Christmas 2019

Christmas in Las Vegas and San Diego Safari Park

Winter 2019

We drive to Las Vegas at least twice a year, so we have a travel routine that works well for us. Part of the plan is to make a pit stop at the Exxon station in Amargosa Valley.

We'll have to change our plans for the future because the gas station is gone. I know businesses close on a regular basis, but this place was literally gone---only a vacant lot was left.

We've seen stranger things near Area 51 before, including dead and mutilated cattle, but this is the first time anything has vanished on us. I'm not sure it qualifies as a Close Encounter of the 2nd Kind or not, but it really did seem that someone had packed up everything and left for parts unknown.

Fortunately, there are some things you can count on and Las Vegas is one of them. The Bellagio Conservatory had its annual Christmas display as did Ethel M. Chocolates. Even the Venetian had its holiday version of Carnivale de Venezia with opera singers, stilt-walkers, and living statues.

The Bellagio Display Has Been Changed-Up A Bit This Year

Ethel M. Cactus Garden

Carnivale de Venezia - Renaissance Players at Venetian Hotel

Living Statue at St. Mark's Square, Venetian Hotel

We also visited Sam's Town to see the Christmas version of its center-hall Mystic Falls. We first visited there in the mid-1970s and it hasn't changed very much since then.

Sam's Town

Mystic Falls Area Decorated for Christmas

On a different note, the National Atomic Testing Museum is so comprehensive in its scope that a one-day visit isn't nearly enough. The museum showcases the actual history, the government propaganda, and the deep controversies that surround atomic power.

There was no attempt to whitewash anything. As one example, there were multimedia displays that ranged from "Duck and Cover" videos to anti-nuclear demonstrations to scenes from Dr. Strangelove.

The historical exhibits regarding nuclear weapons begin with the Manhattan Project's Trinity nuclear test and lead up to the current efforts at the Nevada Test Site to ensure the viability of our nuclear weapons while not being able to perform actual tests of the devices themselves.

The high quality of all of the presentations reminded me of the Manzanar exhibits which I consider the best I've ever seen. But what really caught my eye and made me laugh was the re-creation of the first Director's office. The desk, chair, and filing cabinet are from 1951, but these were still standard military issue 20 years later when I was at March AFB and I would have been quite at home sitting there.

Re-creation of Director's Office, Nevada Test Site

_  _  _

Of course, we also made a visit to the Lake Mead National Recreation Area to check on the Hoover Dam and the current depth of the lake. 

While we were driving out to the dam, we observed the mother of all speed traps.

On the opposite side of the freeway, we saw four motorcycle highway patrolmen with vehicles pulled off to the side. This was notable in itself, but as we drove further down the highway, we saw a dozen more motorcycles and other patrol vehicles sitting on the on-ramp, each waiting their turn to hunt down their prey. I've never seen anything quite like it before. From our side of the road it was an amusing sight, but I don't think everyone felt that way.

Obviously, we didn't see any patrol vehicles for the rest of our drive, but what we found when we got there was a slightly more disconcerting. 

This past summer, we saw huge amounts of water being released through Flaming Gorge, but it seems they're keeping it all in Lake Powell because Lake Mead is being held at just the bare minimum depth that allows the power turbines to keep operating. It makes for a very sad sight.

Lake Mead - Most of These Islands Should Be Underwater

_  _  _

From Las Vegas, we headed southwest to San Diego county to visit the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. The last time we visited was in 1972 when it first opened as the Wild Animal Park. The name change is only the least of the differences.

The major change is that when we visited in 1972, we walked through a small African village area and quickly boarded the tram. Now, it's a 15 minute walk through an extensive number of exhibits before you take an elevator down to the African plains and the tram. Another difference is that this African landscape is extremely lush compared to the unfinished environment we saw then, with the animals gathering around the feeding areas and water troughs.

Wild Animal Park in 1972

The exhibits between the entrance and the tram are some of the best I've ever seen. From a real lion king to the extended gorilla family to the cheetah enclosure with a cheetah and his companion dog, all required more time than we had.

