We
stayed at a hotel on the eastern side of Washington
and aimed to angle our way to a border crossing in the northwest. Our gps
wanted to keep us on I-90 dipping south and then going through Seattle, which is what we did last time, but
we decided to cut through the North Cascades.
This
route also took us near the Grand Coulee Dam. Since we arrived just as the dam
tour began we decided to take it. In retrospect that might not have been
a “grand” idea…
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Lake Roosevelt formed by the Grand Coulee Dam
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The
Grand Coulee Dam was a New Deal project meant to provide irrigation and power
for Eastern Washington and is the highest capacity power station in the United States.
Since 9/11, driving over the dam is prohibited. The post 9/11 tour doesn’t
include the generators, only the pumps, but does go on the dam. The tour spent
more time with a security video and elaborate screening than it spent in the
pump room. Unfortunately our tour couldn’t go on the dam due to unexpected construction.
Wish we knew that ahead. Perhaps the most interesting part of the tour was what
a person on the tour pointed out - how they reconfigured the dam for the third
powerhouse completed in 1974.
As
we headed into the Cascade Mountains we picked
up two hitchhiking backpackers. Come to find out this Ohio
couple with trail names “Murphy’s Law” and “Scooby” had hiked the Pacific
Crest Trail all the way from Mexico
and are almost done with their trek. They had gone to town to resupply and
needed to get back to the trail. They shared some of their story, like how they
were camping in the snow.
Then
we stopped at a couple of viewpoints in the North Cascades that we visited in
2014. We wish we had time to hike, but felt we needed to push on to Canada.
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| Pictures taken in 2014 and 2018 at the same spot, but different angle. |
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| Washington Pass |
