More Big Skies, Silos, and Geology - Eastern Washington 2026 (Part 2)

We continue our June 2026 road trip into central eastern Washington. 

Heading north into the north central part of the state, the terrain becomes more hilly. Occasional coulees (water-scored gullies) downcut into the underlying basalt. It is fascinating geology.

Odessa is a city in wheat country. We saw some German influence. Here in central Washington? I read later that some 80 percent of the immigrants in the late 1800s were Germans from Russia. 

Farm house near Odessa

Grand Coulee (the city) is located next to Lake Roosevelt, which is the Columbia River upstream of the huge Grand Coulee dam. Basalt walls loom above the city - it has a nice physical situation. The town itself is not too exciting. But it has an excellent coffee shop, the appropriately named Voltage Coffee House on Spokane Way. After driving through central Washington, it was time to stop for some volts. An old shed was next door.   

 

Head southwest along the spectacular Coulee Boulevard. It. runs along the west edge of the coulee (canyon), with basalt cliffs looming above you to the east. Banks Lake glistens blue to the west. But where to stay? Ah, ha, the Ala Cozy Motel in Coulee City. (The names are confusing; this is a different city than Grand Coulee.) Dinner at Couleegan's Bar & Grill was this incredible broasted chicken. Wow, enough chicken for a week of road trip!

 

 Coulee City is pretty quiet. But it had some interesting silos on the west edge of town.

 

 

Continue southwest to the Sun Lakes-Dry Falls State Park. Here, rock outcrops and lakes are more examples of the scouring and downcutting from the immense floods that coursed across this land when glacial Lake Missoula burst through its ice dam.

 

Fractured basalt boulder near Umatilla Rock, Sun Lakes-Dry Falls State Park

After hiking in Dry Falls, continue southwest to Quincy for a visit to the Ancient Lakes. There are several easy hikes, and you can camp here (but beware, the water in the lakes is farm runoff, so not drinkable).

Ancient Lakes from Upper Trailhead (Samsung phone digital file)

Hexagonal basalt and waterfall below the Upper Trailhead

Fractured basalt boulder near Lower Trailhead (Kodak T400CN film, 50mm ƒ/1.8 Canon lens) 

We reluctantly headed west towards Ellensburg. This is a nice college town. After hundreds of miles in eastern Washington, we were hungry. Dear readers, you know where this is going. We went to Smokey's on Pearl Street. Ahhhh....

Carnivore's delight - Smokey's on Pearl Street

This ends out June 2026 road trip in eastern Washington. There is more to explore. Time to return with a 4×5" camera.

I took the square pictures with a Rolleiflex 3.5E twin-lens camera with 75mm ƒ/3.5 Xenotar lens (5-element version) on Kodak Ektar 100 film. Glazer's Camera in Seattle, Washington, developed the film and scanned it with a Noritsu system. 

 

Rolleiflex 3.5E with 75mm ƒ/3.5 Schneider Xenotar taking lens

Big Skies, Silos, and Farms - Eastern Washington 2026 (Part 1)

Eastern Washington is topographically and climatologically so different than the Puget Lowlands of western Washington. It is so much fun to head east of the Cascades and explore farm roads and byways. In June 2026, a friend and I took a road trip to look at the Channeled Scablands, the geological remains of the immense floods from glacial Lake Missoula. But here, we will look at farms and cultural features. 

We started our trip in Hood River, Oregon, and proceeded east along the south bank of the Columbia River. This was the route that my dad took in 1949 when he stopped at the famous Celilo Falls. We drove through the Wallula Gap and emerged in eastern Washington. 

Umatilla

 

The cowboy of 6th Street

A giant cowboy! Did we drive to west Texas? No, just an enthusiastic advertisement for Harvest Foods. Chicken drumsticks only $1/lb. 

 

Lamar 

 

Lamar is a farming community on the Touchet River. This is wheat-growing country, so there are silos to store the produce. 

  

Palouse Falls State Park

 

Palouse Falls is in one of the coulees gouged out to the basalt by the great floods. The Palouse Falls State Park Heritage Site is on Palouse Falls Road in LaCrosse. It is a drive but really worthwhile. You need a Washington State Discover Pass for entry. We saw marmots everywhere, quite tame. But that means tourists feed them. Don't do that!

