SIDE TRIPS part fifteen—Amber Grain

Washington State’s Highway 2 just out of Spokane goes almost straight in an east-west direction. But it goes Up and Down and Up and Down over random humps and hollows of dirt deposited like snow drifts over the last bazillion years.
This region north of the Snake River along the Washington-Idaho border is known as “The Palouse,” or “land of short thick grass.”

Native peoples fished the rivers and cultivated the soil for millennia. The Nez Perce people of the area developed a breed of horses with spotted coats that became known as Palouse horses. Gradually the name evolved into “Appaloosa.”


The Lewis and Clark Expedition explored the area nearly two centuries ago. They were followed by pioneers along the Oregon Trail. Before long the fertile hills and prairies became the wheat belt.

It was harvest time when I drove through. On one side of the highway big grain combines were at rest;

the crop gathered and hauled away leaving a buzz cut stubble field. On the other side of the road was a lady (using the term loosely here) with a camera trying to take pictures of the wheat.

Waiting for the sun to come out from behind this one little cloud.

Wait for it….wait for it…

Finally…

Amber waves of grain.