RV7 Flight over Grand Coulee Dam

If you look beyond the dam to the upper part of the picture, you see Banks Lake and Steamboat Rock. All of this area was part of the great Ice Age Floods, or the Missoula Flood. About 10,000 years ago an enormous glacier or ice dam up around the Canadian border gave way, causing water to storm through many, many miles in central Washington. It swept away all top soil and left enormous rifts in the land. Some of the rifts are still filled with water. Banks Lake is one of them.  
Banks Lake is very long! As we flew along it, wind conditions caused our little airplane to bounce around like popcorn in a hot oil skillet. 
We’ve finally reached the end of the lake. Quite a dam at the end of it. We continued to fly south. A few miles after you reach the end of Banks Lake, you come to Dry Falls. Dry Falls pretty much fits its name. It’s where the glacial flood carved out the rock and made an enormous falls, somewhere around the size of Niagara Falls. Except that there is no water running over it and hasn’t been for about 10,000 years. 
In this picture, we’re on the edge of Dry Falls. You can’t see it well, but it’s right above the wingtip. Looking back you see Banks Lake. You can also visualize the flood waters that covered the land and then dropped over the falls.

Comments

Post a Comment

Hey, thanks for commenting!

Popular posts from this blog

The Great A to Z Blogging Challenge 2014 Theme Reveal!

Image
The fun is soon to begin. This is Theme Reveal day and so without further adieu,  I'll be writing about Flight Terminology . I'll also be sharing pictures and tales of our flights when applicable.  This picture is of our KitFox 2, a home built, Experimental aircraft, which Farmer Flyer (hubby ) landed on some of our ground at the River Ranch, which overlooks the Palouse River in SE Washington State. Recently, Farmer Flyer's been taking GoPro videos of some of his flights and has begun to post them to YouTube. If interested, click links to view. You'll feel like you're flying along with him. KitFox2 Field Landings  (Here, he's landing at one of our ranches that is about five miles from home.) KitFox 2 Field Landings Bird's Eye View  (In this one, he's landing on the same hilltops, but without view of the KitFox2.) Just a Couple Landings before the Sun Goes Dow n (In this one, he's landing on our runway outside our back door.) So that's my theme. I
Read more

Barnstorming

Image
Barnstorming During the early days of aviation, "Barnstormers" flew around the countryside, landing in fields and giving rides and demonstrations to earn money. There were even Wing Walkers, although nobody does that anymore, due to the extreme danger. If you attend an airshow now, you are sure to see some terrific, truly dangerous stunts. However, stunt pilots are highly skilled and have spent hundreds, if not thousands, of hours practicing their maneuvers. You seldom hear of accidents, although sometimes you do, such as at the Reno Air Races a few years back. The picture below shows wing walkers playing tennis--unbelievably ridiculous! For write-ups on the history of barnstorming, check out these websites: The History of Barnstorming Barnstorming Biplane Pictures and the Golden Age of Aviation Barnstormers and Racers image source: Barnstorming Biplane Pictures    The closest my husband gets to barnstorming is ... landing our KitFox2 in the field behind our barn! See picture
Read more

RV7 Flight: Palouse Falls and Steptoe Butte, Early December 2013

Image
It was only five degrees outside this afternoon, but we decided to take a short flight to see Palouse Falls, frozen! We left at around 3:30 pm. It gave us enough time to fly to the falls and get back--barely--before the sun set. We were in the air for slightly over an hour. We wouldn't have wanted to fly for much longer than that. The airplane has a heater, but even so, it's not like sitting in your living room! Mike wore insulated overalls in addition to his jacket, hat and gloves. I stayed fairly warm in my coat, hat and gloves, although I noticed that by the time we were nearing home, my fingers felt quite icy and stiff.  In the picture above, we're circling around the falls, as we had approached it from the east.  Here, you can see that the amount of free-flowing water has dwindled to a narrow stream.  We're flying east again, and are on our way home. You can see the Snake River in the upper third of the picture if you look closely. The sun was setting on the hillsi
Read more