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.
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| 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.
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| 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).
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| Ancient Lakes from Upper Trailhead (Samsung phone digital file) |
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| Hexagonal basalt and waterfall below the Upper Trailhead |
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| 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....
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| 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.
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| Rolleiflex 3.5E with 75mm ƒ/3.5 Schneider Xenotar taking lens |