A Real Lion King

Gorilla Family

Each of the Cheetahs Has a Companion Dog

Cheetah

Dog Companion - Most are Rhodesian Ridgebacks, but this is obviously a Labrador Retriever

_  _  _

We had a great day there and we gave it our all, but we ran out of time and energy and will have to return to visit the Australian Outback to see kangaroos and platypuses and then walk the Tiger Trail to see the tigers on the Asian Savanna.

_  _  _

We headed back to Reno just ahead of a storm that promised flooding in the basin and snow in the passes, but we took time to drive through Riverside for a quick stop at the California Citrus State Historic Park where we were able to get bags of navel oranges and grapefruit from the Gless Ranch citrus stand. Gless Ranch was the first in California to sell oranges from a roadside stand and, today, they maintain the citrus trees at the state park.

 

Gless Ranch Roadside Citrus Stand

Once out of the basin, we headed north on US-395 to Bishop where, as usual, we stopped for lunch at Erich Schat's Bakkery. The weather report warned of snow up ahead, but Angeleno's were calmly taking their time there before heading up the hill to Mammoth.

I wasn't nearly as nonchalant and we quickly got back on the road and soon found the reason for their unconcern: the road was clear up to Mammoth, but five miles later the snow was accumulating and those without snow tires were pulling over to put on chains.

We stayed at the front of the storm and the rest of the ride home was uneventful.

_  _  _ 

For More Pictures, Go To: Christmas 2019

Yosemite NP - Tioga Road

Fall 2019

We headed south on US-395, hoping to see the fall color of the Eastern Sierra. Things started out well when we passed through Antelope Valley just south of Topaz Lake. The color was at its peak there, but we missed peak color on Conway Summit and the June Lake Loop by about a week. That actually worked out well because there was still a lot to see and we didn't have to contend with the Instagram hordes who now seem to overrun everything.

Fall Color on June Lake Loop

Fall in the Valley, Early Winter in the Mountains

When we checked in at the lodge at June Lake, we were immediately reminded that we were subject to California's mandatory power outages. The idea was to avoid electrical fires from downed power lines, but the real result was that on the desk in our room there was a battery-operated lantern and instructions on where the extra blankets were stored.

Preparing for Power Outage

 

Autumn at Double Eagle Resort

 

Snow hadn't come yet to Tioga Road and we made the drive up through Lee Vining canyon to Tuolomne Meadows in Yosemite National Park. The road climbs up into the mountains and then down to Yosemite Valley. It's one of the great scenic roads in America. 

Tioga Road Hugging the Mountain

The Tuolomne Meadows facilities were closed for the season, but there were still a lot of visitors. I'm still surprised at the number of foreign visitors that come to Yosemite. The Olmstead Point parking lot was filled with cars and the overlook had people speaking a lot of different languages. The view to the back of Half Dome is one of my favorites.

Back of Half Dome from Olmstead Point

 

Tenaya Lake from Olmstead Point

We made the drive home and were reminded just how colorful Reno is in the fall. It's really not necessary to go very far to see great fall color.

Looking Down to the End of the Cul de Sac

YELLOWSTONE LAKE

Summer 2019

The Yellowstone Lake area is supposed to be the quiet part of the park but it looked like opening night at the San Francisco Opera when we arrived at the Lake Yellowstone Hotel. The driveway was completely full of a double line of vehicles.

When I asked about it, the porter told me they were expecting 168 check-ins. Since there are only 296 rooms that meant that more than half were checking in late Wednesday afternoon. I guess Labor Day weekend was starting early.

The staff seemed used to this sort of thing and check-in went smoothly. We found a parking space without difficulty before heading for our lake-view room. Surprisingly, it was a lot like the room we had at Many Glacier although perhaps just a little more recently remodeled. One major difference was the bison camped under our window in the morning.

Lake Yellowstone Hotel Bison

When we first visited the hotel last year, we saw this fellow grazing on the grass in front of the Lake Yellowstone Lodge and we learned that he's a permanent, local resident. When we went downstairs to get a closer look, he put on a wallowing show for us, vigorously rolling over in the dirt as they often do.

