Bright sunshine and a nice warm day today, yay!
It didn’t take long to leave the downtown of Walla Walla and find ourselves in the countryside. Stephen, our GPS, did its usual trick of taking us down obscure back roads though, and led us past such scenic points as the grain silo and the State Penitentiary! Our GPS is Stephen because we have the very British voice of Stephen Fry guiding us on our travels.
For miles and miles we drove through a mesmerising landscape of low, golden hills. The crops had been recently harvested and the hills wear a series of sweeping patterns that remind me of a Japanese zen garden… or maybe alien crop circles?
We drove on to Palouse State Park set around Palouse Falls. We had seen pictures of these falls gushing over the rocky cliffs of the ravine but at this end of the summer the flow was a shadow of the gusher that you would see in spring. However it’s still definitely worth a few photos , although I started to doubt that when Neil kept standing right on the edge of the ravine to take his shots. I was having kittens! And he’s supposed to be the one who is scared of heights?!
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| Palouse Falls. Neil was perched on the cliff edge at top left in the next photo! |
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| Yikes! |
The road from the falls to the twin towns of Lewiston and Clarkston took us alongside and across the wide Snake River. It’s another striking sight with its dark blue stream against the black cliffs and golden hills. The soil and rocks around here are all pitch black.
The towns are on opposite sides of a river that straddles the state border. Clarkston , where we stopped for lunch is in Washington and Lewiston is in Idaho. They are named for the explorers Lewis and Clarke who , like our own Burke and Wills were sent off by their Government in the 1800’s on a tour of exploration to find a path right across the continent. unlike Burke and Wills they were a lot more successful, not only did they make it across to the Pacific Ocean but they came back to tell the tale. We will be crossing their trail a few times on this holiday.
After lunch Neil made a beeline for the Old Spiral Highway, another one of those winding drives that he likes so much! This one climbs from Lewiston up ???? Feet to the Palouse Hills and led us on to the start of the Palouse Scenic Byway. This drive took us through more of the golden hills and valleys but the route is dotted with pretty barns and several quirky artistic sites. We stopped to take some photos of the Dahman Barn which is a centre for local artists and sports a fabulous fence made of hundreds of tractor wheels. It was more artwork than fence.
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| The Dahman Barn |
Further along the road we detoured to climb to the top of Steptoe Butte, a small mountain of quartzite that towers over the Palouse and provided some great views. We surprised some wild dear on the drive up but at the top we had the place to ourselves. The views were of the rolling hills, scattered with tractors and small farm houses and huge grain silos.
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| On the summit of Steptoe Butte, looking out over the Palouse. |
After that we had nothing more to do than continue on North to Spokane where we are staying the night. The hotel offers a free “reception” of wine, beer and a few light snacks. We gratefully accepted the drinks and sat outside on their riverfront balcony It was such a pleasnat spot we decided to stay and order dinner and ate it watching the sunset and a few wild rabbits running around in the grassland. The hotel has a river on one side… and a hug mall on the other! So, naturally, we did a little shopping after dinner and picked up a few useful items of clothing for us both.
The internet has been a bit of a struggle here but we’ve finally been able to connect. However the next three days we’re in the National Parks and internet connection will probably be non existant. Stay tuned and we’ll be back on air in a few days !