Scenes from Science-Fiction

We drove up to North Cascades National Park in hopes that we might be able to enjoy the mountains and forest while side-stepping the wildfires in Oregon and California. We were wrong. We experienced smoke constantly throughout Washington. Wildfires were starting as we were driving through Eastern Washington, and caused us to almost constantly re-route due to road closures.

While we did enjoy some brief relief in the Cascades it was short lived. Smoke from California and Oregon began blowing up into Washington and combining with the smoke from Washington’s own fires. This combination is creating some of the worst air quality in the world, and made us do the best we could to get out of dodge.

While we were driving back east, we drove past the Grand Couley Dam. I was fascinated by the appearance of this huge industrial structure enveloped in smoke. It looked to be something out of science fiction. Like an alien fortress on an inhospitable planet.