We went out the back way to avoid him and found a bull elk grazing in the parking lot. Apparently there are two bull elk who make their home in the hotel district and they usually graze together except during rutting season when they become rivals.

Bull Elk Grazing in Parking Lot

It rained on the last evening we were there and that left the ground too wet for wallowing the next morning. That may be why the bison woke Nancy with loud snorts, but more likely was the fact that an elk cow and her yearling chose that morning to graze under our window. I imagine he found their intrusion to be annoying because he ambled off.

Elk Yearling: "What you looking at?"

When we drove off we saw that the bison hadn't ambled very far and it was simply his turn to graze in the parking lot.

Bison's Turn to Graze in Parking Lot

 

 

 

* * *

We took a one-hour boat tour of Yellowstone Lake on the Lake Queen II and barely covered even a small portion of the lake. At 136 square miles, it's the largest lake in North America at high elevation. Lake Tahoe, at 191 square miles, is larger but it's considered a low elevation lake (you could have fooled me.)

Lake Queen II on Yellowstone Lake

Lake Yellowstone Hotel from the Lake Queen II

While we were at the marina, we talked to a couple who had a season lease on a boat slip and lived on-board there during the summer. He said they would often head for the more remote areas of the lake where they would anchor and essentially have their very own, lake front, private cabin in Yellowstone. (Was I jealous much?)

 

* * *

 

 

On our last evening there, we took a Yellow Bus sunset tour that took us up to the Lake Butte Overlook (which isn't at a lake named Butte but at a butte that overlooks Yellowstone Lake). There was light rain at times but the main weather was to the west which made for an extremely dramatic sunset. There were a number of photographers there besides our tour group and one guy had his SLR on a tripod in rapid fire mode. He was going to have a hard time picking the best.

Our Yellow Bus

Sunset Across Yellowstone Lake

The East Gate entrance to Yellowstone is closed from late fall to mid-spring but it is easily the most impressive entrance route. We exited the park by first climbing up out of the caldera and then over Sylvan Pass and down the Buffalo Bill Cody Scenic Byway along the North Fork of the Shoshone River.

This route is through the Absaroka volcanic province. The first part of the descent is a steep, mountain-hugging road with fantastic views that leads down into a valley marked by rocky cliffs and amazing hoodoo formations. Historic lodges line the route including Buffalo Bill's hunting lodge, Pahaska Teepee.

The area is not part of the National Park, but it was designated as our first National Forest, the Shoshone. The route essentially ends at the three short tunnels leading into Cody, Wyoming just beyond the Buffalo Bill Dam. (We stopped there, of course.)


CODY, WYOMING

Bat Masterson famously claimed that the story of the West was the story of Wyatt Earp, but he was only half right. The other half of the story is the story of William F. Cody.

Buffalo Bill was a Pony Express Rider, a buffalo hunter, a decorated Army Scout during the Indian Wars, Custer's Avenger, and one of the great showmen of all time. He was also a founder of Cody, Wyoming.

Today the town is most famous for the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, home to five museums and a research library.

Buffalo Bill at Main Entrance

The Buffalo Bill Museum is the core of the Center. A bison tableau is at the center of this museum and includes a wallowing bison, a bellowing bison, and a mother and calf. There were many exhibits from "Buffalo Bill's Wild West", including the famous show put on for Queen Victoria, but my favorite display was of the sturdy tent that Buffalo Bill lived in while they were on the road: oriental carpets and a simple cot.

Buffalo Bill's Private Tent

The Plains Indian Museum has both historical and contemporary displays. The Art Museum has a nice collection of Russell and Remington, as well as a replica of Remington's studio. One alcove had a collection of paintings of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and seeing so many paintings of a single waterfall was a little strange. The Firearms Museum is said to have the world's most complete collection of American firearms.

The Draper Natural History Museum was a totally pleasant surprise. It is a very sophisticated presentation of the Yellowstone region. There are four floors and the entrance begins in the Alpine zone of the Rockies and ramps lead you down, first to the Forest zone, and then to the Prairie zone.

