Two more

This dinosaur family are ready for kids to climb on at teh Dinosaur Park. The playground features other dinosaur play equipment.

T-Rex Entryway

This T-Rex greets you as you enter Granger near the park. The pole is one support of an archway sign welcoming us to Granger, with another T-Rex on the other side of the road.

Is that Nessie?

When we first moved to the Yakima Valley, this was a dreary, murky unsafe pond near the town of Granger. The town pulled together to clean up the lake, and took on a dinosaur theme to develop this pleasant and popular park. Is that Nessie? When I stopped to take this picture, I was startled when this dinosaur in the lake moved. This one is a floating sculpture.

Oops! Almost missed a day!

Just checking the blog while traveling, I discovered I had skipped a day in setting up prescheduled daily posts. Here is another Rose Garden rose that I just happened to have on my laptop, which is otherwise full of traveling photos.

Speaking of Produce

Following up the earlier posts on agricultural products and produce in the Valley, here are just a few names on picking boxes. These huge boxes were waiting for the appropriate season outside a local processing plant.

Local Produce--and some not so local

Produce stands throughout the Valley offer fresh local vegetables and fruits in season. Papayas, however, are not local, so obviously they get some items from out of the area.

Got Fruit?

I'm always impressed when I pass this graphic illustration of the types of fruit grown in this valley. It's on the end of a processing plant north of Wapato. And that doesn't even take into consideration the other crops such as hops, asparagus, corn, potatoes, mint, grapes--I am sure there are others that are not coming to mind right now.

Roses

The Grandview Rose Garden was developed many years ago by a local group of dedicated gardeners and has always been a lovely sigth in Westside Park.

In (fairly) recent Rose Garden history is this from the Grandview City Council just over a year ago:

"The Beautification Commission met on June 21, 2007 and unanimously recommended to Council that the official City flower be re-designated from the iris to the rose for the following reasons:
· The rich history and tradition of the community’s rose garden facility.
· The rose blooms approximately six months out of the year.
· The rose garden promotes both volunteerism and tourism within the Grandview community.

On motion by Councilmember McDonald, second by Councilmember Flory, Council unanimously rescinded the iris as the official City flower and re-designated the rose as the official City flower.

Council thanked the Rose Garden Club for their many years of dedicated volunteer service at the rose garden and also thanked Mrs. Berger’s fifth grade class from A.H. Smith School for their time and effort spent in researching and recommending the iris as the official city flower back in 1992."

Reflections

Reflections in the doors and windows of the Washington Mutual Bank in Grandview give a glimmer of the bright surroundings.

Another pioneer depicted

In my first YVDP post I cited the importance of irrigation to the Yakima Valley. According to the placque that accompanies this sculpture in downtown Sunnyside, H. Lloyd Miller, and early Sunnyside businessman, was instrumental in the development of the Roza Canal, which opened up agriculture in lands above the Sunnyside Valley Irrigation Canal. Further research finds that Miller, who came to Sunnyside in about 1907, was considered "one of the foremost businessmen in this region of the state." The Roza project was approved in 1935 and water first came to the Roza in 1941. This statue shows Miller standing in the canal as the water first flowed. The project was finished in 1951.

Ben Snipes Cabin

In relation to yesterday's cattle bridge, here is a statue of one of the early pioneers of the Yakima Valley which was erected near his cabin in Sunnyside. Ben Snipes came west in 1852. After some time in Willamette Valley of Oregon and in the gold fields of California, he learned butchering, and came back to the Northwest, where he eventually settled at the foot of Snipes Mountain near Sunnyside around 1859. By 1861, Ben Snipes was driving so many cattle he had no idea how many he had.

The cabin was move to this location across the street from the Sunnyside Museum. The sculpture was added in recent years.

More at the creek

Part of the field trip activity on Wide Hollow Creek took place at this old cattle bridge. The wooden bridge was used when moving cattle from one area to another. The bridge was of wood because cattle will not walk on metal. Students measured stream flow by dropping oranges into the water and timing their float down the stream.

Wide Hollow Creek Sky Watch

This part of Wide Hollow Creek is in the approach to Yakima Airport.

(See previous posts to see what we were doing at Wide Hollow Creek.)

Beavers

Students doing the creek studies found this evidence of recent beaver activity on Wide Hollow Creek.

Creek Keepers

Science students at La Salle High School in Union Gap have an organization called the Ahtanum Creek Keepers. Ahtanum Creek runs through their campus. Each spring these students provide environmental field trips for some of the local elementary and middle schools. These are real hands on (and feet in) creek studies. This year's events took place on nearby Wide Hollow Creek because the Ahtanum was flooding.

A Grand View

(This was ready and scheduled to post while I am away next week, but after the smoke picture yesterday, I thought I would fit it in today. This was taken about 8:30 in the morning on Sunday.)
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It's no wonder how Grandview got its name. Overlooking the banks, and the power lines, and the street lights, and looking past the tall trees, to give you a clear view, you can see Mt. Adams looming on the western horizon. That's all Grandview's first citizens would have seen--mountain. From some areas you can also see Mt. Rainier.

Eruption rumors?

That is Mt. Adams in the distance--the mountain on the left in the header panorama. Apparently from a different angle, the smoke from forest fires in the area looks as if it is erupting, as news organizations and police departments were getting calls all afternoon Sunday asking about it. This was taken about 6 PM on Sunday from Grandview. The smoke is from a 500 acre fire in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, one of several currently burning across the state.

Mural City

Toppenish is a city of murals. Since the first of these professionally done images was done in 1989, more than seventy have appeared on the walls of the town. The project celebrates the city's history and heritage with images of Native Americans, pioneers, cowboys, agriculture, everyday life, the coming of the railroad, and many other significant people and events.

Did you notice the mountain? You can't get away from it in the Yakima Valley. I took a few other shots when I did this one, and I will return to take you on a better tour at a later date.

Cultural Heritage Center

The central structure at the Yakama Nation Cultural Heritage Center is the winter lodge. The center is celebrating its 28th birthday this year. The winter lodge is designed after the traditional lodges of the tribe's history, and is a good facility for all sorts of gatherings.

Teepees

Did you ever want to sleep in a teepee? You can at the Yakama Nation in Toppenish. The teepees rent at their campground/RV Park.

Why the Yakama in the Yakima Valley?Several years ago the Yakama Indian Nation resumed the original spelling of the tribe's name, while everything else in the valley continued to use the later version.

Typical Traffic

As mentioned before this is an agricultural area, so this might be considered normal traffic on all but the freeways. It slows things down, but fortunately they usually aren't going far before they turn off to another field, and they keep as far as they can to the right so that all but the most timid (me) can pass. Well, I could have passed, too, if I weren't busy distracting myself with the camera. Good thing it's a point and shoot, as I pointed without looking to shoot this one.

Toppenish National Wildlife Refuge

It was a very blustery day this spring when we visited the Toppenish National Wildlife Refuge. We try to stop by there for a walk two or three times a year--usually on a Sunday afternoon. If you visit during different seasons, you may have vastly different experiences.

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I searched in my older picture files again. I should have taken some pictures specifically for this before I started the blog.

Welcome to the Yakima Valley

I am looking into my photo files to get started with a daily photo from the Yakima Valley in Central Washington. Irrigation is the lifeblood of the valley, and a variety of systems are in place. This is one type, photo taken last month--the corn is much higher now. The mechanism is attached to a central pivot, and travels in a circle to reach the entire field. Auxillary springlers hit the corners.

Wherever you go in the valley, you are likely to have a mountain in sight--look on the horizon in the center.