Alta Lake

We started in Spokane this morning with temps in the 50's. At Alta Lake the temps are in the low 80's but it is nice in the shade. I know that many of you are suffering in the summer heat.

We drove through some of my favorite country- the channel scab lands of Washington state. In the last ice age, there was a huge lake in what would become Montana. A large ice dam held it back, but periodically the dam would melt and water would flood what would become eastern Washington state. It would sweep across and a scour the lands down to the basalt that makes up much of the geology. It happened many times as the dam reformed and the water broke through. It would pick up huge boulders in icebergs and drop them across the landscape called erratics. The water formed huge canyons where rivers have never been called Coulees. The landscape is beautiful and barren.

We passed the Grand Coulee Dam and the Chief Joseph Dam high up on the Columbia River. Its easy to see why there aren't salmon in the Spokane River any more. The same with other tributaries in this area. Salmon cant get upstream to spawn.

The Alta State Park Campground is nice
We have electricity and showers. There are a lot of gnats though.

Tomorrow we head up into the Northern Cascades for 4 nights. I expect it will be cooler there. If we have service, I will post. Czytaj więcej