Thru the Cascades and into Eastern Washington!

How true!  As we are exploring our great country, we are continually reading about areas  to visit and, at times, we are surprised by what we find, while researching our next stop.  We've found that we've end up with "...more places to go!"  Enjoy the photo essay of our trip up and thru the North Cascades!  God's creation continually amazes us!

Our girls say good-bye to a furry friend they made while staying just outside Marblemount, WA.  His name is Sampson, one of the most gentle, loving German shepherds that I've ever seen!  He belongs to one of the camp hosts, Eva & Eric at Alpine RV Park.  We loved visiting with Eva & Eric, during our stay!  We are sort of kindred spirits with them.  I am kicking myself for not getting a picture with Eva and Eric!  

On our way along Hwy 20, thru the Cascades, we stop at one of the North Cascades National Park Visitor Centers and learn about all the edible plants resident within the park.  We also learned that it is perfectly legal to harvest the wild berries here!  So, naturally, the gals do just that!  Here you see Stacey picking berries.  Also, Hailey completed yet another Jr. Ranger program, adding to her ever growing collection.  One interesting fact that we learned is that there are 316 glaciers within the North Cascades National Park!  Wow! 

The bounty of the North Cascades!  The girls show off the wild red currants and blueberries that they collected.  We ate them with our lunch! 

The drive along Hwy 20 thru the Cascades is one of the most scenic drives found anywhere in the world and is ironically not well know because it is so "off the beaten path".  It is well worth the extra time to get here.  The vistas are breathtaking!

Stacey took this picture of Gorge Dam from her side of the motor home as we drove along Hwy 20.  Amazing!

Diablo lake along Hwy 20.  The color of the water was so vividly emerald green that it did not look real!  The color is from minerals that are picked up as the glacial ice melts and flows down into the lake.

Another awesome view of Diablo Lake!

A friendly passerby offered to take this picture of Team Breitmann above Diablo Lake Overlook.  The lake was formed as a result of the construction of Diablo Dam, which serves as flood control, hydro-electricity power generation and irrigation. 

As we traverse the Cascades and begin our descent into the Methow Valley on the Eastern side of the Cascades, the scenery changes into a more arid climate with an associated increase in temperatures.  It was a good 10 degrees warmer on this side and we actually started to get hot...something we haven't felt for a looong time! 

Hwy 20 dumped us into the rural and agricultural based Methow Valley.  We decided to stop in the little town of Winthrop.  It sure had a feel of an old, western movie town.  We enjoyed our day and a half here.

Hailey does her best Eastern Washington cowboy pose in front of the marshall's office!  

I did mention that it was a lot warmer here, right!?  We spent the night at Pearrygin Lake State Park, where the girls took advantage of the weather and opportunity to get wet!  Don't forget the fool proof formula...Water + Kids = Fun! 

We had a tough time prying the girls out of the water, when it began to get dark!  We had not seen the sun setting from the Eastern side of the mountains since before April 23rd! A beautiful sight to see!  The next morning, we set out for Grand Coulee Dam.  Along the way, thru the valley, we encountered a patch of very rough weather!! As we traveled along Hwy 155 thru the Indian reservation, we experienced severe thunderstorm conditions accompanied by large, pea-sized hail.  The gusty winds and hail forced me to pull off and wait for conditions to improve.  It was an uncomfortable position to be in, to say the least, as we were pretty much out in the open and in the middle of nowhere!  We thank God for his protective hand for our safe arrival in Grand Coulee later that evening! 

The girls and I take a tour of the visitor center just outside the massive Grand Coulee Dam.

Here it is!  The massive Grand Coulee Dam! What a treat for us to see water coming over the spill way.  This is something atypical.  They only let water over the top when the lake is forecast to not be able to contain the Columbia River's influx of snow melt from the Canadian Rockies.  The visitor center folks told us that this year the Canadian Rockies are chock full of snow!  A good thing for us down river in the States, where we have had an unusually low snowfall. The roar of the water coming over the top was awe-inspiring! The amount of water coming over is more than the volume that normally goes over the Niagara Falls. Letting an amount of water over the spillway that equates to a 10 foot drop in the lake behind the dam could generate enough hydro-electricity to power 15,000 homes for an entire year!  Now that's a lot of H20!

Hailey gets a closer look at the dam from the visitor center.  Grand Coulee is larger than the Hoover dam and contains 12 million cubic feet of concrete!  It's construction began in 1933 and was completed in 1942 and it's hydro-electric generators were rushed into service to help provide necessary power for the production of aluminum and electric welding needs that helped contribute to the eventual Allied victory in WWII.  Fun dam facts:  it dwarfs the Great Pyramids of Egypt and is  550 foot high, higher than the Washington Monument in D.C.  It generates more electric power than would a million locomotives and is the largest hydro-electric project in the United States.  It contains enough concrete to build two standard six-foot wide sidewalks around the world at the equator!  

No, Hailey.  I said hand me the "large wrench"!  :)  Hailey demonstrates what it took to bolt down some of the heavy power generation equipment during construction.  Now that is not something you can go get at your local hardware supply!

Hailey waits patiently for the evening laser light show that is nightly projected on the face of the dam.  It is a pretty neat and educational show, lasting about 30 minutes.  You can see the dam in the background.  During the show, a life sized silhouette of a battle ship and the Statue of Liberty are projected on the face of the dam.  The scale of the dam is difficult to wrap your mind around, unless you have something to compare it to! 

Well, ain't that the truth!  My next blog, God-willing, will be from Idaho!  We are reminded, continually, how much God has truly blessed America!  May we all remember that fact! "Roll-on Columbia river, roll on!"