2025 view SW of the Palouse River

(Portra 160 film, Pentax MG, 50mm ƒ/2 Rikenon lens)

Washtucna

Forgotten farmhouse, Rte 261 north of Washtucna

Washtucna is pretty quiet. I stopped in town during my 2025 road trip. For this 2026 trip, we continued north. I want to return to this area with B&W film, maybe with a 4×5" camera.

 

Ritzville

 

Ritzville is in the heart of wheat farm country. I remember when a college roomate and I stayed with his family in Ritzville in the early 1970s. US farmers had just begun to sell wheat to the Soviet Union, and Washington farmers were happy and buying new combines and other farm machinery. These wheat sales were an admission by the Soviet regime that they were unable to feed their own people. The sales started trade in other commodities with the Soviet Union. They were an element of Richard Nixon's program of détente during the height of the cold war.

 

North Division Street

North Division Street

The Top Hat, 210 East 1st Avenue

No more food here, 509 West 1st Avenue

I am really enjoying eastern Washington. It reminds me of my road trips through west Texas or other farm areas in the Southwest. The big sky dominates the scene, and lonely houses or silos pop up as you round a bend in a road. The people you meet are friendly, but it is a lonely terrain.

I took these photographs on Kodak Gold 200 film with a Rolleiflex 3.5E twin lens reflex camera. It has a 75mm ƒ/3.5 Xenotar lens (5 element version). Glazer's Camera in Seattle developed the film and scanned the negatives with a Noritsu system. 

 

Small Cities in western Washington: Raymond

Raymond is one of the larger cities in Pacific County in the state of Washington. It was incorporated in 1907 and economically driven by logging, timber mills, commercial fishing, and oyster culture. Logging and fishing declined in the mid-20th century, as did the city's prosperity, but after 2012, marijuana cultivation and sales partly revived the city. As of 2025, the city still looks rough. 

Willapa River and unused railroad swing bridge

Raymond was built next to the Willapa River. This allowed lumber vessels to access Willapa Bay and hence the open Pacific Ocean. However, the mouth of Willapa Bay is once of the more treacherous openings along the Oregon and Washington coast because of waves and shifting shoals. I assume this may have somewhat limited Raymond's commercial growth compared to Aberdeen in Grays Harbor. 

Willapa Bay is still a major oyster harvesting area. Raymond calls itself "The Oyster Capital of the World." 

 I explored the streets near the west end of downtown.   

Commercial building on 1st. Street (Kodak Tri-X 400 film, Rolleiflex 3.5 E camera)

Apartments on 1st Street

Two wood houses remain at the corner of 2nd and Ellis Streets. The Weyerhauser wood mill beyond the buildings includes a log yard, sawmill, planer mill, kilns, and planer machines. 

 

Former department store, 2nd Street at Duryea Street

Rear of commercial building facing 3rd Street

Commercial building at 2nd and Duryea Streets

HAVA no-kill cat shelter for homeless, abandoned, or abused cats, 431 2nd Street

439 2nd Street

Golden Lion Inn, 524 3rd St.

 

These photographs look rather bleak. There were very few people about.  

The Golden Lion Inn is a modest establishment on 3rd Street. One of the building has a distinct 1960s motor court look with horizontal bricks and wide overhang roof line. I doubt I would stay there, but the property looked well-maintained.

I took most of the photographs on Dec. 29, 2025. The square frames are Kodak Tri-X 400 film from my Rolleiflex 3.5E with 75mm ƒ/3.5 Xenotar lens. The rectangle frames are Ilford XP2 film from my Pentax MX camera and a 50mm ƒ/2 Rikenon lens. This Ricoh lens is a remarkably good plastic-bodied consumer lens sold with many Sears cameras in the 1980s. It is a standard 6-element double Gauss design, multi-coated. I am still deciding if I like XP2, which is a C-41 film (like color print film but monochrome only). It is easy to use and flexible with exposure.

More Exploring in Astoria, Oregon (2026)

 

Astoria is fun! This historic trade and fishing city is near the mouth of the Columbia River. Despite its proximity to the Pacific Ocean, it largely protected from ocean swells by the Columbia jetties, the ebb tide shoal, and by sand bars in the river. The town has become trendy, with great restaurants, plenty of hotels, and other tourist paraphernalia. Winter must normally be gloomy and wet, but my last two visits were sunny. In January 2026, the sun was glorious - just for me? 

