the pics don't really do it justice!  We will drive back thru Monument Valley at some future point and stop to learn more and see more next time!!  A beautiful place in the beautiful West!  BTW - it was the background in many of the old Western movies since the early days of movie making!  John Wayne loved the area and made a number of movies here!


Always at home no matter where we are!

Ready to Hit the Road Again

We left beautiful Patagonia AZ and moved up to Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson to await the arrival of my sister and brother-in-law from FL in their RV.  They are planning on traveling with us some this summer.  Davis-Monthan AFB has a great Famcamp and we enjoy our stays there.  Spots are well spaced and management is consistent in implementing the rules and always friendly and helpful.  No wonder they win awards every year!

Also at Davis-Monthan is a well arranged and maintained air park with warbirds on display from bygone years. I frequently walk through the airpark on my daily walk and enjoy it every time.  Of course seeing warbirds I worked on being classified as "heritage" makes me wonder what I am!!

Whenever I see a B-52 I always send a pic to Frank Beck my AF buddy to verify it is one of his girl friends that he flew.  He always likes to know their status and reports back when and where he flew with her.

#0659 one of Frank's girlfriends

Undergoing some routine maintenance in Mar 2012

I enjoyed visiting with her and updating her on Frank's current location and status when ever we are at Davis Monthan.  In Nov 2011 she was doing great, in March when I first saw her from afar she didn't quite look right, but when I got close I determined she was undergoing some routine maintanance and her tall tail was laying on the ground - no wonder she didn't look "right" from afar.  Her tall distinctive tail was laying on the ground!  How demoralizing can that be

A tailless #0659!!

Well when we returned to Davis-Monthan in late May I found she had been abducted! Gone! All traces of her beautiful body were removed probably by some nefarious crew working under covert conditions.  I reported it to Frank and he took appropriate actions.  We will get to the bottom of this crime!

#0659's former place of honor - even her name has been stripped from the plague!

Here are some of her friends that are mourning her loss, but proudly carry on the tradition of warbirds on display!

F-4 proudly displaying the stars of MIG's she shot down!

F-105, a workhorse over North Vietnam

A-10, the dreaded tank killer of  desert combat

C-130, it just keeps on hauling!

OV-10, a FAC of Vietnam era

So Marla & Al arrived and we spent  a few days wrapping up affairs at Davis-Monthan and we hit the road headed north.  Our first night was going to be in Flagstaff and then on to Moab, UT to see Arches and Canyonland National Parks.

The family caravan formed up behind the Wagon Mistresses, BJ & Marla. 

Always at home, no matter where we are!!

A New RV!

You may have heard we were contemplating a new RV this year!  Well we found one that, while not perfect, has some nice features!  See pic below as BJ was admiring it!  Note it has residential style refrigerator, non-stacked washer and dryer.  And look at the storage space in the china cabinet!  And, have you ever seen such magnificent windows!  Note the comfortable lounge chair and all the prebuilt storage space for other stuff!  And, lots of padding for when we are moving down the road. 

A minor problem is the lack of wheels or motor, steering would be problematic also!

 

Always at home no matter where we are!!