At long last, we were feeling safe enough to venture forth — well, maybe, in a car. Along came this tempting article from our local magazine, Seattle Met, with lots of options to choose from. We opted for a foray along the Columbia, and another jaunt into the Palouse, making Walla Walla a good base camp.
On the way down, we wandered over to the first of our state park excursions, Palouse Falls, highly recommended. We were distracted by the requirement for a state park pass; it took us a bit to notice that something was amiss.
While the falls are gorgeous, they’re also dangerous! When we arrived, there were sirens, and, just as we were about to bite into some snacks, a dust storm from a rescue helicopter about to land. Someone had hiked down to the base, but had been hit by a falling rock, taking quite the bash to his head. It took more than 5 hours for rescue teams to rappel down and bring the hiker back to the copter for evacuation — but they did it!
We hoped for the best as we continued to our base for a few days, Eritage Resort, just north of Walla Walla, where we braved an actual restaurant meal, our first in over a year.
On our first full day, we headed east to explore the mighty Columbia, and it was indeed wide and hard to capture. We followed Lewis & Clark’s path for a while, cramming in a bit of US history we didn’t get up in Canada, and made it as far as Maryhill State Park, for a lunch break. This time, we had enough warning, and cell signal, to apply for a state park pass before we arrived. I watched from the shade of a picnic table as Dave decided bare feet were called for.
The next day, we were looking for hills. The Palouse area of eastern Washington, south of Spokane and north of Walla Walla, is filled with rolling hills, sculpted during the Ice Age. We headed to Steptoe Butte State Park, with our new park pass in hand. Check out the access road for the peak!
We were delighted by all the quiet scenery and kept looking for smaller and smaller highways to wander back along. As we followed the Snake River canyon, looking for a path over it, we found that Lower Granite Lake Dam can be crossed by car!
At least, our phones claimed that before we headed out; once on the other side of the river, below, there was no signal to verify. But onward we went, and found our way across, through a river valley, up and out. According to the wildlife we disturbed, cars are not that frequent.
As we headed out of town, tired of backroads, we stopped at a winery, just to be thorough. We were in wine country, with a wine fridge to fill, and one wine drinker to satisfy — you just gotta do it. Woodward Canyon Winery waved us out of Walla Walla on our much faster, trip home via interstates instead of back roads.
Seeing new horizons, after many weeks of being home, was a treat, but also somewhat stressful! It’s a lot of work to pack your life up into a car, something I’d managed to forget. We stayed low-key, brought road snacks and packable lunches, and kept the trip short, just to reacquaint ourselves with the idea of travel. I think I’m remembering how we used to do this, but fewer adventures, more greatly savored, would be just fine.