Graham Family Farm NW

Exploring Yakima Lower Valley Road Trip (Part 3 of 3): Fort Simcoe
By Clay Graham / CegPics.com

On the morning of Monday August 22nd, 2011 we left Wanapum State Park campground from our Eastern Washington Adventures Exploring Vantage Road Trip and headed down the Columbia River exploring.

Next we headed down to the Lower Yakima Valley to see some sites. Our first of three places to see was the town of Granger, Washington. Granger has a road that loops through town with dinosaurs everywhere.

Our second of three places to see was the Toppenish, Washington. The city of murals.

Our third of three places to see was the Fort Simcoe, Washington.

Fort Simcoe is a Washington State Park and requires a Discover Pass.

Park features

Fort Simcoe Historical State Park is a 196-acre, day-use heritage site and is primarily a historic preservation effort. Due to its historic significance, Fort Simcoe was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in June 1974. Camping is available at Brooks Memorial and Yakima Sportsman state parks.

In 1956, Fort Simcoe was leased to Washington State Parks by the Yakama Nation on a 99-year lease for historic preservation.

We had a great time seeing the history at Fort Simcoe State Park. As we were walking to the last building to look at, we saw a bear in the park. My wife and I kept sight of the bear as we took turns looking in the last building (Interpretive Center). The Park Aid came up and I showed him the bear. He said that she had been hanging around the park for two years and had her cubs there too. The bears were hard in the fruit trees. The Park Aid said the bear was use to people being around. We walked way around the bear to get back to the truck.

This was a very fun time for my family at Fort Simcoe State Park.

Click for Part one – Granger
Click for part two – Toppenish

Here are a few pictures of our time there:

Exploring Yakima Lower Valley Road Trip (Part 2 of 3): Toppenish
By Clay Graham / CegPics.com

On the morning of Monday August 22nd, 2011 we left Wanapum State Park campground from our Eastern Washington Adventures Exploring Vantage Road Trip and headed down the Columbia River exploring.

Next we headed down to the Lower Yakima Valley to see some sites. Our first of three places to see was the town of Granger, Washington. Granger has a road that loops through town with dinosaurs everywhere.

Our second of three places to see was the Toppenish, Washington. The city of murals.

Click for Part one – Granger
Click for part three – Fort Simcoe

Here are a few pictures of the area:

Exploring Yakima Lower Valley Road Trip (Part 1 of 3): Granger
By Clay Graham / CegPics.com

On the morning of Monday August 22nd, 2011 we left Wanapum State Park campground from our Eastern Washington Adventures Exploring Vantage Road Trip and headed down the Columbia River exploring.

Next we headed down to the Lower Yakima Valley to see some sites. Our first of three places to see was the town of Granger, Washington. Granger has a road that loops through town with dinosaurs everywhere.

Click for part two – Toppenish
Click for part three – Fort Simcoe

Here are some photos of Granger:

Exploring Columbia River Road Trip:
I-90 to the Vernita Bridge
By Clay Graham / CegPics.com

On the morning of Monday August 22nd, 2011 we left Wanapum State Park campground from our Eastern Washington Adventures Exploring Vantage Road Trip. I this day we set out to see some sites a long the Columbia River. Our first place to check out was the boat launch next to the Wanapum State Park campground. The boat launch had plenty of paved parking and looked like a good place to launch from.

Next we headed over the I-90 bridge to get on the other side of the Columbia River. We turned off the Freeway and followed the Columbia River south. Not far we stopped at Sand Hollow South. This is a free place to access to the water of the Columbia River. I believe it is owned by Grant County PUD. After a quick view we headed on down river toward the Wanapum Dam.

Wanapum Dam was very cool. They have a Heritage Center Museum you can go into free. Inside you can learn a lot of history about the area and the people who live there years ago. The kids really got a lot out of our visit to Wanapum Dam. We are hoping to set up an Eastern Washington Adventures “Group guided tour” to see the how the dam works. Details will be posted on our web site under Up-coming Events/Event Planning.

We headed down river passing the Beverly Dunes ORV Area turn off. We did not stop at because I had an ORV run planned for Beverly Dunes ORV Area the next day.

On down the river we drove around checking out Mattawa, Desert Aire and Priest Rapids Dam. Priest Rapids Dam is close to the public so we did not see much.

Our last stop at the Columbia River was at the Vernita Safety Rest Area next to the Vernita Bridge. We had lunch at the rest area before heading to Explore the Lower Yakima Valley.

Here are some pictures of our trip:

Click to see the next part of the trip!

Exploring Vantage Road Trip:
Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park/Wanapum Recreational Area
By Clay Graham / CegPics.com

On the morning of Sunday August 21st, 2011 we left Selah, Washington and Northeast for the Eastern Washington Adventures Exploring Vantage Road Trip. We took the back roads all the way to Vantage so we could take in the sites. As we pass through the Yakima Canyon we saw a lot of people floating the river on this hot day. One raft full of women flashed us and my boys thought that was cool.

We took the Vantage Highway and saw a lot wind machines. Close to Vantage we stopped to see the petrified logs. We walked the first part of the trail and got to see a few petrified logs in cages. It was too hot to walk all the trails and we also did not like the idea of walking in Rattlesnake county. We head on down the road toward Vantage to the main park. There were a lot of things to see and you were able to touch the petrified wood. We had lunch and then checked out all the cool stuff.

Next we headed across the Columbia River to kill some time since we could not check into our campsite we reserved at Wanapum State Park until after 2:30 PM. We drove up to the Wild Horses Monument Viewpoint off of I-90 to take in the view. The kids wanted to walk up to see the Wild Horses Monument but again it was just to hot of a day for the hike. We told them we will go back went it cools down and the snakes are hibernating.

Next we head over to the George area just to look around in the nice air conditioned pickup. Just for fun we drove by the Gorge Amphitheater AKA “The Gorge in George“. It was getting to be time where we could check in at Wanapum State Park so we headed back across the Columbia River.

We got check in at Wanapum State Park and set up camp. My wife and kids walked over to the day use area of Wanapum State Park and found it was packed so bad they could not get into the water. They came back to camp to wait for the crowd to dissipate some.

A little later on I took a walk over to see the day use area. I could not believe all the trash that people left everywhere. I saw one guy in a group that was leaving chuck a beer bottle into the brush. I as a Public Land Volunteer am tired of people that abuse areas.

When I returned to camp, my wife and kids went to the day use area to swim. Foxracer came to see me at our camp. We talk awhile until it got dark. My wife and kids showed up as Foxracer was leaving.

That night sleeping in the tent was kind of wild. The wind was blowing like crazy. It felt good since it was hot but our tents were close to flying away.

The next morning after breakfast we headed out to see more sites.

Here are some pictures of our trip:

Click to see the next part of the trip.