The drive to Seattle
Travel Location: Moses-Lake,United-States
This entry is really not about Moses Lake. It is about the drive from Spokane to Seattle. The landforms and sights we saw on the way deserve their own entry, apart from any destination.
The landscape of Washington is largely volcanic. The eastern half includes thick layers of ash deposits, and layers of basalt. The land went through a catastrophic period of erosion, described at the Eastern Washington Univesity website. The eroded landscape is very strange, with many small rock walls and tables exposed; the early White settlers called this gnarly eroded landscape “the Scablands.” (See pictures) The farmers grow wheat here on what little rain they get, and the plumes of dust billowing above the harvesters that can be seen for miles remind me of the movie version of “Dune.” Giant sand worms would have made the spectacle complete.
Giant sand worms would have made the spectacle complete.
Past Moses Lake, we hit the gorge of the Columbia River, where there is a scenic overlook worth a stop. On the opposite bank stands Gingko Petrified Forest State Park. The view is spectacular (see picture), and shows the layers of deposition much further down than we could see from the road cuts. There are also lizards to chase, so our son was quite happy to be there.
Further west and we begin our climb into the eastern most tier of the Cascades. For those of us used to the bumps in the eastern states, the climb seems endless, but it is only a small warmup for what is to come later in the trip. The world is still quite dry and brown. As we hit the crest, we are stunned to see Mt. Rainier, a volcanic cone towering to 3x the height of anything in front of it. (See picture)
As we pass over each successive tier, the world gets greener and greener. Approaching Seattle, we got a chance to watch the Blue Angels performing over the city. The down-side was that they closed the floating bridge on I90 for spectators, and we had to watch. It opened up soon enough, and we had a few hours left to explore before bed-time.
GT
