On my early morning walk, I realized what a difference a few miles can make. I knew that eastern Oregon is considered a desert, a continuation of the Great Basin Desert. I remember reading about how west of the Columbia Gorge where Portland is located on the Willamette and Columbia Rivers gets 40 or more inches of rain per year - I think we got much more than that while we were there during the last two years. I also remember reading that east of the Columbia Gorge they get less than ten inches of rain per year. Biggs Junction is less than 100 miles from Portland, about a 90 minute drive east - to see how brown and dry everything is just amazes. We have been here during the spring months and everything was green and lush, but now in the summer it is dry and brown. Biggs Junction is not really a town - I could see no residences. It is the junction of US Route 97 (connecting south to Bend OR and north to Yakima WA) and Interstate 84 (connecting west to Portland OR and east to Boise ID). There are two truck stops (Pilot with gas, store, Cinnabon and McDonalds; Shell with gas, store, Subway and Linda's Restaurant), a Circle K store with gas, a small store with deli and three motels. And did I mention, there is a lot of dry brown land around (except for a narrow ribbon of green along the Columbia River)?
On the Washington side of the Columbia River, there is a large wind farm - yesterday was quite windy and we could see the windmills turning. This morning, not as windy and still moderate temps before 6:00 a.m.
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| Windmills to the north in WA - I had to zoom the camera, please excuse the blurriness |
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| Our motel for two nights |
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