The Pend Oreille is beautiful and I pulled over at every rest area and scenic pull-out, of which there are many. I was a little disappointed to find that I'd missed the Pend Oreille County Fair the day before, but stopped at the new Kalispel rest area. Just north of there, I joined the river road.
The drive was beautiful, spending the entire time in or on the border of the Colville National Forest. At the little crossroads of Tiger, WA20 splits off east and continues over the north pass of the Cascades. Sometime I'll take that route, too. There's a little general store/museum at the junction as well as restrooms and a blacksmith shop. It's all staffed by a volunteer.
It might not be as Grand as the Coulee, but the Box Canyon Dam is pretty impressive nonetheless. I had to remind myself that the Pend Oreille flows north to join the Columbia in BC. I forget how incredibly long the Columbia River is and that it flows out of Canada to cut across Washington before forming part of the border with Oregon. Driving out here, I had to cross the river two or three times on U.S. Hwy 2 and it was a steep climb out of the river gorge each time. Apparently Box Canyon was a major obstacle for commerce and transportation until the railroad was built that traversed it.
Just north of Box Canyon is a large nesting area for Bald Eagles. They nest in the Cottonwoods along the river. I saw one fly into a nest across the river, but the camera isn't good enough on long distance to get the picture. I had to settle for this one of a bald camper. Eagles have a long lifespan of 35-50 years and return to the same nest year-after-year. Nests can grow to over two tons and sometimes break the trees they rest in. I also didn't realize that Bald Eagles' primary food source is fish, hence the nesting along the river.
The trip from Newport to BC is only 80 miles and took me about two-and-a-half hours, pulling over at every scenic overlook to snap more pictures. Once into Beautiful British Columbia, the scenery continued. I had a pleasant picnic beside a little creek that ran along BC3. It was a steady climb up to Kootenay Pass at 1770 meters, and then a long coast down into Creston, BC.
About ten miles out of Creston, I came to the Creston Valley Wildlife Management Area and Wetlands. It was time for a long walk out along a boardwalk into the marshlands where a birding tower about three stories high gave a panoramic view of the wildlife area and marshlands. I stitched together eight photos taken from the eight sides of the tower. If you start from the left you are looking north-northeast and then progressing clockwise around the tower. As my first panorama, this didn't turn out too badly. I should talk to Rick about the stitching program he uses to improve the next one. This is the biggest picture I've posted, so you should be able to zoom in on it for a better view.
I loved this sign on the tower. Very grateful to Dr. Brown for beginning the start of this project, but am curious as to who started the beginning.
The highlight of Creston was a cuppa joe and a sinker at Tim Horton's, the Dunkin' Donuts of Canada.
I didn't take the border loop to Porthill Border Crossing, but instead continued over to Yank, BC and picked up BC 95 to the Eastport Border Crossing. I spent the rest of my Canadian money on a bottle of wine at the duty free shop and then crossed back into Idaho. I'm stopping the log for this trip even though it was only three o'clock. This was a significant moment for me as I want to follow U.S. Hwy 95 from the Canadian Border to the Mexican Border. This marks the beginning of that trip and I'll continue it in the next post.
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