Somewhat surprisingly, these were really common in the eastern part of the state. Granted, these were some of our windiest days, so it did make sense.
I got a great video of a dust devil. Pretty cool, huh?
The Snake River, which we passed when it was just a little stream in the Tetons.
Not a dust devil, just some farmer in a massive tractor cutting wheat straw.
These were made from little discs of some sort, welded together. The detritus of some farm equipment, I'm sure.
A little harder to make out, but an eagle an and a crocodile.
So Souteastern Washington state felt to me what wandering through the desert must feel like. Rolling hills everywhere and when you pass over the top of one, all you see is more and more of the same. It gets a little tedious, obviously, but eventually you start feeling like you're not moving at all.
The aforementioned dust devil, and more of the same rolling hills, covered only in wheat straw.
Ah yes, some 'urban' blight. Now I feel more at home.
Did I say 'urban'? I really meant, in the middle of nowhere blight. Not bad graffiti though.
A little bit of burnt grass. Not as bad as the wildfires, but a sign that everything in the West at one point WAS ON FIRE.
Once passed the confluence of the Yakima, Snake and Columbia rivers, we were in the Yakima Valley. So it was bone dry, but because of irrigation, there were orchards like this, and other fields.
The greenery seemed rather incongruous, but it was a respite from the rolling hills of yellow from further east,.
If it weren't for the irrigation, everything would have looked more like this. It looked a bit like the backdrop for a Spaghetti Western.
(High pitched whistling)
WHAAA WHA WHAAAAAAA!
The sunsets are really impressive, though.
Smoke will do that.
And finally, hops. The real reason we did this entire trip. These are brand new trellises for growing hops. Untouched by biney tendrils, ready for the next year.
And these are full grown hops, ready for the harvest. We drove this way a few days later, and they were busy cutting the bines down.
Sunset over a hop field. Pretty cool, huh?
Yeah, the sunsets were the best.
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