Notes on the Geography of The Western United States: The Northwest

An open loop from northern California through Oregon, Washington, coastal British Columbia, and back through Idaho and Wyoming.

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Mt. Shasta rises behind side-roll sprinklers marching across a field northeast of Weed, California.

The fast line north from California, here somewhere between Klamath Falls and Bend, Oregon.

At Sisters, northeast of Bend, a Genuine Wild West town has been whipped up, proof that California is on the move.

Even the ATM wears spurs.

Up in the mountains themselves, the old economy struggles to survive.

The Columbia River at The Dalles, end of the Oregon Trail and an important cherry-growing region today.

Headland at the mouth of the Columbia, with World War II fortifications.

Unintended but high irony: east of Queets, on the west side of the Olympic Peninsula.

The islands of southwestern British Columbia have attracted visitors for more than a century. Many fine estates were built. Here, the house of a working farm on Saltspring Island.

Low tide along a creek on the east coast of Vancouver Island, near Parksville.

Same place, 20 years later. High tide on an overcast day.

Calling it a salt marsh doesn't seem very kind, but that's what it is, and it's enough to make you reconsider your nomenclatural prejudices.

The coast here is growing fast, with many second homes.

A neighbor.

Back in the states, this time in Idaho, a center pivot swings across a field of potatoes. A long way from second homes. Note the tiny discharge at this end; discharge increases progressively toward the far end, which rolls more quickly across the field.

Here's the far end, where an impact sprinkler throws a heavy arc of water.

The north side of Yellowstone, coming in from Gardiner during the great fire of 1989.

South of Yellowstone, an irrigation ditch along the Snake River north of Jackson.