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 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.

Looking for Grunge in Olympia, Washington (Oly 28)

Near the Thurston County Food Bank, Thurston Avenue, December 2025

I like to wander around looking for urban (and rural) decay and the detritus of our modern consumer society. Olympia, Washington, is not as rich with subjects as Jackson, Mississippi, or other southern cities, but one can find material here. 

Olympia Downtown

 

Unused tracks and view of Thurston County Food Bank
(Hasselblad 501CM camera, 250mm ƒ/5.6 Sonnar lens)

No camping on Chestnut Street, but some swine left a bag of trash.

Black cat and mold

Parking lot off Columbia Street NW

Parking lot off Columbia Street NW

(Ilford XP2 film, Pentax 28mm ƒ/3.5 shift lens, yellow filter)

4th Avenue near Plum Street

 

West Bay 

 

West Bay Drive passes along unused former industrial land. There is one city park and unused flat terrain once occupied by Hardel plywood and Reliable Steel.  

 

Former Reliable Steel shed, 1218 West Bay Drive

(Fuji Acros II film, 35mm ƒ/2.8 Pentax-A lens)

Free office chair

"Pacific Titan" crane barge moored at Port of Olympia

(Fuji Acros II film, Pentax MX camera, 50mm ƒ/1.4 Pentax-M lens) 

Tumwater

 

Cars painted here?

Former Olympia Brewery 

(Kodak T400CN film, Pentax MG, 35mm ƒ/2.8 Pentax-A lens, med yellow filter)

 

This is the former Olympia Brewery ("It's the Water"). Year after year, these ugly tan buildings molder away in the Deschutes River valley. They are an eyesore. Who will ever use these buildings again?

 

Skookumchuck

 

Skookumchuck (Presto 400 film,Leica M2, 35mm Summicron)

When I bike on the Chehalis Western trail, I often stop at the Monarch Sculpture Park for a rest and drink. The sculpture park has some excellent work on display; highly recommended. Immediately north of the park, railroad tracks end in the woods. For months, these petroleum tank cars loomed over the bike trail. 

I took these photographs with Kodak Panatomic-X (120 size), Kodak T400CN, Ilford XP2, Fuji Presto 400, and Fuji Acros II films using Leica, Pentax, and Hasselblad cameras.