Central Washington State

Central Washington

As we left Leavenworth, Washington, it was now time to leave the Cascade Loop. Who knows, we may someday be back to see the northern portion of this route - it was a beautiful drive - but for now, our route was taking us southward on highway 97 through Yakima and ultimately down to the Columbia River Valley.

	As we started on Highway 97, the first 30 or so miles of the highway resembled the Cascade Loop but then the road took a 90 degree and within a mile, we had gone from the forests shown on the left to the rolling farmland shown at the right. Interestingly, you can still see the Cascade Mountains in the background.
	Continuing southward, the terrain became much more arid - the valley pictured left was only green through irrigation. Compare the color of the ground in the foreground and the mountains in the background to the irrigated valley floor.

In the lower left photo, you can barely see a windmill farm of more than 30 windmills located near the ridge of the mountain in the background. As we continued our travel towards Yakima, the parched desert like landscape was everywhere present - and we would see more of this landscape the next day. I found it fascinating that we could travel from one ecosystem / climatic region to another in such a short period of time and distance.