Day 84 - Friday, 9/11/09, SETTLED

On our way to visit Grand Coulee Dam, we pass three beautiful small lakes - Lenore Lake, Park Lake and Blue Lake.

Around us is volcanic rock and glacial waterfalls, with desert scrub in between scattered farms and ranches. So different from the urban landscape of the last few weeks in Seattle.

There are signs that say "Hitchhiking Permitted" here. We are surprised, not thinking that hitchhiking was permitted anywhere any more.

The hills on both sides are vertically striped basalt formed by lava cooling, with house-sized rocks that floated along the lava stream and then were left in odd places. They are called "erratics".

On the way to Grand Coulee, we stop at an unexpected Viewpoint called "Dry Falls". There we read about humongous ice floes that melted 15,000 years ago, blocking the mouth of the Columbia River, creating a giant lake.

The resulting floods after all the ice melted created waterfalls bigger than Niagara Falls, and took with it miles and miles of rock and gravel which were deposited as cliffs on both sides of the water. These were called Coulees, which are wide canyons.

Grand Coulee dams the Columbia River and creates power for the Northwest and California. The Californians didn't want to use coal, so they buy power from Grand Coulee.

This is how "Gina the GPS" says the name of where we are staying: "So Plake Harvey Resort".

School has started. Summer vacations are over. There are vacancies at all the RV Parks and most of the motels and hotels. We are often the only people at the picnic areas where we stop now.