We left on Tuesday morning. Reaching the eastern side of the state involves crossing the Cascade Range. Our first destination was Yakima, so we chose to go over the mountains on U.S. Route 12. We had lunch in Glenoma, a small town with less than 1000 inhabitants.
Next stop, check out the Pacific Crest Trail access along the highway just after the White Pass area. The trail is over 2600 miles and goes from California, at the border with Mexico, all the way through Washington State to our border with Canada. A small hike ensued with the rewards of beautiful forest views. (https://www.pcta.org/)
Before we reached our final destination, we drove through the City of Naches. It also is a town of about 1000 inhabitants, and a few produce stands. The state’s eastern side relies heavily on agriculture, and these produce stands offer one a taste of the area’s harvests. We bought a few peaches, and on we went.
We have reached the town of Yakima, a city of 93,000 people. The area is noteworthy for its agricultural prowess. The area only gets about 9 inches of rain a year (228 millimeters), so water from the Naches River is required for irrigation.
THE YAKIMA VALLEY GROWS…
- 70% of the nation’s apples.
- 42 % of the nation’s pears.
- 38% of the nation’s concord grapes.
- 75% of the nation’s hops (20 % of the world’s supply of hops)
- 50% of Washington State’s mint and spearmint.
- 50% of Washington State’s wine grapes.
The area also has over 3600 acres dedicated to sweet corn. The state is the leading producer of sweet corn in the United States. (https://magazine.wsu.edu/2013/07/31/washingtons-sweet-corn-secret/)
These images were created with the Pentax 645, with either the 45mm 2.8 or 75mm 2.8 lenses attached. I developed the film in HC-110(B) for 4 minutes @20C.
Steven Lawrence Pictures 