Eastern Washington State

Qxxx · Jul 20, 2019

I was touring the northwest last month, and thought I would toss out a couple of really cool places. Not my pictures.

First, Grand Coulee was the most spectacular of all the coulees I saw - created during the great Missoula Floods, end of the last ice age. It runs for about 40 miles. When I was camping on Lake Roosevelt, I saw a turkey mother with 16 very small chicks. The chicks would all peep peep peep to keep track of one another in the tall brush.

Another spectacular place was driving up Mount Spokane. The last 2 miles white-knuckle driving, as the road was not wide enough to pass another vehicle in my van, and the dropoffs were almighty.

http://iceagefloods.blogspot.com/2009/09/ice-age-floods-features-east-rim-of.html
https://compote.slate.com/images/122eaa90-c755-4cb9-843c-82a9aafa9c4c.jpg
http://www.willhiteweb.com/washington/mount_spokane/mount-spokane-road.jpg

HalfShadows · Aug 17, 2019

Were there any of those terrorist Pack Rats in that part of Washington?

maki2 · Aug 17, 2019

HalfShadows said:
Were there any of those terrorist Pack Rats in that part of Washington?

Those terrorist are pretty much everywhere, even in British Columbia.
Here is the forest service data base that talks about their habitat areas.
https://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/animals/mammal/neci/all.html

Qxxx · Aug 17, 2019

I did not have any mouse or pack rat problems. Most people go to WA to the cascades, Olympic, and Seattle areas, but I only stayed in the general area east-northest of Yakima, as my major impetus was Idaho and Montana on that trip. I bought the Discover Pass, as it's necessary to have to go into almost everywhere in that part of the state. Unfortunately the mosquitoes were just horrific over in Montana, I should have stayed longer in eastern WA!!!

https://discoverpass.wa.gov/31/About-the-Pass

I stayed mainly in campgrounds rather than boondocking. Nice ones were on the Snake river east of Pasco and the very best was Spring Canyon on Roosevelt Lake. If you're in to fishing, Roosevelt is your spot. That lake is incredible and runs for 150 miles. I think most people blow right though eastern WA on I-90, but there is a lot to see. Again, Grand Coulee was just incredible.

For what it's worth, I was somewhat disappointed with Coeur D'Alene. It is massively overdeveloped, overrun by tourists, and the city goes for 10 miles. Whitefish MT was very nice however. They have city wide wifi, I sat in the park and did email on my laptop.