Rancho Rioja

In the center of the picture is the Alvord Desert, once a prehistoric lakebed, now an expanse of sun-baked earth where nothing grows. You can drive right out on it, which, of course, we did! This view is taken from the mouth of Pike Creek Canyon, carved by the runoff of snow melting high up on the Steens Mountain.

All lines to the horizon in the sky and on the dry lakebed of the Alvord Desert, the ground baked and cracked by the eastern Oregon sun until it resembles a lizard's skin.

The Alvord Ranch, on land both owned and leased from the federal government, covers an area approaching a quarter million acres—or at least so we were informed by an employee of the ranch at the local hot springs.

The fault block face of The Steens Mountain rises over the ancient lakebed of the Alvord Desert.

Hiking with my sister up Pike Creek Canyon, I noticed this puffball of a little cloud wafting toward this crag, and hurried to get my lens on it. 

I crossed a bridge over the Columbia and, rising out of the gorge, I came upon plantations of gigantic windmills.

My buddies and I stopped in Oysterville on the Long Beach peninsula to buy oysters, clams and, yes, some delicious dungeness crab. We enjoyed them with Vespers and white wine.

Overlooking Willapa Bay in Washington

On the way back to Colfax, Washington after having a burger and a beer in nearby Pullman, my buddy Bruce and I pulled over when I spotted this barn in the middle of rolling hills of wheat bathed in the light of the golden hour. Bruce verified that it was in fact chickpeas growing in the field next door.

Waning light on a hill just outside of Colfax, Washington.

I saw this barn and those clouds while doing sixty on the road from Colfax to Walla Walla. I had to go on a little stretch before I could find a place to get turned around.