The River Road of the Gods

The rolling massive hills make way to a huge valley, flat as the eye can see. The flat dusty desert boils in the car, and the windshield dusts up unknowingly. I wonder when this heat will end, and much to my disappointment it will not for a long while.

The road after leaving from Logan, Utah.

I have never been in a desert before. I would consider this a desert?

The plain seemed to extend forever, through wetlands, over shrub laden slopes. All of a sudden, I am in Idaho, the air hazy from the smoke from the Beaver Creek fire, and then I drive beside a huge canyon/gorge. I have read about it in books before, but it simply blows me a way. It is the Snake River, and it cuts a sheer wall from the plain above:

The Snake River gorge. I tried to take more pictures, but I couldn't get my phone to work very well.

The most impressive point of the Snake River is the fact the river has cut such a deep gorge across such a flat landscape. It is so stunning when it is flat across the horizon with this huge gash in the earth.






After visiting the Snake River and Shoshone Falls, I continued across the landscape, determined to reach Western Washington by the end of the day. The Western Idaho and Eastern Oregon desert were relentless, and so... empty. Except for the occasional irrigation of the land and small town, the landscape seemed so lifeless:

Lots of shots of the desert.

One of the more awe inspiring mountains was a relatively low range that I wound through, and climbed up. After stopping at the top for a rest area, I began to descend, and had a huge panorama of the valley below.

It just seemed that it went on forever and a half.

I really liked this shot of the clouds.







And then the Columbia River finally made its appearance. At first I thought it was a lake, another cool work of hydroelectricity from the 1940s. Was I ever wrong.

Now keep in mind, the Columbia River makes up most of the border between Washington and Oregon, so once I was on the river, I stayed on the river.

And then the sides began to become narrower, and steeper. One of the best sights I saw was windmills that lined the gorge.






Then I saw Mt. Hood. It was a massive peak, poking its head above the clouds... Until I saw those were not clouds, but were actually a wildfire burning on the bottom section of the mountain. I have never seen a wildfire this large before.

The smoke was streaming to the south, and it drifted into the distance. It seemed not too far away, but for the scale of these things, the mountain was a good 30 miles away.

Now I am in Vancouver, after running around and finding my apartment, I have finally unpacked, and working on getting ready for my first day of work tomorrow. I need to do more errands today and run around, but hopefully I can see some of the community today. More later, once my assignment starts.