We hoped and expected to find a mom and pop motel where we might stay, but each was closed. Given anything approaching equal accommodations I always favor the mom and pop places, both for charm and to support family run businesses. But they have to be open to qualify.
We discovered some lovely places to camp or park an RV. One I recall was run by Whitman County on the Snake River, with a beautiful lawn and shade trees along the river bank. It was clean as a whistle, very well maintained, and I would recommend everything I saw. It was at Wawawai (46.6358, -117.3758) where a pioneer community that once existed was drowned under the waters of Lower Granite Dam. Fifteen dollars a night would have given you pick of the campsites, complete with lovely shade trees, table, Bar-B, water, toilets, and fishing. It was the kind of place you want to know about.
It was already late afternoon by the time we reached Lyons Ferry with its huge Joso Railroad Bridge (photo below)(46.5963, -118.2236). I wanted to catch Palouse Falls before we lost the sunlight, so we drove on and soon turned off the two lane onto the dirt road leading to the falls. There must have been a dozen cars at the parking site, the most I have ever seen there.
The falls (46.6634, -118.2234), while huge, are a tickle compared to the wall of water hundreds of feet deep that rushed over the entire background landscape during the Missoula Floods. The landscapes in large parts of eastern Washington are simply incomprehensible without some understanding of those almost unimaginable events. It took geologists many years to accept and understand the events, and one of the most famous hold outs was transformed into a believer right here when he observed the falls and the totally out of scale humongous canyon downstream, which carried some of the outflow to the Snake.
If course the young people who played with death at the unguarded brink of the falls probably had no idea of its history, nor apparently of the fact that they were mortal. Take a look at a true Near Death Experience HERE.
Dave
Keep the Show on the Road!
