Steamboat Rock

May 15, 2013

Steamboat Rock State Park

We arrive after about a 200 mile drive at Steamboat Rock State Park just after noon. It was an uneventful drive which is always good. We stayed here last year and returned because it is such a nice well maintained park. Our site has a great view of the lake and surroundings. The sun shone on faces of the monoliths across the lake showing great colors in the strata of the area.

We drove into Grand Coulee, about 12 miles, and did the sightseeing thing at the dam. What a marvel of man’s ability to have a dream and realize it through construction. Grand Coulee Dam is the largest concrete structure in the world. Lake Roosevelt behind the dam supplies 900 billion, yes with a "b", gallons of water to Banks Lake every year to irrigate 1.5 million acres of farmland in Washington. Really amazing and to think my Grandpa Izett, Mom’s dad, worked on it as an engineer. Then back to the park and relax and meet our neighbors for the remainder of our stay. We had a great dinner and enjoyed the evening by our fire.

May 16, 2013

We had to do a little shopping so got that taken care of early and back to camp. We took a nice walk through all the camping areas in the park. We discovered an area just off the lake that had a fishing dock on it which seemed perfect for family fishing. We then walked into the surrounding area toward the north end of Steamboat Rock. All together we walked about 3 miles on varied terrain. Then back to the campsite. As the sun changes so do the colors of the surrounding hills.

Then another relaxing night around the fire. Our camp neighbors, Terry and Meredith came over and visited for a bit. They hiked up to the top of Steamboat Rock today so I decided I would do that tomorrow.

May 17, 2013

We slept in and had breakfast and I was off to climb the Rock. It is about a mile hike with elevation gain of 800 feet. I started out great then realized it was not a race and settled into a good pace. It was a strenuous hike up and kind of perilous coming down with sliding rocks and steep slopes. It was a great adventure. Here is a pic of where I went. The little bump in the middle on top of the pic was my destination.

Here is a shot of the campground from atop Steamboat Rock looking to where we are parked.

We sat around enjoying the day until 4 or so when the wind came up blowing the sky full of clouds and it began to rain. We went inside and watched a movie which ended just as the sky cleared and we were able to go back out into sunshine. After dinner the sun was setting and illuminating the monoliths to our east. As the light changed so did the area. Absolutely beautiful!

We enjoyed our fireplace and the other campers roving the park. Later Terry and Meridith came over to our site and were so envious of our gas fireplace, Terry went back to their site and tried to start a fire with sticks and other dried brush in the campsites. I remembered I had a good sized log in the truck so I chopped to burnable sizes for her. Both of them were sooo excited. Then we found out it was Meridith's birthday and she was so grateful for the additional wood.. They live in Seattle in the Revenna area so we exchanged e-mails with hopes of meeting up with them again