July 24, 2021 The Nez Perce (Nimiipuu) people lived in the area when the Lewis and Clark expedition arrived in 1805 and provided food and hospitality to the explorers. The Visitors Center features exhibits of historic and contemporary clothing, tools, weapons, and ceremonial objects. The Lapwai Mission was established on Read more…
July 23, 2021 Tsceminicum is the Nez Perce word for “meeting of the waters”. This sculpture by Nancy Dreher is at the meeting of the Snake and Clearwater Rivers. It shows the earth mother at the headwaters and features native wildlife presided over by coyote, the most important figure in Read more…
July 23, 2021 Hells Gate State Park on the Snake River near Clarkston includes the Lewis and Clark Discovery Center, numerous hiking trails, an RV campground and marina and boat launch facilities. The park had exhibits as well as one of the best movies we’ve seen about the Lewis and Read more…
July 7/21-7/28 We loved our site at Granite Lake RV Resort in Clarkston, Washington. We were lucky enough to have a spot on the Snake River–it kind of made up for the stargazer resort that didn’t have a dark sky and the riverview park that had no view of the Read more…
July 20, 2021 Lewis and Clark camped at the site of this park October 16, 1805. With them was Sacajawea [spelling as provided by the park], a young Shoshone woman who was the wife of Toussaint Charbonneau, one of Lewis and Clark’s interpreters. The site at the confluence of the Read more…
July 18, 2021 Hanford Reach is the name of the longest non-tidal free-flowing section of the Columbia River. The museum named for it features two main galleries, one about the natural history of the area and the other about the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. Hanford was chosen as one of three Read more…
July 16, 2021 NAS (Naval Air Station) Pasco was a naval air training station in the early 1940s where beginning pilots trained for combat. Through local efforts, the control tower has been saved and its two lowest floors are being used as a museum. The museum includes an excellent collection Read more…
July 15, 2021 The East Benton County Historical Society Museum was built around a floor! Local resident Gordon Maxey spent 16 years collecting, slicing, and polishing petrified wood to make a floor for his home. After his death, his heirs agreed to donate the floor to the historical society if Read more…
July 15, 2021 Kennewick, Richland, and Pasco make up the Tri-Cities, with a metropolitan area of about 280,000. Our first full day of exploring took us to Badger Mountain Park. We visited a memorial made from 35-foot tall external vertical support columns from the World Trade Center. At one time Read more…
July 13, 2021 We meet some very interesting people–and pets. The woman pictured below and her family had stopped at a scenic overlook where everyone, the lizard included, were stretching their legs. Wishram is home to Great Northern 2507, a locomotive built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1923. It pulled Read more…