There are specimens of just about every mammal and bird of the region, from wolves and grizzly bears to a bald eagle perched on its nest. The quality of the taxidermy work made for believably life-like displays. Perhaps even more impressive was the glass walkway where you could look down into a prairie dog burrow and see how weasels, snakes, and burrowing owls took advantage of the prairie dogs' hard work. I loved this place.

The fourth and lowest floor had a special exhibit about the Monarch of the Skies, the Golden Eagle, which was so appropriate because Nancy's favorite part of the Natural History museum was the Raptor Experience.

The Center is a refuge for raptors that, due to injuries, would not be able to survive in the wild. Currently there are 10 raptors in residence plus a turkey vulture. While we were there we were able to see a bald eagle, a golden eagle, a great horned owl, a peregrine falcon, an American kestral, and, of course, Suli, the turkey vulture.

Suli is neither injured nor a raptor, but due to imprinting, she thinks she's human, wants nothing to do with other vultures, and has no idea how to scavenge.

While Teasdale, the great horned owl, had absolutely no interest in being on display and studiously ignored us, Suli watched everything with interest and spread her wings in full display, turning like a model on the runway. As they say, she may not be very good looking but she does have a great personality.

ACTUAL WILDLIFE
We have yet to be disappointed with wildlife sightings on our trips to Yellowstone, but strangely, we didn't see a single pronghorn on this entire trip.

Once again, we saw our first elk immediately after entering the park from the west and during our drive down to the hotel, the traffic was stopped when a herd of bison decided to cross the road, passing in front and in back of all the stopped vehicles.

Then there were the elk and bison living at the hotel. We also had a starling nest just below our window and in the evening we were treated to a continual flight of these swooping birds.

During our evening Yellow Bus tour we saw two deer, both with their velvet antlers, two elk, and another bison grazing alone down by the water.

Bison Grazing at Sunset on Yellowstone Lake

Our trip going to Yellowstone was quite uneventful, but the ride home had an interesting glitch. We went south out of Cody to I-80 and were traveling west when Google Maps informed us that there was a one hour delay ahead and recommended a detour that would save us 40 minutes. There was no indication of any problem as we approached the detour and only a handful of cars, and no trucks, were turning off. It was puzzling.

In the end, we took the detour which was tedious and returned to I-80 farther west where there was still no indication of a problem, but of course we would have been on the other side of the delay. 

Later, we tried to find information about what the problem might have been but found nothing. So, now we don't know if we missed a major delay or just took a useless side trip.

 

For a few more Photos, click below:

Yellowstone Lake 

Glacier NP and the Grand Coulee Dam

Summer 2019
 

This trip was supposed to complete our visits to the major National Parks, but Glacier, like Yellowstone, has too much to offer. So, we're planning another visit (or two).

The drive north was an experience in itself. Once we entered southeast Idaho, we found ourselves on Idaho National Laboratory (INL) land where major work was done in developing atomic energy.

The town of Arco, Idaho, revels in its distinction of being "The First City in the World to be Lit by Atomic Power." Another plaque entitled "Atoms for Peace" details the event. But in the city park, there is the actual conning tower of the decommissioned, nuclear-powered submarine USS Hawkbill along with one of its torpedoes.

What really makes this celebration so strange is that, down the road, is Atomic City, a virtual ghost town due to two catastrophic nuclear disasters.

In 1955, Experimental Breeder Reactor-1 (EBR-1) had the world’s first partial nuclear meltdown. Then in 1961, the Stationary Low-Power Plant Number 1 (SL-1), exploded, killing three workers who had to be buried in lead coffins sealed with concrete due to radioactive contamination.

Strangeness continued when we drove into southern Montana. The town of Butte sits at the base of the Continental Divide where a 90 foot statue of the Virgin Mary looks down on it. I wasn't sure what I was seeing when I first spotted the giant, white statue above us and I really thought it was some sort of college prank. But it's a very sincere, if controversial, display.

That afternoon we arrived in Helena, Montana, where, for the first time in our years of travels, we found ourselves in a room that was simply unlivable. Thanks to the internet, we quickly find a suitable alternative.

