Tuesday July 5, 2011: Dam!
First order of the day was to walk Bart. He had a spring in his step so last night's episode apparently was a non-issue.
After a few days of holding steady, it was time to move on. So, we decided to head back down the Columbian Gorge and visit the Bonnieville dam. Albert recommended the tour and he was right on!
The Bonnieville dam is the last in a series of dams on the Columbia River. This was one of FDR's projects to help build our infrastructure while helping people find jobs during the depression. It is not a dam that is a reservoir. Its purpose is to generate electricity while improving navigation on the river. Thus, it is not unusual to see incredible rapids coming out of the floodgates. We took a tour, then toured some on our own. I loved watching the fish on the fish ladders. One of the major concerns of building the dam was fish migration patterns, especially salmon. So a series of fish ladders and bypasses were created to facilitate their progress. There are windows where you can watch them migrating upstream. It was mesmerizing to watch! A lamprey attached itself to the window giving us all an up close and personal view!
The Red Cross was there soliciting for blood donors. Spouse and Dallas gave. Crew and I could not for various reasons. After several hours at the dam, we headed down to the fish hatchery where we viewed Herman, the 70 year old sturgeon. He weighs 450 pounds (but he doesn't look like a pound over 440!).
We left the dam and headed east on I84 to Cascade Locks, where we can cross over to Washington on the Bridge of the Gods. We headed north on 30, then caught 90 west. The roads were heavily forested and wild foxgloves, sweatpeas and beargrass showed their wares along the sides. We decided to pull into a campground at Beaver Bay near the town of Cougar. The campground is right on Yale Lake. It doesn't have RV hookups, but we should have enough water to get by. They have shower facilities so we should be able to make it.
Our site has tall trees and is quite spacious. We lit a fire in the fire ring where the boys all made their s'mores. I slept outside. The trees did a good job of blocking a lot of the stars, but I could still see plenty of them, and so many of them shone through the tree limbs that it felt quite Disney-esque!
First order of the day was to walk Bart. He had a spring in his step so last night's episode apparently was a non-issue.
After a few days of holding steady, it was time to move on. So, we decided to head back down the Columbian Gorge and visit the Bonnieville dam. Albert recommended the tour and he was right on!
The Bonnieville dam is the last in a series of dams on the Columbia River. This was one of FDR's projects to help build our infrastructure while helping people find jobs during the depression. It is not a dam that is a reservoir. Its purpose is to generate electricity while improving navigation on the river. Thus, it is not unusual to see incredible rapids coming out of the floodgates. We took a tour, then toured some on our own. I loved watching the fish on the fish ladders. One of the major concerns of building the dam was fish migration patterns, especially salmon. So a series of fish ladders and bypasses were created to facilitate their progress. There are windows where you can watch them migrating upstream. It was mesmerizing to watch! A lamprey attached itself to the window giving us all an up close and personal view!
The Red Cross was there soliciting for blood donors. Spouse and Dallas gave. Crew and I could not for various reasons. After several hours at the dam, we headed down to the fish hatchery where we viewed Herman, the 70 year old sturgeon. He weighs 450 pounds (but he doesn't look like a pound over 440!).
We left the dam and headed east on I84 to Cascade Locks, where we can cross over to Washington on the Bridge of the Gods. We headed north on 30, then caught 90 west. The roads were heavily forested and wild foxgloves, sweatpeas and beargrass showed their wares along the sides. We decided to pull into a campground at Beaver Bay near the town of Cougar. The campground is right on Yale Lake. It doesn't have RV hookups, but we should have enough water to get by. They have shower facilities so we should be able to make it.
Our site has tall trees and is quite spacious. We lit a fire in the fire ring where the boys all made their s'mores. I slept outside. The trees did a good job of blocking a lot of the stars, but I could still see plenty of them, and so many of them shone through the tree limbs that it felt quite Disney-esque!
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