Sunday's Bridge - Chelan Falls

Beebe Bridge Over the Columbia River - Chelan Falls, Washington

Skywatch Friday - Better Hurry

Look closely and you will see three paragliders. They were descending near the Beebe Bridge outside of Chelan, Washington. Behind them was a storm cell that was pushing through the area northwest of where they were coming down. A couple of hours after we passed through, there were a few lightning-caused wildfires reported in that vicinity. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't be caught up in the sky with that kind of weather. We had thunderstorm warnings most of the weekend so it shouldn't have been a surprise.

Better Hurry!

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The Fisherman

On a hot day, it sure seems much cooler down by the water. Oh wait! It was. At least it felt about 10 degrees cooler on the dock.

Fishing at Beebe Bridge Campground / Park

Locomotive Jackpot

There is a rail line that runs north from Wenatchee along the Columbia River and then up through the Okanogan Valley. I rarely see trains on the rails and when I do, it's a one-engine set up with a dozen cars or so. Not much to get excited about.

When we stayed at Beebe Park campground last week, we heard the train whistle and I grabbed my camera just in case. Yowzer, a REAL train was heading south with THREE locomotives, several tanker cars, lumber cars, and some hoppers filled with what looked like grain or sawdust -- easily fifty cars linked up. But three engines. I felt like I hit the jackpot.

Count 'em - THREE Locomotives

That Time of Year

Summer has finally arrived in North Central Washington and with it our fire season is ramping up quickly. The high temps (90+ degrees) we've had over the past week or so has brought with it thunder and lightning storms. Our vegetation is quickly drying out and it doesn't take much to start a fire.

As we pulled into the Beebe Bridge campground near Chelan late yesterday afternoon, we could see the smoke and even flames from a fire south of us near Highway 97. The online report was an approximate 100 acre wildfire. I don't know the cause of it though.

We kept an eye on things as we settled into our campsite. Occasionally a pumper truck would go by the campground to get more water and then return to continue fighting the fire. Luckily the crews were able to quickly contain the fire before nightfall.

Wildfire - See the flames on the hill?

Here is what the hillside looked like when we drove by this morning.

Fire Aftermath

Unbelievably, even with the high temps, we still had a campfire last night. Honestly, it was just too freaking hot out to enjoy it. No s'mores for me!

We did have a couple of small thunder showers overnight and the forecast is for more again this evening. One of my Washington DNR tweets received today reported over "8,000 lightning strikes in the region and more expected." Yikes! Lets keep our fingers crossed that nothing major pops up near where we are in Cashmere, WA tonight.