From there, we continued our drive north into Big Sky Montana, or Big Land Country as Nancy noted. We then entered the Blackfoot reservation heading north to the Many Glacier Hotel. We found ourselves first on gravel roads due to extensive road construction and then on the park entrance road that was nothing but pot holes and a completely deteriorated road bed.

At the park entrance itself, we joined a long line and watched as vehicle after vehicle was refused admission and turned around. It seems the park was at full capacity and there were no more parking places in this area. When our turn came, we were asked if we had reservations and when we answered "Yes", they smiled and said "Welcome to Glacier National Park" and let us continue.

Things immediately began to improve. The place was beautiful, our room was ready early, and, despite the warnings, I immediately found a parking space.

Many Glacier Hotel

The glacier situation there is not good. In 1966 there were over 100 glaciers in the park, of which 35 were named. All have receded in size since then and only 26 named glaciers remain. There are now more glaciers in North Cascades National Park than in Glacier National Park.

In neither park are they the massive frozen rivers of ice like you see in Alaska. Instead, they qualify as glaciers because they are moving masses of ice that are 25 acres or greater in size.

Snow covers most of these glaciers and it's hard to tell when you're seeing a glacier and when you're seeing a snow patch. The rule of thumb is simply to assume that What you see is a snow patch since only four glaciers can be seen from the road and the rest require serious, strenuous hikes.

So the name Many Glacier Hotel is a bit of a misnomer, but there is no denying that the hotel and the views are spectacular.

Serenity

MANY GLACIER HOTEL
Glacier National Park exists because of the Great Northern Railway. Passengers from the East would disembark at Glacier Park Hotel (now Lodge) which is actually outside the park.

Many Glacier Hotel was built soon after and was designed to be a Swiss hotel in the American Alps. The site was chosen for its views which are indeed spectacular.

The lobby area common room is large and inviting with ample, comfortable seating and a large fireplace. The original hotel lobby was lighted with paper Japanese lanterns and the refurbishment stayed true to the concept while using safer electric lighting.

Many Glacier Great Room

The hotel sits on one of the smallest lakes in the park that really functions as a feeder to the much larger Lake Sherburn. We discovered that a boat tour of the Swift Current Lake would take just about 20 minutes, so they added an additional part of the tour to the next lake over, the much larger, Lake Josephine.

Boarding the Morning Eagle on Lake Josephine

The Chief Two Guns took us over to the far end of Swift Current Lake where we hiked a quarter of a mile to the Josephine dock where the Morning Eagle continued our excursion closer to Salamander Glacier. There is a stream connecting the two lakes, but it's not navigable.

Salamander Glacier

Grinnell Glacier and Salamander Glacier were orignally joined into a much larger glacier but they are now split with Grinnell obscured from the lake behind the ridge line. A strenuous hike is required to get up to see down towards it with Salamander across the chasm, higher up.

On our journey back, we saw the most extraordinary sight. The first part of the trail to the Grinnell Glacier overlook follows the lake on the north side about 100 feet above the water line and we could see hikers going in both directions.

One group of hikers, returning from the overlook, didn't know that they had a companion. On the hillside about 200 feet above them, a grizzly bear was moving at about the same pace in the same direction, probably looking for early season huckleberries and keeping at his own level. Neither the hikers nor the bear seemed to be aware of each other and only the boat passengers could see just how close they were.

We lost sight of both as we docked at the pier, but since we never heard any reports of bear encounters, it seems they never were aware of each other.

WATERTON-GLACIER INTERNATIONAL PEACE PARK
Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada and Glacier National Park in the United States share a common border with Upper Waterton Lake divided between the two countries. The combined park became the world's first International Peace Park.

Our border crossings in both directions were simple matters, but our visit there was not very timely. There had been a devastating fire in Waterton after a severe lightning storm in August 2017 and the park is a very long way from recovery with major portions still closed to the public.

In addition, while a boat tour is still operating, it doesn't make its stop in the United States at Goat Haunt at the southern end which is closed for the year.

And, finally, the weather had changed dramatically, with high winds and choppy water that would make a boat tour more of an ordeal than a pleasant excursion.

