Lake Roosevelt and Grand Coulee Dam

We took two days to travel from Spokane to Ellensburg in the most circuitous manner possible. Camp for the night was at the Fort Spokane campground in the Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area. They have a bunch of campgrounds scattered along the lake, nearly all with flush toilets in the restrooms and no hookups in the sites. $5 with the Senior Access Pass.

Lake Roosevelt is the impoundment of the Columbia River behind Grand Coulee Dam. The lake stretches 151 miles upstream from the dam.

The northern end of the lake has a lot of pine forests while in the center section, the meadows become larger and the trees more scattered.

The southern end of the lake starts to get into wheat farming areas which continue downstream from the dam

as the grain elevators in the small communities get larger.

The tractor with the For Sale sign on the corner in Waterville was indicative of the priorities in the area.

After spending lots of time in the canyon just downstream of Hoover Dam, I was disappointed by Grand Coulee. It's three times longer and three times more powerful than Hoover but not nearly as high.

Instead of a barn suffering from neglect, I give you this school house that has seen better days. Now what children are in the area get a long bus ride to school.

The barn picture for the day is my favorite barn. This is the barn at Glory Farm. We'll be here about a week, doing a couple projects around the house and enjoying time with Ellen & Pat and the family.