Saturday, August 29, 2015

2015 Western Trip – Day 25 – Rocky Reach & Leavenworth

One of things Bev wanted to do while in this area was go to a dam with a fish ladder and watch the salmon swim up stream and since I’d been to Rocky Reach Dam back in my working days I knew it would work.  My original plan was to drive on up to Lake Chelan but the major wildfire there made it impossible – it is the fire affecting most of the photos from the Ellensberg stay.



After proceeding through the heightened security, we made our way to the fish viewing room and got to see several large salmon, as well as some smaller fish, heading up stream.  It’s hard to get good shots of the 2-3 feet long fish thru the glass as they wiz by.



I was surprised to learn that the federal gvmt requires the dam operators to count every fish by species as they head up stream – seems like great info for those charged with managing the fisheries.  Each female salmon lays about 5000 eggs and only seven fish return to spawn.  This is the fish ladder as it winds its way down to the river.


This is a shot upstream toward Chelan where the large wildfire continues to burn about 30 miles away.


From the dam we went back to Leavenworth on a much less crowded Monday.  It is a tourist town at the base of the Cascades with a very good Bavarian motif - if you didn’t know better you might think you were in Germany.  




Since it was about 2:30pm, we decided to began with lunch at King Lugwigs – it was just okay German food at best and about what I would expect in a tourists town – tourist food = mediocre food at inflated prices.  

After lunch, the ladies headed off to do a little shopping and I went down the street about five doors to the Icicle Brewing Co.  After a small taste of three of their beers, I settled on the a glass of Bootjack and headed for the outdoor patio where I visited with a nice couple from Salem, OR.  The first two shots are from the web and the third one is of the trees on the ridge above town in the smoke.







As mediocre as the food was, the beer was very good and before we left, I had my growler (always in the RV) filled with more of this hoppy concoction.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

8/17/15 event date

11 comments:

  1. The salmon are cool and the best part is Bev got her wish. You are a good man Larry.
    Sam

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  2. I checked out the King Ludwigs website and did you know that they are the; "Home of the World Famous Pork Hock"? I am intrigued.

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  3. Nice tour of the town.
    In this area where we are Kitchener was originally name Berlin settled by most German immigrants. No less than 7 German Clubs here and some very good German food.
    A good beer and a growler to go sounds excellent too.

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  4. They're some mighty fine looking salmon! And yes, it looks like Germany all the way, esp. by the Zugspitze!

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  5. Larry, We've never been to Levenworth...we'd remember the German motif for sure! We did stop and look a fish ladder on the Columbia River...saw only one salmon. You should be out of the smoke soon... Drive carefully! Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

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  6. We live in Washington state, 100 year drought and horrible wildfires are consuming homes, businesses...We never go to the touristy places, our only went thru college with a prominent member of the lady who founded the Leavenworth experience no thank you..We enjoyed California the area of Solvang a lot better with authentic food, wines, beers, spaetzli..Leavenworth exists to make MONEY and to sell mediocre food etc..Too bad you did not get to sample some of the wines near the town as they are excellent. But the fires and the smoke and the heat is destroying a lot of the areas you were near where it is burning! We never go to Oregon, we don't care for it, the Washington coast is more rugged and gorgeous..you should at least try to get the Washington coast, best Dungeness Crab in the world..and Wild Salmon and Geoducks too..it is out of this world..Many places to camp and it is gorgeous and cool...enjoy your trip!

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  7. Fascinating to watch the fish swim upstream, Larry! So sad about the fires and the mediocre food.

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  8. The fish ladder is fascinating. The salmon are also very cool - what a neat experience. The town does look German and I am sure the beer was great!

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  9. Those darn fires! The smoke was so terrible here for several days. We like Leavenworth too... it's a fun & quaint town, but you are right, the food is mediocre.

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