Nevertheless, we enjoyed our visit. It was quite obvious that we weren't in an American National Park. The town of Waterton sits in the middle of the park and is something you would only see outside park boundaries in the United States.

But, my main interest in visiting was to see the Prince of Wales hotel. It sits above the town and the wind was blowing ferociously nearly knocking me over when I stepped outside.

I thought this was the weather front we were experiencing but I learned that the hotel was blown off its foundation twice in 1927 during construction. They chose a very windy location for the hotel, but the result is quite remarkable.

Waterton Lake Marina with Prince of Wales on Hill

GLACIER PARK LODGE
Great Northern's first hotel providing access to Glacier National Park was actually outside the park but right across the road from the railway station. Visitors arriving from the east could disembark and walk right over to the hotel.

Original Walkway from Train to Lodge

Things have changed slightly. Now the Red Bus Station Wagon takes passengers and their luggage in both directions.

Red Bus Station Wagon with Porters in Railroad Outfits

Being outside the National Park, the lodge offers resort style amenities including a swimming pool and a golf course, but Red Bus tours start from here and the building matches the Swiss architecture seen at Many Glacier.

One interesting difference is in the support posts. Both hotels use giant, Douglas Fir, but the ones at Many Glacier don't have the bark. It seems that dragging these down the road to the Swift Current Lake site stripped the bark from all of those posts.

Interior of Glacier Park Lodge

GOING TO THE SUN ROAD
Just as with the Road to Hana in Maui, if you want to see anything on the Going to the Sun Road in Glacier National Park, you have to let someone else do the driving. The Red Bus tour was something that I definitely wanted to do, so this was an easy choice.

Checking out the Red Bus at Many Glacier Hotel

The Sun Road is only open from end to end for 100 days, so everyone shows up at once and it is a mess. The parking lot at Logan Pass on the Continental Divide fills at 8:45AM and cars drive up and down the rows waiting for someone to leave. Fortunately, the Red Buses have designated parking.

Parking at Logan Pass Visitors Center

All along the route, we would stop to get out to explore or stop for a moment so we could 'pop-up' through the open roof to take pictures.

Riding the Red Bus

From the east side of the park, the Sun Road goes through the forested area alongside Saint Mary Lake. We stopped to take in the view of the lake, Wild Goose Island and the mountain peaks farther up the road before beginning to climb.

Saint Mary Lake and Wild Goose Island

The first really major stop is at the Jackson Glacier Overlook. This is the easiest glacier to spot and only one other is visible at all from the Sun Road.

Jackson Glacier As Seen From Going to the Sun Road

Logan Pass, at 6,647 feet, is the highest point on the Sun Road and has tremendous views of both Reynolds Mountain and Clements Mountain with a popular trail leading to Clements.

Mt. Clements

Mt. Reynolds

Snowmelt creates large numbers of waterfalls leading primarily to Saint Mary River to the east and to McDonald Creek to the west. Every snow patch here results in a waterfall and some are a danger to the road and have to be accounted for.

Heaven's Peak and Waterfall Below

LAKE MCDONALD LODGE
All of Lake McDonald is in the park, but Lake McDonald Lodge is only at the midway point of the lake's length just about 10 miles from the park's western entrance and this was our stopping point on the Red Bus tour. This means that there is a portion of the Going to the Sun Road that we haven't explored, thus necessitating our return.

Lake McDonald Lodge is a good place to stop, however. Surprisingly, it wasn't built by the Great Northern Railway but by a Montana land speculator. Still, it followed the lead of Glacier Park and Many Glacier and was built in the Swiss chalet style.

Access to the hotel from the railway station outside the park is now by Red Bus shuttle, but was originally by steam boat so that the front of the hotel actually faces the water rather than the road.

Lake McDonald Lodge Lakeside

Lake McDonald Lodge Roadside

Despite the similar Swiss architecture, the interior decoration of Lake McDonald Lodge is quite unique.

Lake McDonald Lodge Interior

This visit ended far too quickly and we are planning to return to stay at both Lake McDonald Lodge and Glacier Park Lodge, and we are going to seriously explore the possibility of taking the train from Portland or Seattle. Could be fun.

