The Palouse: An Overview
Driving through the Palouse is as relaxing as sitting a hot tub, jets turned off. I first experienced the ride when my husband and I spent a couple of days in Walla Walla. On the way to the city of vineyards…Continue reading→
Ponderosa Pine: Spokane’s Official Tree
Author Barb Bentler Ullman lists ten native tree species inhabiting eastern Washington: the ponderosa, lodgepole, and western white pines; interior Douglas fir; western larch and quacking aspen; the netleaf hackberry, water birch, black cottonwood, and Oregon white oak. Ten species, and the three…Continue reading→
Mt. Spokane: Other Wintry Delights
Downhill skiing and snowboarding are not the only winter sports atop Mt. Spokane. Two of the others I have tried – snow tubing and snowshoeing. The third, cross-country skiing, I have not. Snow tubing: The first Christmas our two daughters visited…Continue reading→
Mt. Spokane Ski & Snowboard Park
Mount Spokane, the closest of neighboring mountains to the city itself, is a natural playground for all seasons. Here you can wander through wildflowers in the spring, cool off and pick huckleberries in the summer, hike and mountain bike in autumn’s…Continue reading→
Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture
Winter is the time to enjoy indoor activities, for me at least. When I think indoor activities, I think museums. And when I think museums here in Spokane, I think of the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, informally known as…Continue reading→
Lake Coeur d’Alene: The Scenic Triangle
When I returned to continue my circumnavigation of Lake Coeur d’Alene, I chose to do it along the scenic triangle of I-90 and routes 3 and 97. And scenic it is, with soaring mountain ridges, symmetrical tracts of evergreen forests, glistening…Continue reading→
Circumnavigating Lake Coeur d’Alene
Lake Coeur d’Alene sprawls across the mountains of northern Idaho, resembling (with a bit of imagination) an arthritic seahorse – spindly and stooped and marked by knobby bays and inlets. It stretches twenty-five miles from end to end, with over a…Continue reading→
The Winding Little Spokane Waterway
On a map, the Little Spokane River looks like the doodles of a pre-schooler, all curves and curlicues. From the road, it can scarcely be seen, an occasional flash of water in lovely forested foothills. For kayakers, this is Spokane’s most…Continue reading→
The Dry Falls — World’s Largest
The largest waterfall in the world spans an arid region devoid of all but lichens and the hardiest shrubs. Over three and a half miles long and four hundred feet high, it is roughly three times the size of New York’s…Continue reading→
The Channeled Scablands: Story within a Story
Wedged between the temperate rain forests of western Washington and the evergreen forests of northern Idaho lies a mostly barren region of scab-shaped rock formations, massive cliffs of columnar basalt, and trough-like valleys known as coulees. The region is hot in…Continue reading→