Day 135
Looking down on the Scablands
August 8th, 2010
I'm walking across America.
That's the idea, at least. I'm walking westward from New York City for nine months or so. If everything goes according to plan, I'll be in Oregon when the clock runs out. If nothing goes according to plan, maybe I'll end up in Peru or Mongolia or Pennsylvania. You can read all about the details of my trip if you're so inclined.
Email me at matt@imjustwalkin.com
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Here's my progress so far:
Did you missed the rain forest at the last turn?
My dad taught me to love those great old Louis L’Amour westerns. Although I don’t think any of them were written about Washington state, this picture looks like the way I imagined the landscapes from those books.
Ya…this kind of reminds me of one of the opening scenes in the Louis L’Amour movie…”Conagher” with Sam Elliott and Katherine Ross…when her husband is killed trying to ride his horse up a steep embankment…great western…are they still riding horses in Washington???…did they ever???…what do I know???…(okay, I know the answer)…
I’ve got that movie (“Conagher”) somewhere and will have to re-watch it (or maybe it’s available on Netflix).
This is certainly some empty country (empty of people).
Conagher is available on Netflix – but only as DVD – no streaming for this movie : (
Love Louis L’Amour. I have several of his books recorded as dramas on tape. Very cool.
Peace, from Michelle in Providence
Louis L’Amour had a cabin along the Rogue River in SE Oregon, beautiful country – and there wrote several of his novels. Matt will end his trip in Northern Oregon but the southern coast is fantastic too.
Interesting scale. I can’t decide if those are small trees in the valley, or large bushes.
WOW how often does someone get to see this kind of landscape? How lonely was it walking this Matt? On the other hand, kinda cool. Are there any wild animals, like bobcats, out there?
Peace, from Michelle in Providence
No Bobcats, but plenty of coyote in Eastern WA. Yes horses are still ridden out here but the coyboys and rodeos are further north.
Sadly, Matt is passing through the area we Washingtonians call “the ugly part.” This area is all tumbleweeds and dust in the summer…in the winter it is much more scenic.
Oh, and hks…the rainforest is on the WESTERN side of the Cascade Mountains, along the Pacific Coast. The Eastern side of the mountains is mostly high desert area. We do not get the rain that Seattle is famous for thanks to the mountain range you have yet to see. Matt is getting close though.
Christina in Wenatchee, WA
coyboys should be cowboys. ugh!
Yup, my family and I drove through there one year. It was depressing.
I have some foxes around we can ship out there. I bet they would like it better then doging all the cars around here.
It looks so desolate at the same time so beautiful.
This looks like unforgiving land. Like if you got lost or did not have water type unforgiving. To me all landscapes have beauty in their own right. We also have plenty of coyotes and foxes in our area that would love to be in an area with less people.
It’s not the ugly part by any stretch of the imagination. It’s just the “everbrown” portion of the evergreen state.
If I’m guessing correctly, this is what used to be Kahlotus Lake. If that’s the case, it dried up when farmers tapped into the spring that fed it to irrigate their land. To bring you either the produce or HFCS you so desire.
that’s sad…
Agreed.
We have a lot of water-rights issues over here, and that’s before you throw in whether the dams on the Snake should stay or go.
Washington’s own ‘badlands’, perhaps? I love it there, have family in Spokane and Seattle, hard to believe when they all came from this little town in Western NY State of barely 3,000. Easy to have family everywhere when hubby is one of seventeen and mine was eleven *just children.
wow http://www.uwsp.edu/geo/projects/geoweb/participants/dutch/vtrips/scablands0.htm
Great link Roe! I just recently visited this area (Palouse Falls) and it’s much more beautiful when you realize why it looks the way it does. We did some geocaching in the area and were familiar with the geological history behind this landscape.