The Great Ice Age Floods - Thursday, August 11, 2011

Following breakfast at the Best Western in Walla Walla, we traveled southwest to Frenchtown Historic Site and the Two Sisters at Wallula Gap. Several of us hiked the less difficulty trail to the first viewpoint while others hiked the more difficult trails to the Two Sisters. We traveled east stopping at the Lewis and Clark Expedition Campsite of April 30, 1806 at Bold Creek (now Touchet River).

We had a delicious lunch at Weinhard Cafe in Dayton. The leaders were anxious to get underway so I took my brownie a la mode in a container onto the bus. We traveled north to Paloose Falls and then northeast to the Red Lion River Inn in Spokane. I lost my Parlor Suite for a lesser but still nice room. We had our last dinner as a group. I forgot to bring my Elderhostel Passport so I took a sticker to put in it when I returned home.

The Great Ice Age Floods - Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Following breakfast at the Shilo Inn, we boarded the bus for a trip west. We saw the Potholes Reservoir, Sentinel Gap from the Vantage Bridge, Frenchman Springs Coulee and Feathers. A few of us even hiked the road from the Frenchman Springs Coulee viewpoint to Feathers. I found a benchmark on the way there. We traveled to the end of the old Vantage Road. You can still see the yellow stripe down the center of the road as it disappeared into the Columbia River. We had a picnic lunch at a local park in Odessa.

We saw Crescent Bar and West Bar. It would have been better to view the ripples in the early morning. We traveled southeast to Quincy Basin and Walla Walla. We checked into the Best Western in Walla Walla. We were on our own for dinner. I found one Puzzle Cache, one Cache and two Benchmarks today. The house at the Butler House Cache was interesting. I bought a sandwich, barbecue chips, and a Hershey bar at the Gas Mart across the street from the motel which I ate in my room watching television. I had a miserable night with someone making loud noises above my room most of the night!

The Great Ice Age Floods - Tuesday, August 9, 2011

After the Breakfast Buffet, we gathered in the lobby to board the bus. We traveled west to an overlook above the Grand Coulee Dam. When completed in 1941, Grand Coulee Dam was the world's largest concrete structure. We stopped to view Steamboat Rock. We had a picnic lunch at Dry Falls. Afterwards we traveled by bus down a narrow dirt road to the bottom of Dry Falls. We had a great view of Umatilla Rock that was once a Goat Island in the center of the Dry Falls cataract.

We traveled to Yeager Rock, a huge glacial erratic, on the Waterville Plateau east of Mansfield, WA, that was carried to this spot by a Pleistocene glacier. We stopped at B & B Fruit Stand, 13041 SR 2, East Wenatchee. This is a family owned and operated fruit stand celebrating 43 years in business. They grow their own cherries, apricots, peaches and nectarines. Several people bought fruit. I got a Good Humor Ice Cream bar. We traveled to Moses Lake via Quincy and George to our lodging for the night at the Shilo Inn. I found two EarthCaches, DNF one cache and found a benchmark.

The Great Ice Age Floods - Monday, August 8, 2011

After the Breakfast Buffet, we gathered in the lobby to board the bus about 8:30AM. I got the seat that I wanted in the back of the bus and posted my "Nester" sign below the window. I gave Pat Sharp, who was sitting behind my seat, a paper so she could make her "Nester" sign. We traveled though the channeled scablands. We saw the lakes around Sprague, ring dike craters, loess islands, pillow and columnar basalt and discussed the numerous lava flows.

We had dinner at the hotel and some of us went with Don Popejoy and Molly Smith on a walking tour along the Spokane River. We passed the clock tower. It is all that remains of the Great Northern Train Station that was unfortunately demolished in the early 1970s. We saw the "Centennial Sculpture" which floats in the Spokane River. A few people slid down the slide of Spokane's "Red Wagon" sculpture. I and a few others braved walking through the Riverfront "big sprinkler" Fountain. We saw the carrousel, a handsome antique built in 1909 by Charles Looff, but no one wanted to ride. Several people rode the Gondola River over the Spokane River and Falls and under the Monroe Street Bridge as the sun was setting. It was dark by the time that we returned to the hotel.

Trip to Spokane - Sunday, August 7, 2011

I threw away two caches printouts for Sprague yesterday only to discover this morning that they covered DeLorme page 68. So I headed back to Four Lakes and Hwy 904. I thought the Virtual at the Four Lakes Monument was the most interesting cache of the day. I headed south to South Cheney. After I found the caches I drove the Auto Tour Route through the Turnbill National Wildlife Refuge located in an area of eastern Washington on the edge of the Columbia River Basin, known as the Channeled Scablands. I saw one chipmunk and one squirrel and ended up with a very dirty car. I found one Benchmark, one Virtual and three Caches this morning. The most interesting was the "Battle of Four Lakes" Virtual cache.

I checked into the Red Lion River Inn where I was given the Parlor Suite with a view of the Spokane River. I ate lunch at the hotel patio. I met the Elderhostel/Road Scholar trip leaders: Don Popejoy and Molly Smith. I knew Don Popejoy from two previous Elderhostel Ice Age Floods trips in 2007 and 2009. Molly Smith was the co-leader on the Elderhostel Oregon Trail 2007 trip. We had dinner and orientation at the hotel for The Great Ice Age Floods trip, August 7 - 12. I had a lovely view of the Spokane River out of the large glass windows. Afterwards Pat Sharp from Michigan and I drove to Walgreens to purchase BIC bright liners to mark the route on our Washington State maps - each day a different color.

Trip to Spokane - Saturday, August 6, 2011

I headed north and then west on Hwy 26. After finding a geocache, I visited the nearby old hotel in Othello which was built during the winter of 1911 as a hotel-boarding house for the growing railroad community. The building is now Othello’s last remaining original railroad-associated structure. In 2000, the Old Hotel was placed on the Washington State Register of Historic Places. This was the most interesting cache of the day because I visited the Old Hotel.

I crossed the bridge over the Columbia River to Vantage. I purchased a one year Washington State Discover Pass. I saw the film: "Ginkgo: Trees of Stone" at the Ginkgo Petrified Forest Museum and looked briefly at the exhibits. Large bust of George in George. I turned east just past George onto I-90. I reached Moses Lake in mid afternoon and decided to press on as there was several hours of daylight still. It was a frantic search about 9:00PM for a motel. I found a room at Motel 6 near the Spokane Airport and had a Dominos Pizza delivered. I found 13 geocaches and DNF one cache as it was now a construction site.

Trip to Spokane - Friday, August 5, 2011

I left Vancouver, WA at noon crossing the I-205 bridge to travel east on I-84. I stopped at the Chamber of Commerce in The Dalles to inquire about a future Geocoin Challenge. I reached the Tri-Cities in mid afternoon and decided to press on as there was several hours of daylight still. Sunset found me pulling into the M&M Motel in Connell. Clean and reasonably priced. I found four geocaches and did not find one. The most interesting geocache was the "Stage Coach Express" in Oregon.