GRAND COULEE DAM
We headed west to visit the Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River in Washington. On the way, we kept seeing signs reminding us that we were either crossing or on the Lewis & Clark Trail, but judging by the place names, it was clear that the French trappers were the ones to leave their mark.

Coeur d'Alene is one of the most fascinating cities we've ever visited. When I think of the panhandle area of Idaho, my first thought is of skinheads and private militia groups but it seems that period is over.

Waterfront Coeur d'Alene (forget the French, they pronounce it 'core'--when they don't just shorten it to CDA) is a beautiful, lively place. The local chamber of commerce calls it the "Lakeside Playground of the Pacific Northwest" and they're not wrong. The mix of young and old and the bustling boutique stores and eateries as well as the resort hotel were more like Santa Monica than a former mountain mining town.

Continuing west, we drove through Spokane and headed slightly northwest to the Grand Coulee Dam. The Grand Coulee gets its name from the French, of course, and was an attempt to describe that portion of the Columbia River valley that wasn't created by slow river erosion but by cataclysmic ice age flooding.

The dam was a New Deal project built to provide irrigation to arid eastern Washington. The cost was to be subsidized by the sale of electric power, however, World War II delayed the irrigation project while power generation was needed for the war effort.

Grand Coulee Dam

We toured the pump-generating plant (on the left facing downstream) and got to walk along the top of the dam, but the highlight for us was the laser light show.

We were staying at the Columbia River Inn which is just across the street from the Visitors' Center but it wasn't until after checking in that we discovered that there was a light show scheduled for 10:00PM.

We walked over at about 9:30 and joined the spectators starting to assemble. We watched for a while and then the water coming over the spillway began to increase until the entire spillway was covered in white foam creating a backdrop for the laser light show. That was fun.

BofR Aerial Photo Showing Foaming Release - Note Irrigation Channel at Upper Right

GOING HOME
We headed south out of Coulee Dam through the dramatic landscape of the Coulee Corridor where Banks Lake in the basalt canyon is the major reservoir of the Columbia Basin Project. Further on, we passed Hanford Reach National Monument.

The Hanford Site is famous for its production of plutonium for the Manhattan Project and has been called 'the Most Toxic Place in America.'  The Nuclear Reservation itself is generally closed to the public, but the surrounding buffer area, untouched by humans since 1943, is now an Involuntary Park much like the area surrounding Chernobyl and is considered returned to wilderness. We didn't stop.

Farther south, in Oregon, we reached Pendleton and made a stop at the woolen mills. Its really a nondescript, little place and I actually missed the turn and had to backtrack.

Entrance to Pendleton Woolen Mills, Retail Store, and Factory Outlet

You can go on a tour of the mills but most people are interested in the Factory Outlet. They had decent prices, but there was a catch.

For example, National Park blanket rejects were double reduced in price with 30% off the sale price, but the blankets, which had only minor stitching defects, did not receive either the Pendleton label nor the National Park label. If you buy for quality, no problem; if you buy for labels, well, you do exit through the retail store.

From Pendleton, we drove south on I-84 into Idaho. This is an interesting route noted for having the tightest curves in the Interstate System as well as multiple Oregon speed traps in Oregon. That was fun, too. Fortunately, Google Maps now warns you about these.

From Caldwell, Idaho, we made the long, simple drive home.

WILDLIFE
We didn't see much wildlife on this trip, but there were some good ones. The best, of course, was the bear sighting on Lake Josephine

The mountain goat is the symbol of the Great Northern Railway and the most numerous large mammal of Glacier itself and we saw several on the Going to the Sun Road.

Nancy had a small herd of deer trying to cross the road in front of her in Idaho and we saw a Big Horn ewe, lamb, and yearling on the road in Waterton.

At Coulee Dam, we had an encounter with a stag deer, but the most interesting "animal" sighting was a road sign we saw in Idaho.

This is a real Idaho Transportation Department Road Sign

For a few more pictures, go to:

Glacier Photos