This week I was invited by BD Aerial to join them on a wind turbine inspection at a wind farm just outside of Elllensburg in Washington. It was a long drive so we decided to leave on Wednesday evening and drive as far as we could to camp before the Thursday acquisition.
We had a beautiful ride out through the gorge in Brian’s giant Mercedes cargo van and stopped at the Double Mountain brewery in Hood River for some amazing pizza. There were 3 girls at a table who saw us roll out of the van who were clearly checking us out. During our meal one of the girls managed to knock a full pint of beer into the lap of her friend and all over her pizza. Being two tables away I’m sure it was pretty embarrassing for them! ha!
We ended up camping at a spot in the Yakima River Canyon that Emily and I had camped at several years before escaping the winter rains of Portland. We driven there under a beautiful sunset in the Columbia River Gorge and by the time we pulled up around 11pm it was pitch black without a moon. I quickly set up my tent, Brian helped Kevin with his and then set up his bag in the back of the van. We got a fire going and broke out some beers and whiskey for a nice evening of conservation next to the Yakima River.
In the morning we woke up early to amazing views of the canyon rim walls, nearby wildflowers and even a family of Great Blue Herons in a nearby tree! I had my long lens with me so was able to grab a bunch of shots of the mother feeding her young far up in a tree. I can’t say much about the acquisition except that it went really well! We took hundreds of photos of the turbine but the only one I will post here is a cool photo of a flower I had never seen before found near our site!