 

Astoria in Mono 

 

Astoria–Megler Bridge (opened 1966) (135mm Pentax-M lens, yellow filter, tripod-mounted)

11th Street view north (135mm Pentax-M lens)

The Columbia River flows majestically past the city. It dominates the scenery and the emotional feel of the community. Houses climb the hills and have spectacular views.

This was interesting, a Quonset Hut shed where a locomotive foundation is restoring a steam locomotive. No one was at the project the day I stopped. But I want to return and see how they are progressing with their locomotive. The tracks in the picture above run into a mound that supports a parking lot, so the train group will need to lay new rail out the back. 

 I wonder if this is a surplus WWII Quonset Hut? Thousands of them were available after the war. 

 

Astoria in Color

  

 Here is the locomotive shed taken on Kodak Ektar 100 film with a Zeiss Ikon ZM camera and a 35mm ƒ/2 Summicron lens. 

Riverwalk mural

Bigfoot drinks coffee??

Dear Readers, you know the inevitable end to vigorous exploring and walking:  Go eat some of the best fish 'n chips I have ever tasted at Astoria Brewing Company. Plus, have some ales or beers. Mmmm....

 

The square black and white photographs are from Kodak Tri-X 400 film via my Rolleiflex 3.5E twin lens reflex camera with its 75mm ƒ/3.5 Xenotar lens (5-element version). The color rectangle frames are Kodak Ektar 100 film from a Zeiss Ikon ZM rangefinder camera with 50mm and 35mm lenses. I will write more about the ZM later.

On the Waterfront: Steel Bridge and the Willamette Waterfront, Portland, Oregon

 

The Willamette River flows through the Willamette Valley of western Oregon and splits Portland into east and west sections. The river waterfront is so interesting because of the remnants of Portland's heavy industrial and transportation infrastructure as well as new gentrification. On a wet June (2026) morning, I passed through Portland and stopped at the riverfront to take some pictures.  

Steel Bridge

One of the historic bridges over the Willamatte is the famous Steel Bridge, first opened in 1912. This was superb early 20th century engineering because it is a double-deck vertical-lift structure. The upper deck carries Pacific Highway West (formerly Oregon Route 99W) and MAX light rail tracks, while the lower deck carries heavy rail and a bicycle trail. The upper deck formerly carried streetcars until 1948.

 

 You can see the railroad tracks curving and continuing onto the lower level of the bridge.

  

Louis Dreyfus Terminal

The agricultural commodities company, Louis Dreyfus Co., built these towering grain silos along the banks of the Willamette River in 1914. They may have been the only privately-owned deep draft (meaning, suitable for ocean-going ships) docks on the Columbia River system. Until around 2013, the terminals shipped US grain around the world. Afterwards, the enormous facility went through several owners. 

One article states that the terminal became functionally crippled when Union Pacific concluded that the railroad tracks on the property no longer met Union Pacific safety standards. There is obviously more to this story. Regardless, the silos are an example of early 20th century mega-construction and are a fascinating industrial photographic topic. 

 

Willamette River and water side of Louis Dreyfus terminal

East (land) side of terminal

It would be fun to take some pictures from the sheds way up on the steel framework.

 

The tracks on the east side of the property appear to be in regular use. I assume the tracks that were considered to not be up to current safety standards were the ones that curve around the terminal and continue over the water on pilings.

Aegean Parking Lot view south

 Broadway Bridge

 

 

The Broadway Bridge is another early 20th century engineering success. Built in 1913, it is a bascule design, where the center span splits in two and each section pivot upwards. I need to bicycle on these bridges and take more photographs.

 I took these photographs with Kodak Gold 200 film using my Rolleiflex 3.5E camera with its 75mm ƒ/3.5 Xenotar lens. The light was gloomy and soft, and I used a tripod for all exposures. Glazer's Camera in Seattle developed the film and scanned the frames with a Noritsu system. The Noritsu produces scans that are warm tone. I corrected the color with the auto color function in Photoshop Elements 2014. 

I tried 35mm Gold 200 two years ago, and thought it was too grainy. But in medium format, it is much more successful. But still, I will go back to using Portra 160 film or, for conditions in soft light, Ektar 100. 

I wish Kodak would reintroduce their superb Gold 100 film from the 1990s and early 2000s. I only used 120 Gold 100 once, long after it had been discontinued. I did not know that Kodak packaged it in 120. One day, I need to post some of my 1990s New York City Gold 100 frames (one day.....).