After walking around awhile, I walked back to the Subaru to see if he had awoken yet. He was laying there with his eyes closed and agreed we should likely get moving before the sun starting baking him alive in the car.
We drove for quite a distance once we got moving. Made a few pit stops for bathroom breaks along the way. However, Riley does not do so well in the heat. As a fix, he will crawl down to the floor in the front seat where the air conditioner will pour onto him directly. Unlike usual though, he continued to pant and be displeased with the heat. I was debating how to best fix this as we drove along. We happened to be close to Soap Lake, as we drove by... I was super disappointed as it was packed full of people. So we continued on by and there was another lake! I was thrilled. We pulled off the road so we could jump in.
We ended up at Lake Lenore, which was blissfully people free! There was an outhouse, blue dragonflies everywhere, the sun was in a beautiful position, the water was just the right kind of cold... felt a bit magical.
We hung out at the lake for an hour or so. Riley is not a fan of water, but he bravely jumped right in and soaked for awhile in the cold water. I did not have a bathing suit with me, so I took one of my wrap skirts, wrapped it around me and hopped in. After swimming for a bit we continued down the warm road, Riley happily cooled down and asleep at my feet.
We drove for a bit longer and ended up at Dry Falls. This is yet another place that is overwhelmingly gorgeous. I have included a couple pictures, but they do not do it justice. I included the Wikipedia article as a link above. A portion of it read as follows: "Dry Falls is a 3.5 mile long scalloped precipice in central Washington, on the opposite side of the Upper Grand Coulee from the Columbia River, and at the head of the Lower Grand Coulee. Ten times the size of Niagara, Dry Falls is thought to be the greatest known waterfall that ever existed. According to the current geological model, catastrophic flooding channeled water at 65 miles per hour through the Upper Grand Coulee and over this 400-foot (120 m) rock face at the end of the last ice age. At this time, it is estimated that the flow of the falls was ten times the current of all the rivers in the world combined."
We took a large number of pictures at Dry Falls, working around tourists. I was pretty surprised at this location, as I did not know it existed. I think that is my favorite part about spontaneous road trips, especially with a friend who is open minded to my magpie tendencies.
My companion and I did not have a planned route and we were in the thick of Eastern Washington by this point and he was wandering down memory lane. He determined he wanted us to go hit his old stomping grounds north of Wenatchee, where him and a bunch of his friends would take their motorcycles to the Apple Blossom Festival every year, and then camp in the (formerly) tiny Silver Falls campground. My companion did not remember the name of the campground, only how to get there. Seeing as we were coming from the opposite direction, it was a bit of a hunt.
After a bit of driving around for a time, he found the road to the campgrounds. I was quite impressed that he was able to find it, as it had been about 15 years since he had been there. A number of campgrounds had been added since his last visit. We ended up at the Road's End Campground
We had wanted something a bit more private that we could boondock at, but it was getting late and we did not want to push our luck. So we settled into the campsite and paid our fee. Excited, we sat down to eat a picnic dinner at the provided picnic table. However, the mosquitos were horrible! So we jumped into the car and ate in the back. We took a small hike after dinner, it started getting dark so we bunked down for the night.
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