2000 Washington

Friday 8/27/00

Day 10: Gardner Caves, Steptoe & Pullman

Lake Sullivan runoffWe got up around 8:00 and talked to the manager in the office who told us about the Gardner Caves. These were near the Canadian border on the east side of Pend Oreille River. She mentioned that they have tours every two hours starting at 10:00. I thanked her for the info and told her we would probably be back this summer on our way back from Alaska as it was a clean inexpensive hotel and quiet. I would recommend this to anybody in the area. We left the hotel around 9:00 and drove to Sullivan Rd to the Dam Falls at Mill Pond which had been built in the 1900's for electricity. There was also a Mill Pond camp area close by that only cost $5 a night . The road continued east for a mile before reaching Sullivan Lake. This is a long narrow lake that has forest and mountains in the background for nice scenary. There were many people fishing here as there were campsights at both the north and south end of the lake.

Gardners CaveWe drove back to Metaline Falls and crossed the river on Boundary Rd to go to the Gardner Cave and also the base of the Boundary Dam. We got to the caves right at 10:00 for their tour as they explained how this land was privately owned in the early 1900's and was even used thy the owner to produce alcohol during prohabition. He would take the alcohol over the border to Canada and sell it there. The cave is 1050 feet long of which 500 feet is accessable during the tour. The cave was well lighted for pictures and the tour guide explained how the cave was formed from sea fossils that formed to limestone. The limestone then dissolved from acid rain over thousands of years to form the cave. You could still see small drops of water forming pools in the caves. At the bottom of the caves the tour guide turned out the light to get an idea of how dark it really inside a cave. The tour lasted about an hour and is worth taking if you are in the vicinity.

Pend Oreille RiverBox Dam in Northeast WashjingtonWe left the caves and continued north to drive to Boundary Dam.. There was a small day use parksight at the dam as we walked around and took some pictures. There was alot of water being let out at this time of year. There are also tours that could be given on the inside complex but they needed to be scheduled ahead of time. We started back and would take a gravel road that stopped at a old shack. Jacob and I walked around as there were remains of an old pickup truck and new yorker car with bullet holes thru the metal. This place had been deserted for many years and was probably a booming area during the building of the dam and early 1900's. After leaving here we continued back and would stop to take some piures of Box Canyon Dam and the Pend Oreille river before driving to Iona. We turned right on highway 20 at Iona and drove west to Colville. This is a nice drive as you go past forested area and also many lakes on both sides of the road. We saw Lake Thomas, Lake Gillette, Keough Lake and White Mud Lake on our way to Colville. Colville is surrounded by a nice farming valley and quiet community. It is the largest town in the Northeast area of Washington. We drove south form here along highway 395 and would go into Spokane. This was a boring drive as there was to much traffic on Father's Day for a two lane road. In other words, I couldn't get to Spokan fast enough.

The Long and Winding RoadWe finally arrived in Spokane around 4:00 and went east on I90 for a couple miles before turning off on 27 to go south to Pullman for the night. This is a windinng road that goes thru all little farming communities for the next 60 miles. You can drive for miles along this highway and only see a couple farm houses with many roaming hills of either wheat or dirt fields. About every ten miles there will be a grain silo and some nice older houses with one street of businesses. We went thru Rockford,and Fairfield which are small community with grain storage and one main streets. As we continued south we would enter Latah as this was a litlle bigger with more older houses and a couple streets of business. Tekoa was about five miles south and this is the nicest of the small farming towns as it has many large older houses along several community blocks. We drove around town for a little while. The people seemed friendly as there were many taking walks outside and waving at us as we drove by. The road now would wind westward to Oakesdale which has a large building still standing along the railroads that was used as a flour mill the first part of the century.

Steptoe Golf Course that never endsKamiak Butte park in the PalouseWe took Hume Rd from here off of 27 to go to Steptoe Butte State Park, this is the nicest view of the Palouse area as you can drive to the very top and see 360 degrees of roaming fields. It is a four mile drive to the top and 3600 ft in elevation, and the view is well worth it. The rolling hills reminded Jacob and I off an enormous golf course for miles and miles as there were many traps and roughs but also beautiful greens that stretched forever. You can only imagine what sunsets and thunderstorms look like from up here overlooking the wheatfiealds. While we were up there a person came to us and showed us a picture of a hotel that used to be here on the emountain in the late 1800's. The hotel burned down in the early 1900's and was never rebuilt. He showed us a picture of the hotel from a book that he had. Palouse was the next farming town we visitied as this is only a couple miles from the Idaho border. The last stop before reaching Pullman would be Kamiak Butte Park. This is a county park with many trees on top of a butte overlooking all of the farm land. It was nice to stop as it was about 75 drgrees with the only shaded area we had acces to. There wer many people having picnics today with a view overlooking the wheat fields. There was also a hiking trail that would let you climb to the very top of the butte which we did not take.

We finallly arrived in Pullman around 5:00. We made a quick drive thru town to show the kids what we remembered from twenty years ago and what changes we think the town had gone thru. We got a room at the Motel Manor for $65 including tax. This is along the main strip where we could walk downtown later. Around 8:30 we went to Basilio's Italiian Cafe for dinner. Cindy and I split a carafe of wine. We ate Raviolis, Manicotti, Cobb Salad and small pizza. It was OK for the price and what you can expect for food at a college town. We went back to the hotel and put the kids to bed. After they were asleep aroun 10:00, Cindy and I went downtown to Rico's. This was one of the few places that looked famaliar to us when we drove in. As we walked in, we heard 70's music and it was like Deja Vu. Inside the bar you have a tri-level bar with pool tables on top, tables and 70's music on the second floor and a band playing older jazz down below. We listened to the the jazz group for about an hour where we could relax away from the kids. We next went to Pete's Bar that used to be The Ram. They were also playing disco music and it just felt weird, like we had never left. When this place was The Ram in late 70's they let you cook your own steak and it was one of the more popular restaurants back then. There was a private party going on tonight as we could only go into the bar. We had a couple drinks here before leaving around 12:30. We went to sleep at 1:00. We drove 500 miles today.

I drove 350 miles today and 2800. total

 

  • Day 11

  • Introduction