My adventure east of the mountains

[criada]

So I've been needing to get out town. Desperately. Turns out, my attempt to do so was a near perfect success. I rented a car (a bright red Mazda 2, as it happens. No free upgrade this time, though the clerk did try to get me into an SUV) and headed to Eastern Washington. Not only did I need to get out of town, I needed to get into a totally

Comments

[calendula_witch]

Great narrative, thank you! And your photos are incredible.

[criada]

Thanks. :-) I got some software that makes assembling panoramas a breeze. I'll undoubtedly be making more of those in the future.

[mcjulie]

Paul showed me Dry Falls in an attempt to convince me that eastern Washington was cool. It worked pretty well.

(We have an ongoing debate -- Paul thinks eastern Washington is amaaaaaaazing, because he grew up on the Olympic Peninsula. I think much of eastern Washington reminds me of central California, the long, boring, flat part that we had to drive through before getting to any of the good stuff, which I nicknamed "the Moon.")

But these pictures definitely show it off to its best advantage!

[criada]

Well, I grew up on (almost) the Olympic Peninsula, and that made me dislike Eastern Washington for most of my life. The trick is, I think, to stay the hell off I-90, and to stop frequently. There's a lot of beauty in the details. During my south-central road trip, I drove through the Hanford Reach, which is surely one of the more straight and boring stretches of road out there, so much that it literally hypnotized me and I got a speeding ticket. :-/ But I also got some of the nicer shots of the trip there, stopping at the roadside to photograph wasps and rusty bullet holes.
The other trick is to go during spring or fall. Fuck summer and winter over there.

[ruralwriter]

Beautiful! Thanks for the post and photos. I've only ever gotten to see that part of the world through small glimpses on TV shows.

I needed a vacation--so I definitely enjoyed taking a vicarious vacation with you! :-)

I'd definitely be interested in a post on the rocks!

More posts! More posts!

[ruralwriter]

ETA: And such beautiful photos!

[sawigajig]

Those are fantastic!