The Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River, is a spectacular structure, to say the least. Before leaving the Newport, WA area yesterday morning, we decided to detour off Hwy2 a few miles, in order to view this modern marvel of engineering. Just before pulling out of the campground, I discovered a 2nd stowaway that had met it's demise, thanks to the good ole fashioned wooden mousetrap. Hopefully that's the end of that, at least for awhile.
As the road approached the upside of the dam, we could see that Roosevelt Lake behind the dam, was full, clearly at the high water mark. When we rounded the last corner, and could view the downstream side of the dam, there was this enormous amount of water spilling over the top, creating a sort of waterfall on the dam itself. We didn't go into the visitors center, so I didn't learn any details about the dam, (Patty says check the Internet, it knows everything) but I suspect that when the water actually spills over, as we witnessed, it's more unusual than normal. Whatever the case, the dam itself is pretty spectacular, and I'm glad we took the time to check it out. We continued west on Hwy 2, and stopped at, yep, you guessed it, a Wal-Mart in Wenatchee. It was early afternoon, so I pushed one button, and our Wineguard Traveler automatic satellite dish did it's usual perfect job of finding all 3 dish network satellites. When the NHRA Drag Race from Norwalk started at 4pm, I watched the action while Patty did some shopping in Wal-Mart. The outside temps zoomed up into the upper 80's, which was the hottest day so far, of our summer in the Pacific Northwest. Today, we travel over the Cascades via Stevens Pass, and should get parked by mid day, at the next Thousand Trails, in LaConner, WA.
The Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River, is a spectacular structure, to say the least. Before leaving the Newport, WA area yesterday morning, we decided to detour off Hwy2 a few miles, in order to view this modern marvel of engineering. Just before pulling out of the campground, I discovered a 2nd stowaway that had met it's demise, thanks to the good ole fashioned wooden mousetrap. Hopefully that's the end of that, at least for awhile. 
As the road approached the upside of the dam, we could see that Roosevelt Lake behind the dam, was full, clearly at the high water mark. When we rounded the last corner, and could view the downstream side of the dam, there was this enormous amount of water spilling over the top, creating a sort of waterfall on the dam itself. We didn't go into the visitors center, so I didn't learn any details about the dam, (Patty says check the Internet, it knows everything) but I suspect that when the water actually spills over, as we witnessed, it's more unusual than normal. Whatever the case, the dam itself is pretty spectacular, and I'm glad we took the time to check it out. We continued west on Hwy 2, and stopped at, yep, you guessed it, a Wal-Mart in Wenatchee. It was early afternoon, so I pushed one button, and our Wineguard Traveler automatic satellite dish did it's usual perfect job of finding all 3 dish network satellites. When the NHRA Drag Race from Norwalk started at 4pm, I watched the action while Patty did some shopping in Wal-Mart. The outside temps zoomed up into the upper 80's, which was the hottest day so far, of our summer in the Pacific Northwest. Today, we travel over the Cascades via Stevens Pass, and should get parked by mid day, at the next Thousand Trails, in LaConner, WA.
No comments:
Post a Comment