Columbia River Gorge to Kennewick, Washington

Monday, May 30, 2011

Tumwater, WA to Kennewick, WA via the Columbia River Gorge

I have just added the pictures to yesterday’s blog for those whose life is not complete without pictures!  Now I need only to write today’s blog.

I was waxing philosophic was drove along the Columbia River Gorge from Portland, OR to Kennewick, WA.  This trip has not been “A Trip”; it has been, thus far, 29 individual trips, each one different from the one before (yet sharing some elements) and the one that followed.

Everything changed every day: the sky was blue or cloudy, or gray, or cloudless; the land  rose up into mountains or sank into valleys, it lay flat as water on plate or was as lumpy as a pile of rocks; the colors were red, green, brown, golden, or yellow; the rivers were babbling  brooks, raging torrents, or meandering streams.

Each day was a PowerPoint Presentation, a slide show, a kaleidoscope!

And today was no different. The Columbia River Gorge was waterfalls, huge dams with locks and power plants, mountains, and of the mighty Columbia.

The Gorge evolved slowly into desert with only river left.  The rocks and mountains were replaced by flat, flat land with low plants and no trees. The only patches of green were seen near towns and farms.

 Our first view of the Columbia River

 

The Gorge was lined on both sides with mountians

 The mountain ridges were lined with these

 The forests were filled with wildfowers and maiden hair ferns

 and waterfalls

 River traffic

Bonneville Dam and Locks

Once in the desert the only trees we saw had been planted

 The land became flat

and 1941 Packard Convertibles appeared!