Well we left the house to go to the Sand Hill Crane Festival in Othello. They are having a three day event where the main focus is the Sand Hill cranes. They say there are up to 75 thousand some years in the Columbia National Wildlife refuge.
When we hooked up the Jeep to the motor home not all the lights worked so we spent a few hours getting this straightened out. As a result we did not get to Moses Lake until 5 pm. We plan to stay here at Suncrest RV park until we leave.
Thurs, March 27
We drove into Moses lake and looked around. I did find a new electric motor for my rock polisher at a very good price. After lunch we drove the 23 miles to Othello to look around, that is get the lay of the land for the festival. On the way back, we went through the Columbia Wildlife Refuge and found out where to look for the cranes. When we got there we saw thousands of them. Unfortunately they were a long distance away. After watching them for a while, they started leaving to go to various fields for feeding. What a fantastic sight.
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| The cranes are in the middle of the picture. They are grey looking dots. |
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| These are just of few of the cranes that took off while we were watching. |
Judy and I drove around Moses Lake and stopped at a few thrift shops and looked
at stuff. We went back to the motor home and had lunch. We then headed South to Othello to check into the Sandhill crane festival. They were just getting set up. We went to the Old Hotel, which is not an artist place, super junk store and the city information center. An old church was converted into the city museum which had local history especially of the Milwaukee Road. My dad, mom and sister Diane lived a short time there as dad worked on the trains. The weather was off and on rain throughout the day so we were concerned about out Sandhill crane tour which was to start at 5:30 pm.
A bus load of people headed out with two wild life people to find the cranes. We did find some in fields and watched them come flying in. Very pretty sight.
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| Large flock coming in to land as the sun is setting. Notice the cranes just about on the sand bar. |
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| More cranes coming in to land. |
We went back to the festival for some talks and me a tour. I went to a talk about the Missoula lake flood which swept across Eastern Washington all the way to the Pacific ocean. I then went on a three hur tour with a geologist who showed us some of the things he had talked about.
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| Goose Lake in the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge which was scoured out when the flood waters came through. |
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| Part of the scab lands. It was estimated that during the floods this land was covered by at least a hundred feet of water coming through at about 65 miles per hour. |
Sunday March 30
Today we went to the diatom pits just south of George, WA to get some bog wood, that is, opalized wood. When we got to the pits, no one was there but there was some wood placed at the entrance to the plant. The wind was blowing hard,
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| The opalized wood is right next to Goldie. |
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| Diatomaceous earth piled up ready to be transported. |
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| Looking for a good piece of opalized wood. |
up with some of what we hope will be good. It is all coated with diatomaceous earth.
Next we drove to the lower Crab Creek road with is on the North side of the Saddle Mts to look for birds. Saw only a few magpies and swallows. Ate lunch at Potholes state park. We forgot our discover pass but snuck in anyway.
Monday March 31
Today we went to Saddle Mountains to get some petrified wood. We were told to look for the third telephone pole from the cell tour, then turn right down the hill and then right again to find a big petrified tree. Well, counting was not accurate but we think we found the right road. After turning right off the "main" road we saw some diggings on our left and drove to them. I started digging in an existing hole and soon discovered a a petrified log. It took a while to dig around it and it was clear I was not going to get it all.
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| Tip of the petrified log in the hole. |
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| Judy sitting at our lunch hole next to the diggings. |
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| In the hole digging. |
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| Our first big piece. |
We managed to get quite a bit of wood but left the big log still in the ground ready for the next time or someone else. I got the gps coordinates in case someone wants to go there. The temperature was in the mid-50's and just a little wind. Thank goodness, it can get very wind there near the top of the mountains. After lunch we walked over to another dig and found what we think was the big tree people have been working on for at least a year. The cave they dug was not a good idea for us to get wood there.
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| Cave where people have been digging out a log. |
Spring flowers here just starting and we saw some pretty ones.
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| Judy knew this as yellow bell. |
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| Judy with her hand out |
We had very good pork stir fry for dinner.
April Fools Day
In the morning, we went into Moses Lake and did a little shopping at the Big R farm store. After lunch we headed back to the wild life refuge. We went to the headquarters to see Marla, the artist who painted the festival poster, and ask for her autograph. She was not there so a volunteer was very generous and gave us her poster signed by Marla. We did take a picture of stuffed cranes.
We had a steak dinner then headed to the Scootteney Reservoir to watch the Sandhill cranes fly in from their afternoon eating in the fields. When we got there there were very few to be seen. But soon they came flying in by the hundreds. The viewing was much better then when we were on a tour last Friday. And we were the only ones there watching and the sunset was good too.
Sorry about the shaky video. I was on telephoto and really needed a tripod.
Well, we will give this a try... Shoping today... we went to a farm store that had every possible item that could be used on a farm....It was really fun... Honest I did not know, but one end of the store was western clothing... popular here and it just so happened Richard was in great need of new jeans... He made out with two new pair and three shirts to go with... Like many men his clothes could fall off and he would insist he does not need new. So we both won today
Now to my take on tonight's viewing of the Sandhill Cranes. We were indeed the only ones who aw this sight from this vantage. I was so afraid we were late, but not so. We looked to the sky and here they came.... we also were getting a choral concert. They make a lovely clucking noise combined with a trill that I would compare to the sound of a loon. You can hear some of this sound in the video, so turn up your button. The birds came in groups, then more, then more until the sky was black with the lovely things... with our binocks we could pick one and watch them land. Breathtaking. The sunset was even more colorful than last night....Judy
April 2
Today we went to the Ginko Petrified Forest at Vantage, WA. The visitor center was closed but lots of large logs of wood to see. There are some petroglyphs removed from along the Columbia River before the Wanapum dam flooded the area. We drove a few miles away to trails through the hills where petrified wood logs were exposed but encased in tombs.
After visiting here we drove to Ephrata where we had a Mexican lunch. There were several antique stores which needed to be visited. Judy found the typewriter she was looking for along with a glass piece similar to one she already had. We continued up the road to Soap lake and put our fingers in the water. Then back home.
April 3 we are heading home to Shelton.
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