Fruit, Fires & Forests

FRUIT

We stayed at Wenatchee, WA last night and I didn't know it before....but Wenatchee is the Apple Capitol of the World.  I have heard of the Washington State Apples before and I was surprised at where they are grown.  Having been raised in northern Wisconsin, I figured all apple orchards were situated in rolling green hills like those by Bayfield.  Not here!

The Columbia and Methow rivers run through the valleys here and the hills are big and brown.  The farmers have found patches of ground in the valley and partially up the hills and irrigated it so that orchard after orchard abound.  It was also interesting to see how they prune, trim and shape the apple trees.

FIRES

We headed to North Cascades National Park and stopped at Chelan, a small town at the end of a 60 miles lake.  There were two fires happening..one across the lake and one behind the town.  Both of these got worse as I checked for local news as the fire in the first photo later today created an evacuation for most of the town of Chelan Falls today.

We saw a lot of evidence of fires in this area and here's one that shows how close these fires come to homes.  The tree on right of house is half black (burned) and the other half still has some living branches.  Too close for comfort for me!

As we were leaving the North Cascades had a thunderstorm (and lightning) storm come through and here's two fires we saw close to camping areas.

FORESTS

The North Cascades mountains are very impressive....when you can see them.  The forests of trees were thick and the trees tall.  

It was very hazy in the mountains, due to heat and fire smoke.

As we got further west, the clouds started building up into a storm

I had read about Diablo Lake that is the color of a Caribbean sea.  I wish it would have been clear and sunny as I think it would show more. 

Here's the explanation for the color.

At the overlook view, it was sooooo windy there.  Agree?  lol

I guess that I had better show you a photo of a couple of lovely females we saw.  We were only "warned" for 30+ miles that there was "Elk Crossing" and finally spotted these two (of three) Elk gals grazing beside the road.  

Temperatures today in the Columbia river valley were close to 100 degrees this morning and tonight on the Washington coast it's 60 degrees!   Tomorrow, we're going to spend $$$.  Bet you can't wait to see what we get for our money....I sure can't!