Palouse Country, Washington

After heavy hail in Manning Park; finding cherries and peaches for $1 a pound in the Okanagan, and torrential rain north of Spokane, we finally arrived in the sunny Palouse country in southeast Washington. Who gets excited about wheat fields, or "the Dried Pea and Lentil Capital of the US". Why would that area appeal to anyone, or us?
Think of an area from Vancouver to Abbotsford squared, covered with rolling hills formed by a dust called Loess, anywhere from 12 to 18 meters deep.  This rich soil produces double the amount of wheat and lentils, unirrigated.
In the midst of the area is the Steptoe Butte that rises 1000 ft above the surrounding hills with a road that circles the butte twice on it's way to the top.  Mike and I spent several hours there at dusk last night capturing images of the amazing play of shadows and light on these dune-like hills.  Up at 5 am today to head back up for the dawn light, when half way up the butte Mike noticed that our gas gauge was on the very bottom end of the RED warning section.  Afraid we'd end up miles from any passing cars we headed back down and with our hearts in our throats, we crept into a gas station, after finding that the first station had a "No Gas" sign posted on the pumps!
Today we learnt to: never let our gas run that low; that the Nez Perce Indians called their spotted horse breed Appaloosa, after the Palouse region; that here a 'creek' is called a 'crick' and that yes, there really is a Lentil Ice Cream!

Contrasts

Approaching Storm

Dune-like

Wheat Harvesting 

Rolling Hills

New Power Sources